Draft

Department: Children & Young People’s Service

Job Title: Head of Strategy

Grade: 16

Post Number:

Service/Section:

Base/Location:County Hall

Responsible To:Assistant Director

Responsible For:

Liaison With:

Job Purpose

To ensure the continued effectiveness, development, improvement, efficiency and success of the department.

Toprovidehigh quality leadership, strategic direction, planning and management. for the delivery of a portfolio of services to meet current and future needs of service users.

To contribute to the strategic leadership of the department as part of the senior management team and takethe lead on corporate, cross departmental and multi-agency initiatives within the scope of the post.

To act as a point of contact at Senior Management and Member level as well as a first point of contact for external stakeholders.

To take the lead at a Senior Management and Member level in advising on policy issues and representing the Council at meetings with outside bodies as appropriate.

Provide a high level of strategic advice to Cabinet, Scrutiny Committees and Members on policies, performance and budget to ensure the effective and efficient provision of services.

MAIN DUTIES ANDRESPONSIBILITIES

Representing the Council externally with key stakeholders

Deputising for the Assistant Director as required

To work collegiately and make a proactive contribution to:

  • The formulation of strategic direction, policy and planning;
  • Communicating and building commitment to the Council’s vision and strategic objectives.
  • Promoting positive relationships across internal and external partnerships

To manage teams to achieve high performance and effective operational delivery by:

  • Ensuring robust arrangements in place to manage performance, risk and business continuity, including operational systems and processes;
  • Using benchmarking and target setting to drive continuous and sustained performance improvement;
  • Tracking action against plans to deliver performance targets within allocated resources;
  • Taking prompt action to manage and mitigate risks and barriers to operational effectiveness and areas of under-performance;
  • Ensuring preparedness for external inspection.

Manage the effective use of resources by:

  • Planning, monitoring and deploying financial, staffing and physical resources to deliver agreed service priorities;
  • working closely with finance to align monitoring of budgets and service delivery;
  • Being involved in the commissioning of services, where appropriate to deliver improved outcomes for service users;
  • Ensuring that contracts are managed, monitored and reviewed to ensure optimum value for money.

Provide leadership and management to staff teams by:

  • gaining ownership and commitment to the Council’s overall aims and values;
  • building a high performing, proactive, customer focused culture which welcomes change;
  • creating an inclusive environment which fosters innovation and improvement;
  • ensuring staff are motivated and developed to improve their capability to deliver;
  • recognising excellent performance and ensuring that under-performance is addressed.

Ensure customer focussed service development, design and delivery by:

  • engaging and consulting across service users, partners and stakeholders to understand their needs
  • ensuring that service planning supports service delivery and that it identifies and takes account of service needs in the light of current and future demand;
  • ensuring that any barriers to accessibility of either provided or commissioned services are identified and addressed;
  • ensuring that strategy is turned into achievable service plans with clearly defined targets and accountability for outcomes;

Any other duties, commensurate with the general duties of this post

SPECIAL FACTORS

Subject to the duration of the need, the special conditions given below apply:

(a)The nature of the work may involve the postholder carrying out work outside of normal working hours.

(b)The postholder may be required to attend, from time to time, training courses, conferences, seminars or other meetings as required by his/her own training needs and the needs of the service.

(c)Expenses will be paid in accordance with the Local Conditions of Service.

(d)This post is subject to a check being carried out at an Enhanced level by the Criminal Records Bureau regarding any previous criminal record.

(e)Subject to review, the post will attract a casual user car allowance, and the postholder will be required to provide a car or lease a car from the Authority and to possess a valid driving licence.

This job description sets out the duties and responsibilities of the post at the time when it was drawn up. Such duties and responsibilities may vary from time to time without changing the general character of the duties or the level of responsibility entailed. Such variations are a common occurrence and cannot themselves justify a reconsideration of the grading of the post.

LeicestershireCounty Council is seeking to promote the employment of disabled people and will make any adjustments considered reasonable to the above duties under the terms of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 to accommodate a suitable disabled candidate.

Department: Children & Young People’s Service

Job Title: Head of Strategy

Grade16

Post Number:

Service/Section:

Essential / Desirable / How assessed

Qualifications

Relevant professional qualification
Management qualification, or evidence of continuous professional management development

Experience

Track record of achievement at a senior level in a large complex organisationexperience
Provide clear strategic direction and management.
Developing and delivering major projects
Commissioning and contracts management
Effective delivery of service plans to meet performance targets
Experience of managing staff and budgets
Experience of managing performance and service quality
Experience of successfully leading and managing change
Experience of service improvement and setting and maintaining high standards for customer service
Experience of working successfully with elected Members and/or senior managers in a ‘corporate’ environment.
Experience of multi-agency partnership working, delivery change across agencies

Knowledge

Understanding of legislative and regulatory framework and developments applicable to the service area.

Competencies

Ability to lead and give a clear sense of direction and purpose, set high standards, build high performing teams and deliver
Establishes and enforces a high level of standards and expectations for service performance
Ability to think and act strategically
Includes strategic individual development as part of service planning to support the achievement of corporate objectives
Ensures that teams and services deliver results against objectives
Communicates effectively with individuals and groups to inspire others to deliver improved outcomes for children and young people
Understands the local political environment and works effectively with Members
Scans the external environment, assesses strategic options and develops services in the medium andlong term
Influences service and strategic plans to reflect community needs
Facilitates and encourages collaborative working across internal and external boundaries, seeking opportunities for partnership working at local and regional levels
Ensure that targets are set for services to meet their commitments on delivering continuous improvements
Scans the environment for new opportunities and uses best practice to inform new and innovative ideas

General Circumstances

Ability to travel to service points within Leicestershire County Council in a cost efficient way
Possession of a valid driving licence and access to a vehicle. However a reasonable adjustment will be considered for an applicant with a disability.
An understanding of, and commitment to, Equal Opportunities, and the ability to apply this to strategic work and day-to-day situations

Factors not already covered

Must be able to perform all duties and tasks with reasonable adjustment, where appropriate, in accordance with the provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

App = Application Form

Test = Test

Int = Interview

Pre = Presentation

Med = Medical Questionnaire

Doc = Documentary Evidence (E.g., Certificates)

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