Head of Service for Children in Care & Care Leavers Location : Halton Salary: £71,140 - £85,470 per annum Hours : 37 hours Halton is a vibrant local authority with a rich history and heritage, featuring two iconic bridges that connect communities across the River Mersey. Located in Cheshire, Halton boasts excellent transport links between Liverpool and Manchester, as well as close proximity to both Liverpool John Lennon and Manchester Airports. Their progressive community strategy aims to bring about meaningful, long-term improvements that enhance lives. It’s an exciting time to join them as they develop new policies and transform the way people access services. The Role The Council is seeking to recruit an experienced manager to lead their Children in Care and Care Leavers Team and their provider services of fostering, adoption and residential short-break unit. This is a key leadership role in which you will be responsible for delivering and transforming services to children and families across the borough. You will therefore have extensive and detailed knowledge of children’s services and an understanding of the legislative and statutory obligations relevant to such services. With a proven track record in managing high quality, responsive and efficient services, you will have strong leadership skills and a clear vision that you are able to share and motivate and inspire others to adopt. You will be responsible for reviewing and monitoring the Service’s performance against local, regional and national standards and key performance indicators so that necessary improvements are identified and implemented. You will therefore have demonstrable experience of performance monitoring and performance management systems, as well as an understanding of the agendas facing local government and how these might affect performance. You will be able to adopt a collaborative approach with internal and external stakeholders, with experience of successfully using resources to work together in identifying and delivering a range of services to meet the community’s needs. As the Head of Service, you will be authoritative in your advice and be able to analyse information and make judgements under pressure. In managing risk and implementing strategies you will be able to think laterally at both a strategic and operational level and meet challenges with creativity and innovation. You will have experience of successfully controlling large budgets and will proactively manage, monitor and report on all the budgets allocated, securing financial efficiencies wherever possible. As a systems leader of practice, you will support and embed the ongoing development of their systemic model of social work and ensure the workforce is skilled and able to evidence the impact of outstanding social work practice in achieving the best outcomes for their children in care and care leavers. If this sounds like you and you’re passionate about making a difference in Halton, they’d love to hear from you. Benefits A generous annual holiday allowance starting at 34 days per year (including bank holidays), increasing with long service Membership of their defined benefit, salary-linked Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) with generous employer contributions 3 x Salary Life Cover via Local Government Pension Scheme Investment in your personal development Free Car Parking at HBC sites Flexible working arrangements Car leasing schemes To Apply If you feel you are a suitable candidate and would like to work for this reputable Council, please proceed through the following link to be redirected to their website to complete your application. https://ats-halton.jgp.co.uk/vacancies/306395-head-of-service-for-children-in-care-%2526-care-leavers?enhancement&ga_client_id1058f121-1ede-4a83-9c03-9b238afda666&source205849-ad-warrior