Title: Assistant Director Service Development
Salary: £100,545 - £111,533 plus relocation support
Location: Northallerton / hybrid
Contract: Permanent / full time
People living longer, healthier, independent lives
Welcome, and thank you for your interest in learning more about North Yorkshire Council and this exciting role of Assistant Director Service Development.
It is an exciting time for me personally; in March I take up the role of Corporate Director Health and Adult Services and one of my first tasks is to recruit my replacement for this pivotal role. I know first-hand how enjoyable the role is but also the career opportunity it provides.
North Yorkshire is England's largest county and a beautiful, vibrant place to live and work. We have a reputation for delivering high quality services. Our health and adults social care services are nationally recognised for their excellence, one of the highest performing authorities in the country in the recent CQC inspections.
Social care for adults praised in wide-ranging inspection of services | North Yorkshire Council
Read the full Care Quality Commission report on our adult social care services.
Whilst what we do, we do well, we are not complacent and with true Yorkshire resilience we constantly strive for further improvement, to meet growing complexity of need and significant shifts in demand for our critical services. We have a great deal more to learn, more to do for our residents and so this is where we will look to our new Assistant Director through prevention, service development and strategic commissioning to deliver our ambition.
We are fast approaching our three-year anniversary following local government reform and the merging of the eight district, borough and county councils to form North Yorkshire Council in April 2023.
As the county council was the continuing authority, Health and Adult Services were unchanged by this structural transformation. However, unification brings the opportunity to improve localised services in this great county and secure greater investment through our devolution deal for North Yorkshire. The devolution deal for York and North Yorkshire could potentially unlock around £2.4 billion of investment over 30 years, with a focus on improving the economic prosperity and future long-term opportunities for all residents.
We are making the most of being a new unitary council, with a stronger Public Health contribution to shaping the new countywide leisure and active well-being service and plans being developed to build more, better homes for older and disabled people, and to improve support to people with multiple, complex health, housing and care issues in their lives. We are also working with colleagues on issues such as food affordability and supply and climate change. And we are strengthening our Health Protection services.
We use our substantial resources to seek out and tackle issues head on. For many of our residents, the quality of life is high but the needs of communities across our localities are diverse with some areas experiencing significant deprivation and health inequalities, alongside the rural nature of the county which impacts on accessibility.
This provides a great foundation for a new Assistant Director Service Development to further shape exciting, innovative approaches, making your mark in this role and on a national stage.
Ideal for a driven health and social care leader with a track record in outcomes based strategic commissioning wanting to step up to the leadership challenge. You will be welcomed by strong corporate, directorate and service teams with a high-performance culture and significant resources that will enable you to rise to the challenge, develop innovative practice and really make your mark here.
In particular, you will drive our approach to:
Strategic commissioning that shapes care provision to drive improved outcomes
Strategic partnerships across Health, Voluntary and Communities anchor relationships that drive whole system performance and innovation
Working with communities to ensure co-production is embedded and holds influence
Supported Housing, through supported living, extra care and care hub developments
Performance; demand management, governance and financial grip
To be successful you will be an influential, visible leader; a real collaborator; commercially astute to drive financial management, with a strong moral purpose that constantly drives through our complexity and scale to improve the health and wellbeing of people in our communities.
You will lead the Council's service development services, leading commissioning, brokerage, Direct Payments, Health and Adult Services planning and contract management activity for Health and Adult Services, with the NHS, Children & Young People Services, and with other commissioners, providers and the public. Leading the continued development of joint commissioning arrangements, you will ensure the quality, diversity and stability of the various care markets and wider associated sectors. Also leading the supported housing, technology enabled care and sustainability function across Health and Adult Services, working in partnership with other directorates.
You will lead the budget and scrutiny oversight across adult social care and seek assurance on budget management, achievement of savings and associated performance, leading on in-year financial recovery plans as needed. This includes overseeing the Section 75 arrangements with Integrated Care Boards and Joint Commissioning Boards.
You will work at scale and with complexity, leading a team of over 50 people with a direct budget of £20m and coordination of directorate budgets of over £260m.
In return we offer you a strong platform, extensive resources and corporate support from which to enhance your career in this stunning place.
You will be welcomed by leadership colleagues and a corporate suite of support services, that will provide support and critical challenge as we are united as one council: jointly ambitious for the health and wellbeing of our residents across our region.
Whilst the base will be County Hall in Northallerton it is expected that you will work from a locality base at least one day per week.
This is a politically restricted post as defined by the Local Government and Housing Act 1989.
This post requires the post holder to be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service check.
Want to learn more? We encourage further conversations to explore this opportunity and look forward to discussing your interest further following an initial conversation with our recruitment partners, Resourcing Solutions.
For further details regarding the role and to contact us visit:
Abigail Barron, Corporate Director Health and Adult Services
Closing date 22 March 2026