Continuous Improvement & Inspection Lead

Opus People Solutions Ltd; Peterborough; Hybrid; GBP 69,000 - 83,000; Full time

Job summary

Shropshire Council is seeking an experienced Continuous Improvement & Inspection Lead to join Children's Services on an interim basis. This senior role focuses on driving strategic improvement, inspection readiness, quality assurance, and organisational learning across Children's Services and Family Help.

The successful candidate will support Families First reforms, embed a culture of continuous improvement, and deliver measurable outcomes for children, young people, and families.

Qualifications

• Senior leadership experience in Children's Services.
• Strong knowledge of Ofsted inspection frameworks and self-evaluation.
• Proven experience in quality assurance and continuous improvement.
• Ability to provide strategic leadership and challenge to senior stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Continuous Improvement Framework and governance for Children's Services.
• Provide strategic leadership for inspection readiness across services.
• Oversee self-evaluation, QA, audits and service evaluations.
• Drive improvement plans and sustainable outcomes for children and families.
• Lead responses to Ofsted inspections and assurance activity.
• Support senior leaders with strategic advice and performance reporting.
• Evaluate impact of Families First reforms and learning from audits and inspections.

Skills

Senior leadership

Ofsted readiness

Quality assurance

Strategic advisory

Job description

About the Role

Shropshire Council is seeking an experienced Continuous Improvement & Inspection Lead to join Children's Services on an interim basis. This is a senior leadership opportunity focused on driving strategic improvement, inspection readiness, quality assurance, and organisational learning across Children's Services and Family Help.

The successful candidate will play a key role in ensuring services remain inspection-ready, supporting the delivery of Families First Partnership reforms, and embedding a culture of continuous improvement that delivers measurable outcomes for children, young people, and families.

Rate: 50 per hour (Inside IR35)
Contract: 6 Months
Hours: 37 Hours per Week
Location: Guildhall, Frankwell Quay, Shrewsbury
Working Pattern: Hybrid working with 1-2 office days per week and the remainder working from home.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the Children's Services Continuous Improvement Framework and associated governance arrangements.
• Provide strategic leadership for inspection readiness across Children's Services.
• Lead service-wide self-evaluation activity, ensuring performance, quality assurance, and service intelligence are effectively triangulated.
• Oversee quality assurance frameworks, audit programmes, thematic reviews, and service evaluations.
• Drive the implementation of improvement plans and ensure actions result in sustainable improvements for children and families.
• Lead organisational responses to Ofsted inspections, monitoring visits, focused visits, peer reviews, and assurance activity.
• Support senior leaders through strategic advice, challenge, performance analysis, and assurance reporting.
• Evaluate the effectiveness and impact of Families First Partnership reforms.
• Lead organisational learning activity, ensuring learning from audits, inspections, complaints, safeguarding reviews, workforce intelligence, and feedback is translated into service improvement.
• Prepare strategic reports and assurance reports for senior leaders, partnership boards, and elected members.
• Represent Children's Services on local, regional, and national improvement and assurance forums.

Requirements

• Extensive experience within Children's Services at Team Manager, Operational Manager, Service Manager, or equivalent senior level.
• Significant experience of quality assurance, inspection readiness, and continuous improvement activity.
• Strong understanding of Ofsted inspection frameworks and self-evaluation.
• Proven experience leading service improvement and performance management initiatives.
• Knowledge of Children's Social Care, Family Help, Education, and SEND services.
• Ability to provide strategic leadership, challenge, and support to senior stakeholders.

This is an excellent opportunity to influence strategic service development and improvement across Shropshire Council's Children's Services, supporting positive outcomes for children and families while ensuring the service remains inspection-ready and evidence-led.

This role is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975. A DBS check may be applicable for this role, applicants are required to declare any cautions and convictions that are not protected under current filtering rules