Contracts Manager | Full time | County Hall | Preston, Lancashire

Lancashire County Council; Preston; On-site; GBP 38,000 - 41,000; Full time

Job summary

Lancashire County Council is seeking an ART Contracts Manager in Preston to oversee contract monitoring and performance management for agency residential care and independent fostering providers for looked after children and young people. You will manage relationships with providers, monitor performance, and escalate issues to protect placements and ensure value for money.

The role involves reviewing contracts, ensuring high quality services, negotiating variations and fees, and collaborating

Qualifications

• Experience in contract management for social care settings.
• Ability to monitor performance, identify risks and escalate issues.
• Strong negotiation skills to discuss variations and fees.
• Stakeholder management with legal services and providers.

Responsibilities

• Lead on contract monitoring and performance management for agency providers.
• Develop provider risk profiles and address emerging issues.
• Review contracts, ensure value for money and apply discounts.
• Negotiate variations and lead fee discussions with providers.

Skills

Contract monitoring

Performance management

Risk management

Provider relationship management

Job description

Description

Salary £37,563 - £41,177 per annum | 37 hours per week | Permanent, Full time | County Hall | Preston, Lancashire

ART Contracts Manager

An exciting opportunity to work in a fast-paced environment supporting social care and our agency providers. You will be responsible for the effective contract monitoring, performance management, and oversight of agency residential care and independent fostering agency providers for our looked after children and young people ensuring high‑quality placements and best value for money is achieved. Your role will lead on the development and maintenance of strong, professional relationships with contracted placement providers, working proactively to monitor performance, manage risk, and address emerging issues. This includes delivering robust provider risk profiling, identifying concerns early, and escalating or intervening where required to protect children, placements, and the local authority. You will be responsible for reviewing and managing contracts and agreements, ensuring that services are of high quality, compliant with contractual requirements, and deliver value for money. This includes checking the accuracy of fees and costs, ensuring agreed discounts are applied, and leading negotiations with providers where variations, additional services, or fee discussions are required. Your role works closely with Legal Services to ensure appropriate handling of contractual matters, including mergers, takeovers, contract variations, novations and formal agreements. You will lead activity to resolve concerns and complaints relating to providers within their portfolio, ensuring issues are addressed promptly, proportionately, and in line with agreed processes.

Careers in Children's Services

Lancashire is a place we’re very proud of and we’re proud of the role the county council plays in it too. As the fourth largest local authority in the country and the largest in the North, we serve 1.2 million residents and deliver a wide range of innovative, successful services that really make a difference to people’s lives. The work we do can both challenging and rewarding at the same time. To provide the best service to our children and families, and for this work to be rewarding, front line practitioners need a positive culture and effective support around them. We are proud of the reflective, safe, healthy learning culture here in Lancashire, as well as the range of support for practitioners, particularly for staff starting out in their careers. New recruits to Lancashire Children’s Services attend our Social Work Academy. One of the first local authorities to set up a Social Work Academy, our programme is well developed and a fantastic support for your first year in practice. This consists of a 1 week induction programme for all staff, with a second week's induction programme for ASYE's. This is followed by regular recall days and training throughout the first year for ASYE's to support increased knowledge and confidence in practice. The Academy is run by our team of Advanced Practitioners who provide a range of support, training and development across our service to help practice to be at the highest standards.

• Staff have access to the latest research to help embed high quality practice.
• As a large local authority we are able to offer a wide range of excellent training and development opportunities as well as many avenues for career progression.
• All staff have the equipment they need to work flexibly at home.
• Our managers are focused on the wellbeing and positive cultures in their teams.
• There are a range of practitioner forums and initiatives to get involved in.

Please contact our Principal Social Worker [e-mail] with any questions or to discuss opportunities to work for Lancashire County Council Children’s Services.

Extra Information

In return Lancashire County Council offers a range of benefits, which can be found on LCC Vacancies website.

We reserve the right to close down a vacancy early, before the closing date, if we receive sufficient applications.

DBS

The post you are applying for is covered by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2013). If successful you will be required to apply to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) for a 'disclosure'. Further information can be found on the 'Our Recruitment Process' tab.

Local Government Reorganisation

The Government has confirmed that local government across Lancashire will be reorganised, with the current 15 councils being replaced by four new unitary councils covering North, South, East and West Lancashire from April 2029.

If you are successful in your application, you will initially join Lancashire County Council. However, as part of the planned transition, your employment will transfer to one of the new unitary councils from April 2029, subject to the implementation of the reorganisation and relevant employment legislation.

Throughout this period, our focus remains on delivering excellent services to our communities. By joining us now, you'll play an important role in shaping the future of local government and helping to build a strong new organisation that will serve residents for years to come.

Please note: this role is not open to international sponsorship.