Head of Housing Organisational Capability and Change

Southampton City Council; Southampton; Hybrid; GBP 79,000 - 84,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Local Government Pension Scheme

Death-in-service

Generous annual leave

Flexible and hybrid working options

Health and wellbeing support

Coaching and mentoring

Employee discounts

Volunteering days

Armed Forces Covenant

Job summary

Southampton City Council is transforming Housing with a new operating model and a focus on safe, affordable homes and better outcomes for residents. The Head of Housing Organisational Capability & Change will lead organisational capability, leadership development, learning and cultural change across Housing, working with senior leaders to embed changes and sustain improvement.

This senior role requires navigating a large, complex organisation to turn strategy into practical, long-lasting

Responsibilities

• Lead the Housing operating model and organisational design alignment across Housing.
• Develop and deliver a coherent learning and development strategy for leadership, management, technical and professional growth.
• Strengthen leadership and managerial capability to drive performance and change across a large, complex service.
• Champion culture and behavioural change to move from silos to joined-up, customer-centred delivery.

Job description

Help us turn organisational change into lasting improvement for 700 colleagues and better outcomes for Southampton’s residents.

Southampton City Council is transforming the way Housing works. We have a clear ambition: to provide safe, affordable and well-managed homes, prevent homelessness and support people and communities to thrive.

To achieve that ambition, we need more than new structures and processes. We need the right leadership, capability, culture and ways of working to ensure improvement is sustained.

We are looking for an exceptional Head of Housing Organisational Capability & Change to help us make that happen.

This is a senior leadership role with the opportunity to influence how an organisation of around 700 colleagues works, leads and develops. The post sits within our Strategy, Insight & Performance function and will play a central role in strengthening organisational capability, learning and change across Housing.

Following significant regulatory challenge, Housing is implementing a new operating model designed to strengthen accountability, performance and service delivery. Your role will be to ensure that model does not simply exist on paper but becomes the way we work every day.

The opportunity

Reporting to the Head of Strategy, Insight & Performance, you will lead our approach to organisational capability, leadership development, learning, culture and organisational change across Housing.

You will work directly with the Housing Leadership Team and senior leaders to build the capability needed to operate a large, complex and increasingly professionalised housing service.

You will also act as the delegated design authority for the Housing operating model and organisational design. You will help protect the integrity of the model as it develops, ensuring changes remain aligned to its principles and intended outcomes and do not create fragmentation, duplication or a return to siloed working.

This is not simply a programme management, HR or learning and development role.

It is about understanding how people, leadership, structure, culture, governance and behaviour combine to determine organisational performance – and then helping a complex organisation change those things in practice.

Your key priorities will include

• Embedding our new Housing operating model, creating greater clarity around roles, responsibilities, decision‑making, accountability and how teams work together.
• Developing and leading a coherent Housing learning and development strategy, spanning leadership, management, technical and professional development.
• Preparing our workforce for emerging professionalisation and regulatory qualification requirements.
• Strengthening the capability of leaders and managers to manage performance, lead change and create high‑performing teams.
• Leading the cultural and behavioural change required to move away from siloed and reactive ways of working towards a joined‑up, customer‑centred Housing service.
• Building Southampton’s own internal capability so improvement can increasingly be sustained without routine reliance on external consultants or temporary expertise.
• Providing senior leadership across organisational change activity, helping us prioritise, sequence and embed change effectively.
• Using staff insight, customer feedback and performance evidence to understand where capability or culture is getting in the way of better outcomes.

The role is deliberately focused on making change stick. Learning must translate into improved practice; organisational change must lead to adoption; and new structures must be reinforced by the right leadership behaviours and management capability.

About you

You are likely to have substantial senior leadership experience within a large and complex organisation, together with a strong understanding of how organisational capability, leadership and ways of working affect operational performance.

You will have experience of leading significant organisational change and helping organisations embed new operating models, strengthen accountability and improve how services work across organisational boundaries.

You do not necessarily need to come from a traditional housing career.

Housing experience would be valuable, but we are equally interested in people who have worked in other large, operational and highly accountable environments, particularly where safety, compliance, customer outcomes and organisational performance are critical.

We are particularly interested in candidates who can:

• Influence and challenge senior leaders with credibility.
• Understand the human and organisational dynamics behind successful change.
• Turn strategy and organisational design into practical ways of working.
• Build leadership and management capability.
• Navigate resistance and bring people with them.
• Facilitate difficult organisational conversations.
• Create clarity where organisational issues are complex.
• Balance pace and ambition with what an organisation can realistically absorb.
• Remain focused on outcomes for residents.

You will need the confidence to hold the design line when necessary, while recognising when sensible adaptation is appropriate.

Just as importantly, you will understand that sustainable transformation comes from winning hearts and minds. We need someone who can build belief, trust and ownership across a diverse workforce, influence through relationships and credibility rather than hierarchy alone, and shape behaviour as well as process.

Why this role matters

Our Housing Performance Framework is built around eight Critical Success Factors. Two are particularly relevant to this role:

Housing has the capability to deliver and improve - ensuring Housing has the people, culture and systems to deliver today and learn for tomorrow.

Housing works as a joined‑up system - ensuring Housing functions as one coherent system, with strategy, operations and performance aligned.

This role will be central to achieving both.

There is already significant change underway. What we now need is someone capable of helping us turn that change into sustainable organisational improvement.

For the right person, this is an opportunity to leave a significant legacy: stronger leaders, more capable teams, clearer accountability and a Housing organisation better equipped to deliver for Southampton’s residents.

What we can offer you:

Salary:The salary band for this role is £78,723 - £84,412. The starting salary is £78,723 with annual progression through the salary bands.

• Excellent Local Government Pension Scheme membership, with a significant15.2%employer contribution.
• Death‑in‑service benefit and access to salary‑sacrifice shared‑cost additional voluntary contributions.
• Generous annual leave, based on role and service.
• Flexible and hybrid working options, where compatible with service requirements.
• Family‑friendly policies and support for health and wellbeing
• Health and wellbeing support - Employee Assistance Programme, Menopause Pledge, Mental Health First Aiders and access to a variety of staff networks
• Training and development, including coaching and mentoring.
• Access to employee discounts, sustainable travel benefits and discounted local leisure memberships.
• Two paid volunteering days each year.
• A veteran‑friendly employer that supports the Armed Forces Covenant.

For further information on our benefits package please visit: Employee benefits (southampton.gov.uk)