As Head of Children's Social Care, you will provide strategic leadership across a broad portfolio of statutory and specialist services, ensuring that children are effectively safeguarded, supported, and given every opportunity to thrive. You will oversee assessment and safeguarding services, early help services, looked after children and permanence teams, fostering, adoption, residential care, and care leaver provision, ensuring each area delivers high-quality, compliant, and impactful practice. A key part of your leadership will involve working collaboratively with partners to implement robust safeguarding arrangements, maintain strong operational links with the family courts, and ensure that early help pathways and social care reforms are effectively embedded. You will also ensure that the council maintains a sufficient range of placements – both internal and commissioned – while working proactively with Ofsted and other inspection bodies to maintain excellence across regulated services. You will champion continuous improvement through strong quality assurance, effective performance management, and a culture of learning. As a senior leader within the council, you will also contribute to broader transformation priorities, provide clear leadership to teams and managers, oversee staffing and budgets, and maintain productive partnerships with internal and external stakeholders. In addition, you will play a key governance role by supporting the Corporate Parenting Panel and presenting to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, ensuring transparency, accountability, and a steadfast focus on the needs and experiences of children and young people.
Key Qualifications and Experience
* A strong track record of delivering high-performing children's social care services.
* Deep knowledge of statutory frameworks, regulatory requirements, and best practice.
* Proven experience of leading transformational change and service improvement.
* Excellent partnership-building skills and the ability to influence at a senior level.
* A passionate commitment to safeguarding, inclusion, and improving outcomes for children.
Durham County Council is proud of its strong legacy of excellence within Children's Services. Following a period of significant transformation, the service has been rated Outstanding by Ofsted, reflecting the high quality of our practice, the strength of our leadership, and our unwavering commitment to improving outcomes for children, young people and families.
Benefits
We offer a competitive rewards package that includes attractive salaries, a generous annual leave entitlement of 27 days (rising to 32 after five years' continuous local government service), membership of the excellent contributory career average Local Government Pension Scheme, and a range of flexible working arrangements including hybrid working (home and office) where applicable. Explore the full range of rewards and benefits on our website, HM Revenue and Customs impose controls on the amount of pension savings you can make without having to pay extra tax. These controls are known as the Annual Allowance and Lump Sum Allowance. The Annual Allowance is the amount by which the value of your pension benefits may increase in any one year without you having to pay a tax charge. You are most likely to be affected by the Annual Allowance if you receive a significant pay increase, and/or you are a high earner. Two lump sum limits were also introduced in April 2024. If the value of all lump sums taken from UK pensions is higher than these limits, you will have to pay tax on any excess at your marginal rate.
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