Executive Director Children's Services

​Act as the Council’s statutory Director of Children's Services and principal adviser on all aspects of safeguarding and services to children, young people and schools to ensure that the Council meets its statutory responsibilities and provides a coherent and responsive approach to identifying and meeting local needs.

Actively contribute, support and articulate the creation of the longer term vision, strategy and priorities of the Council through identifying, developing and implementing new ways to reduce the cost of services to taxpayers and improve their overall productivity and value for money to service users through a range of approaches. This will include the strategic re-design of services and their costs, the use of business and operational process improvements, the smarter use of supply, the better use of demand management, improved asset management and through the effective use of technology.

Develop and articulate a clear vision for co-ordinated services to children and young people in Cheshire East and provide a framework and common sense of purpose in order to commission an effective shared programme of joined-up and accessible service delivery which keeps children and young people at the centre.

To work closely with all elected Members and support them in undertaking their Strategic Leadership and Community Leadership roles effectively, by providing expert strategic advice and helping them hold local public service providers to account for delivery performance and outcomes.

Provide leadership in the development  of cross-organisational and multi-disciplinary team working, across boundaries with other agencies and partners, (voluntary and other public sector organisations) to deliver more cost effective, quality and valued services for children and young people and solve problems in a coherent and integrated manner.

Develop and embed a performance culture that delivers results in terms of better outcomes for local people through rigorous open challenge, personal accountability, disciplined execution, and continual improvement

Ensure that effective risk management arrangements are in place to maximise the ability to identify and take up opportunity, and to minimise the Council’s exposure to risk and uncertainty, whilst encouraging creative thinking and innovative practice.

Ensure the establishment and review of resilient business continuity arrangements, and robust response and recovery arrangements in the event of emergencies and critical incidents locally – in accordance with the requirements of the Council’s Emergency and Business Continuity Plans.

Ensure that all services/functions are delivered within budget and savings required are identified and delivered.

Support, encourage and enable collaborative, shared accountability and multi-agency working, in partnership with a wide range of other local service providers, to deliver better quality of life outcomes for children and young people efficiently and effectively.

Assure the quality of services delivered (whether by the Council or in an integrated manner with partner or contracted agencies) through robust management arrangements including clarity of accountability, effective commissioning and monitoring and re-allocation of resources as necessary.

Lead the work of partner agencies to establish strategic priorities for children and young people, aligning resources of all partner agencies with agreed priorities through the Children and Young People’s Plan, establishing and developing information sharing and referral protocols, monitoring performance against agreed activities to ensure that the strategy is implemented.

Champion the rights of children and young people and implement effective frameworks and strategies to improve overall standards and improve the health, safety, wellbeing, and quality of life for all children and young people in Cheshire East.

Support and provide leadership to schools and Head Teachers and ensure effective arrangements for school improvement in order to drive up standards, encourage collaborative working and improve outcomes for children and young people.

Recruit, manage, motivate and develop employees in the Directorate, ensuring their health, safety and well-being at work, in order to ensure all aspects of service delivery are provided to the highest possible standard.

Develop and implement effective communication and engagement strategies with children and young people, stakeholders, employees, partner agencies and other Directorates so that all can understand and fulfil their roles in the delivery of effective services.

Contribute pro-actively to the national debate to shape and influence the direction of children and young people’s services nationally and keep abreast of developments within local government and elsewhere to evaluate creative and radical solutions to problems and promote best practice.