Commissioning Manager

Leicestershire County Council; Leicester; Hybrid; GBP 47,000 - 53,000; Full time

Job summary

Leicestershire County Council is seeking a Commissioning Manager to lead the new team within the CFS Commissioning Service. The role involves managing commissioning activities for children's services, ensuring high-quality support for children with additional needs, and driving performance while collaborating with various stakeholders to meet strategic objectives.

Benefits

Flexible working arrangements

Commitment to equality and diversity

Qualifications

• Strong understanding of commissioning processes in the public sector.
• Experience in leading and motivating teams with a focus on performance.
• Knowledge of working with children and young people with complex needs.

Responsibilities

• Lead the CFS Commissioning Service to implement effective commissioning strategies.
• Manage and develop a team, focusing on priorities in educational inclusion.
• Oversee quality assurance and contract management for services.

Skills

Leadership

Analytical Skills

Communication

Understanding of SEND

Equality and Diversity Awareness

Job description

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Job Description

Organisation: Leicestershire County Council

Work Location: County Hall, Glenfield, Leicester LE3 8RF/Home

Worker Category: Hybrid Worker- (Office based at least once a week)

Salary: £47,694 - £52,155 per annum (pro rata for part time)

Working Hours: 37 per week

Contract Type: Permanent

Closing Date: 17th June 2025

Interview Date(s): W/C 30th June 2025

Job Opportunity: Commissioning Manager - CFS Commissioning Service

Responsible to: Service Manager, CFS Commissioning

The Children and Family Services Commissioning Service is expanding. As result, we have an exciting opportunity for a new Commissioning Manager.

If you are committed to the delivery of high-quality support for children and young people and are interested in leading commissioning staff to deliver effective services from the children's social care and education market - then this job could be right for you!

The role of commissioning is to understand the population, their resources, needs, and aspirations, now and in the future; to plan with local people, and our organisational partners, to make the most effective use of local resources and develop solutions to meet needs and aspirations, and to deliver these solutions.

The drivers for the service include providing children and families with the 'right services at the right time' in line with strategic objectives, whilst ensuring that the Leicestershire pound is maximised.

About the role:

This new Commissioning Manager post will lead a new team within the CFS Commissioning Service dedicated to commissioning for the department's Education, Inclusion and Additional Needs directorate. The post will be responsible for leading and managing at least one Senior Commissioning Officer, driving a range of priorities and objectives as outlined further within the advert.

Although the post may also work with social care providers, the focus of this role will largely be to help implement and lead this new team, working closely with operational, commissioning, finance and business support colleagues to ensure an effective commissioning offer for children and young people with educational needs, including inclusion and Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND).

Much of the work of this new team will be focused, at least initially, on children and young people with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). Functions within the team, and for which the Commissioning Manager will have oversight of and be responsible for, may include brokerage, quality assurance, contract management and review, as well as market shaping activities. This post will be expected to have good grip on performance and help the service deliver against a range of departmental strategic objectives, including addressing sufficiency challenges as well as working on efficiency and savings targets

About You

To apply for this post, you must have:

• A strong understanding of commissioning in a public sector context including legislation, good practice and processes. This will include a sound understanding of the principles and processes associated with procurement, brokerage, quality assurance, contract management and review.
• Experience of leading and motivating staff, managing a service and implementing change - driving performance and providing strong leadership. This will include a focus on equality, diversity and inclusion in the workforce.
• A thorough knowledge and understanding of working with and meeting the needs of children and young people (and their families/carers) with complex needs, including Children in Care, children and young people with Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND). This will be underpinned by an understanding that where possible service delivery (including commissioned services) should consider the ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic background of children and young people and their families/carers and in all respects be anti-discriminatory.
• An ability to work with a range of operational staff, external providers and strategic partners (such as other Local Authorities, health, Education, Social Care and parent/carers)
• Excellent communication skills, be able to follow processes, develop best practice and work to lead and support continuous improvement within the team and the Children and Families department
• Excellent analytical skills and ability to produce written reports as required - this will often include using a variety of data to understand need and demand for services, gathering feedback from children and young people and their parents and carers (Voice work), and engagement with partners and providers
• The ability to offer flexibility and out of hours working in emergencies and demonstrate an ability of working under pressure

You must also have an understanding of, and commitment to, equality, diversity and inclusion.

In addition, we also expect you to share our commitment to our values and will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.

Reasonable adjustments will be considered for applicants with a disability.

Interested in Flexible Working?

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below. This may include requests for term-time working, part-time hours, compressed hours, flexible start and finish times, home/remote working, etc.

Every role within the Council has a defined working style which determines where they can work. The worker category applicable to this post is detailed in the above advert. You can find out more about our worker categories in the Our Working Styles page on our career site.

For more information or an informal discussion, please contact:

Ian Mellor - Head of Service / Sarah Wilson - Service Manager

Telephone: [phone] 305 6527

Email: [e-mail] / [e-mail]

How to Apply

Leicestershire County Council is an inclusive organisation which is on a journey to embed and celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion at every level. We warmly welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, as having a diverse workforce with different perspectives and ideas is fundamental to our values and enriches the services we offer our communities. We particularly welcome applicants from Ethnically Diverse and LGBTQ+ communities and people with disabilities to create a balanced workforce and one that reflects the communities we serve. Applicants with a disability who meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above will be offered an interview under the Disability Confident Employer Scheme.

To apply for this job, please click on the apply button. You will need to upload a supporting statement as part of your application which explains how you meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above. For more information, see the How to Apply section on our career site.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post or you want to request an application pack in an alternative format, please contact our Employee Service Centre by telephoning 0300 3030222 (select option 2) or raising a ticket via our online portal: https://emss.org.uk/support.

By applying for this post, you agree to our Terms and Conditions.

About Us

About Leicestershire County Council

Leicestershire County Council is a Disability Confident, Menopause Friendly, Mindful Employer, Fostering Friendly, Forces Friendly, and Cycle Friendly organisation. In August 2021, we also signed up to the Race at Work Charter. We are strongly committed to promoting equality and opportunity, championing employee wellbeing and investing in staff training and development.

Our aim is to work with communities and partners to deliver public services that make Leicestershire the best possible place to live and work for everyone. Our employees play a key role in supporting this goal and helping us deliver the vital services we provide to the people of Leicestershire.

For further information on what it's like to work for us and the benefits we offer, please refer to the following:

Our Recruitment Process
Our Organisational Values
Our Employee Benefits
Working for Us