About the job

Some key information

• Rewarding opportunity to design services and improve the lives of children in care, and those leaving care.
• Outcome focussed, wanting the best for Somerset Children.
• Be part of a supportive, innovative and award-winning team.
• 30 days' annual leave, Permanent, full-time contract.

What will I be doing?

Join us on our mission to make a real difference in Somerset!

As a Senior Commissioner with experience of commissioning services and/or project management, you will lead the commissioning arrangements of homes for children and young people in care. This is an exciting opportunity to join a forward-thinking local authority committed to transforming outcomes for children in care.

You'll be a part of a passionate and collaborative commissioning team, focusing on improving outcomes for some of the most vulnerable children in Somerset.

By overseeing the development and delivery of high-quality services, you will be ensuring that they are safe, effective and responsive to the diverse needs of our children, including those with complex and specialist needs.

If you are passionate about improving the lives of children and young people in care, we would love to meet you!

Here's what your role will involve:

• Implementing and leading on strategies to ensure we have sufficient homes for children in care.
• Working closely with both our in house services and external providers who we commission to deliver homes for children and young people.
• Collaborating with internal teams, external providers, and multi-agency partners to support placement stability and quality care.
• Driving change which leads to home stability, positive outcomes and achieves good value for money.
• Managing contracts and contributing to strategic planning.
• You will be reporting to and working with the Head of Service who is responsible for ensuring we have enough good quality homes for children who are in care, placed with foster families, in children's homes and supported accommodation.
• The role will include line management responsibility for a small number of posts within the team.
• To find out more about the work of the team, please see the Sufficiency Strategy for children looked after and care leavers 2023-28

What kind of experience or qualifications do I need?

You don't need commissioning experience-if you're great at building partnerships, managing projects, and driving improvements, we'll support you to learn the rest. However, if your skill base includes the following, we would love to hear from you:

• Resilience, empathy and compassion and experience of working with children and young people
• Relationship building
• Negotiation and influencing
• Project management
• Problem-solving
• Data analysis and decision-making

We're proud to be here for the people of Somerset. And that means everyone in Somerset. An important part of this is ensuring that we are as diverse and inclusive as the people and communities we serve.

We welcome applications from a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences to enrich our team. You can always contact the hiring manager for a chat if there's anything you want to talk about before you apply.

What's in it for me?

We are proud to offer an environment that is supportive and rewarding, working as part of a team who are passionate about the work they do to improve the lives of people in Somerset.

We offer great training and development opportunities, with supportive management. As well as this, we have some fantastic employee benefits available:

• We promote a healthy work-life balance and offer flexible working arrangements wherever possible, including working from home.
• Generous annual leave allowance, with the opportunity to purchase additional leave.
• Staff discounts in gyms.
• Employee Assistance for the times you may need some support and a variety of employee wellbeing services.
• Auto enrolment onto our generous Pension Scheme and optional pension enhancement through our Additional Voluntary Contribution scheme.
• A Flexible Benefits Scheme via salary sacrifice to obtain a cycle for work and health screenings.
• My Staff Shop offering discounts in shops, online shopping, restaurants, cinema tickets, insurance benefits and more.

Anything else I should know?

The Salary for the Senior Commissioner Grade 9, ranging from £41,771 to £46,142 per annum based in Taunton, with the requirement to travel countywide.

We encourage all interested candidates to have an informal chat about the role, you can contact Julie Breeze, Strategic Commissioner, on 07919 540517 or Julie.Breeze@somerset.gov.uk

When completing your application, please provide your full employment history and ensure that any gaps in employment are explained. Please start with your most recent or current employer.

If you have everything you need, just hit the apply button. We can't wait to hear from you.

DBS information

This role requires a Basic Criminal background check via the Disclosure Procedure.

Supporting documents and information

Please read any attached documents before applying for this job

Job Role Description SCC05717 EF.pdf
pdf, 125.17 KB