Associate Director – Children’s Provider Services Salary: £108,015 - £118,680 (pay award pending) Location: Dudley, West Midlands – hybrid Contract: Permanent, full time Are you an inspirational, values‑driven leader with a passion for improving the life chances for children and young people? Dudley Council is embarking on a bold and ambitious transformation journey, and we are seeking a visionary Associate Director – Children’s Provider Services to play a central role in shaping the future of our support to children and young people in care across our borough. This is a pivotal senior leadership position at the heart of our Children and Young People service. You will be collaborating closely with the Associate Director for Family Help and Safeguarding to deliver services to the children and young people who needs our support. In this strategic leadership role, you will: To provide strategic leadership, professional accountability, and operational oversight for services that safeguard, support and improve outcomes for children in care and care experienced young people. To be professional responsibility for ensuring that children who cannot live with their families experience safe, loving, stable and aspirational care, with a clear focus on permanence, sufficiency, quality of practice and achieving the best possible outcomes. This includes a strong drive to support more children to remain connected to, and cared for within, their home communities wherever it is safe to do so. To have a proven track record of developing children’s residential provision and fostering services at pace, alongside the ability to lead complex change, mature commissioning arrangements, and deliver improvement and financial sustainability within a demanding statutory environment. Who we’re looking for: A strategic, politically astute leader with a track record of delivering transformation in complex organisations. Someone who inspires teams, builds strong partnerships, understands all legislation relating to Children’s Social Care in relation to children in care, fostering and adoption, and brings energy, integrity and ambition. If you’re driven to make a real impact for children, families and schools across Dudley, we want to hear from you. For an informal discussion please contact John Macilwraith, Director of Children & Young People, via Alia Siddique – Alia.Siddique@dudley.gov.uk Applications close: Midnight Sunday 7th June 2026 Please submit your CV and supporting statement with your application. Your supporting statement should be arial 12 and no more than 4 pages. The recruitment process consists of technical interviews with longlisted applicants to confirm the shortlist. Short listed candidates will be invited to assessment centres, stakeholder panels and attend final interviews. The final stage will be held w/c 20th July 2026. Please indicate any periods you are unavailable. Please do visit Dudley Councils Children and Young People recruitment site for more information:- https://www.childrenfirstdudley.org.uk/Jobs Workplace Attendance: Working in the office 3 days a week (pro-rata) or Onsite full time So that we can demonstrate Dudley’s commitment to diversity and inclusion and to improve bias in the recruitment process that could create barriers for candidates. Your personal data will be anonymised when you apply, to ensure that you comply with our anonymisation process, please ensure you have removed your name and date of birth from any attachments prior to uploading them to your application. Online application forms will only be accepted for this vacancy, online facilities for jobs are available at public libraries within the Dudley Borough. All applicants must be able to provide documentation to prove their right to work in the UK. Please note: Dudley MBC does not currently offer sponsorship for candidates without the Right to Work in the UK. If you require support completing an online or paper application form and or interview techniques, please contact Dudley Adult and Community Learning on 01384 818 143 or acl@dudley.gov.uk who can support with Digital Skills and Job Applications. If you have a disability and require assistance in making an application please contact the HR Resourcing Team via HR.Resourcing@dudley.gov.uk If you are experiencing a problem whilst applying for a position, please follow the link below to the WM Jobs Help Page in the first instance https://help.wmjobs.co.uk/ If the WM Jobs Help Page does not resolve your issue then please contact the HR Resourcing Team via HR.Resourcing@dudley.gov.uk Dudley Council will check the information that you have provided against any details already held for accuracy and completeness. The Council will check, share and cross match your information both internally within the council and with external organisations to protect public funds and prevent or detect crime, only where the law allows us to do so. The Council’s full Privacy and Disclaimer Statement can be accessed on the website at https://www.dudley.gov.uk/privacy-disclaimer-statement/ N.B. We reserve the right to close this vacancy prior to the advertised date should we receive a large number of applications LI-DMBC2019 Attached documents JD Associate Director - Children's Provider Services.docx Employee Benefits List.pdf