Job Description

The Service & Team:

This is an exciting opportunity to join and help build Cornwall Council's People Commissioning Service and to be at the centre of innovation and transformation of community based services for older people in Cornwall.

We have recently reorganised our service to enhance the leadership capacity, reflecting Cornwall's ambitious commitment to the transformation and modernisation of social care services. The new role of Strategic Commissioning Lead for Home and Intermediate Care will lead our new initiatives for the provision of community support that enables people to live and age well at home. This includes innovation in the commissioning and provision of home care and reablement.

To support these changes, we have a number of new Strategic Commissioning Lead posts in the Older People and Carers Commissioning Team, which is part of the Care and Wellbeing Directorate. We are looking to recruit people with an interest in excellent public services who have innovative, analytic and creative minds and a track record of successful delivery.

Cornwall Council is one of the largest unitary Councils in the country. We have a population of c.570,000 residents, which includes c.144,000 older adults and 54,000 unpaid carers, meaning that the team plays a vital role in supporting our local residents to access the care and support they need. We are committed to developing vibrant, safe and supportive communities and these Strategic Commissioning Roles will work alongside our strategic partners, providers, voluntary and community sector and people with lived experience to achieve this local ambition.

The Role:

The Strategic Commissioning Lead roles will have responsibilities including:

• Establishing strategic commissioning and the intelligent client function for the Council across the delivery of people services
• Leading on driving innovation and excellence in service delivery
• Managing patterns of demand differently to improve outcomes
• Establishing strong and effective partnerships to commission services jointly across with health, housing and other providers.
• Leading the strategic transformation and reshaping of services over the medium to longer term.
• Working closely with social care providers to help them be the best that they can, not only delivering excellent services but also supporting them to deliver added social, economic and environmental value to the Cornish economy.

These are the most senior commissioning roles reporting into the 'Head of Commissioning for Older People and Carers and managing a team of commissioners including commissioning managers, commissioning officers and assistant commissioning officers. They will be the subject matter experts and lead on the transformation of significant areas of the Council's business. They will find solutions to some of the most challenging questions the Council faces, co-designing solutions with stakeholders. They will work over the medium to longer term horizons always drawing on evidence and international best practice.

Strategic Commissioning Lead: Home Care and Reablement: This role will lead on the successful mobilisation and ongoing management of our new home care alliance agreement, where providers and commissioners work as a collaborative to achieve flexible, responsive, efficient and effective home care services. The role holder will have a strong commitment to coproducing services with people with lived experience . They will facilitate the development and implementation of a new Home Based Intermediate Care model, with a view to achieving integrated commissioning with the NHS, to ensure the best possible reablement experience for people in the community or leaving hospital. The role holder will have excellent ability to build strategic partnerships and will work closely with Strategic Providers, the Council's purchasing and operational teams and NHS partner organisations.

Working Pattern:

The role is fully time (37 hours per week) flexible and hybrid, although there is an expectation that team members work regularly from the office, usually the equivalent of two days a week and as required to meet the requirements of the role.

What you'll need to succeed:

Strategic Vision with Real-World Impact: A commitment and ability to drive innovative commissioning strategies that transform services for older people and carers, balancing policy, budget, and community needs to deliver measurable outcomes.

Collaborative Leadership Across Complex Systems: The ability to build strong partnerships with health, social care, and voluntary sectors to create integrated solutions that genuinely improve lives and to work in a political environment.

Data-Driven Decision Making: The ability to harness insights and evidence to shape commissioning priorities, ensuring resources are targeted where they make the greatest difference.

Championing Co-Production: A commitment to engaging older people, carers, and stakeholders in shaping services, creating opportunities for meaningful involvement and turning lived experience into coproduced outcomes and actionable improvements.

Agility in a Changing Landscape: The ability to navigate evolving legislation, funding pressures, and demographic shifts with resilience and creativity to keep services future-ready.

Please read the role profile for the full details of this role attached below in this advert

What you'll get in return:

Cornwall Council's ambition is to be an employer of choice, a high performing Council and a learning organisation. We commit to providing a reward and benefits package to attract, motivate and reward our employees. We offer a range of flexible working options to our staff. This helps provide our employees with a greater work/life balance. Whilst still ensuring that service needs are met.

Our core employee rewards and benefits include:

• a competitive salary.

• a defined benefit pension scheme, based on your career average earnings. This includes the option for extra voluntary contributions

• a generous annual leave entitlement with the potential to purchase additional leave.

• A national award-winning employee health and wellbeing programme

• Employee benefits scheme giving employees access to a wide range of discounts to local and national goods and services.

Additional Information:

Cornwall Council is unable to offer visa sponsorship or transfer existing sponsorship for this role.

The full role profile is attached here

We recommend saving a copy of this to refer to if you are invited to an interview.

For more information or an informal chat about the role please contact kate.alcock@cornwall.gov.uk

Application Process

Please attach a supporting statement to your application, you can add your Education & Qualifications details manually using the application form timeline or you can upload your CV. Remember to demonstrate why you are suitable against each of the points marked as 'Application' on the Role Profile using examples from your experience or transferable skills. This might be through qualifications or descriptive examples from your work / personal experience, which clearly illustrates what you did and the effect it had. Guidance on how to complete your application can be found here - The application process.

Please note that applications cannot be edited after they have been submitted, please contact careers@cornwall.gov.uk if you have any queries or require assistance with your application.

Existing employees must apply using their Cornwall Council email address through the Opportunity Marketplace on Oracle.

About Us

Cornwall Council deliver services to more than half a million local people and over five million visitors a year. Working here - Cornwall Council

We are happy to talk about flexible working options such as part-time or compressed hours. More examples of our flexible working opportunities can be found here - flexible working options.

Fairness and inclusion are at the heart of our vision for Cornwall. In order to best serve our communities, we are striving to achieve a diverse workforce that is inclusive of all backgrounds, cultures and identities; e.g., race, disability, sex, gender, age, religion and sexual orientation. We are an equal opportunities and Disability Confident employer, and we will assess applicants on their merits.

Cornwall Council is committed to safeguarding and following safer recruitment principles to help make sure our staff and volunteers are suitable to work with children, young people and adults at risk. It's a vital part of creating a safe and positive environment and making a commitment to keeping all service users safe from harm.