Schools and Adults Transport Planning Manager

EMEA3 Recruitment; Chichester; Hybrid; GBP 57,000 - 61,000; Full time

Job summary

West Sussex County Council seeks an experienced people manager to head specialist planning teams delivering safe, accessible transport for over 8,000 residents, including young people with complex needs. You will influence strategy, manage budgets and collaborate with schools, healthcare providers and transport partners to ensure sustainable, customer-focused solutions.

Flexible working options available; initial interview on 15 October 2026 at County Hall, Chichester.

Qualifications

• Excellent people management skills.
• Ability to organise, plan and meet set targets.
• Ability to forward plan long term, make effective judgments, and continuously develop services and staff to meet objectives and deadlines.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills. Confident in supporting staff in managing more complex cases and customers.
• Ability to deliver a comprehensive client transport planning and delivery service.
• Experience of supporting key stakeholders through complex and challenging processes and delivery mechanisms.
• Experience of delivering projects and service improvements.
• Management of large-scale budgets / expenditure.
• Management and development of teams of staff delivering key projects.
• Report writing and presenting experience, including for senior / political reports.
• Sound and accurate IT skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead specialist planning teams responsible for providing safe, and accessible transport for over 8,000 residents, including young people with complex and additional needs travelling to schools.
• Drive innovation, champion continuous improvement, develop high-performing teams and ensure the delivery of sustainable, customer-focused transport solutions.
• Collaborate with the Children, Young People and Learning Service, schools, healthcare providers, transport operators and community partners.
• Support staff in managing more complex cases and customers and deliver a comprehensive client transport planning and delivery service.

Skills

People management

Budget management

Stakeholder management

Planning & organizing

Communication skills

Team development

Tools

Microsoft Office

Job description

About The Job

Salary:£56,874 to £60,771per annum.

Location:Your office basewill be Chichester and a typical week will combine homeworking with attendance at the office or site visits.This is led by the needs of the service.

Contract: Permanent.

Working pattern:Full-time, 37 hours per week. Flexible working options available, to be agreed with your line manager.

Interview: 15 October 2026 at County Hall, Chichester

We are seeking an experienced and forward-thinking people manager to lead specialist planning teams responsible for providing safe, and accessible transport for over 8,000 residents, including young people with complex and additional needs travelling to schools.

This is a unique opportunity to shape passenger transport services across the county, working strategically with the Children, Young People and Learning Service, schools, healthcare providers, transport operators and community partners.

You will be expected to drive innovation, champion continuous improvement, develop high-performing teams and ensure the delivery of sustainable, customer-focused transport solutions that support some of our most vulnerable residents.

If you are a collaborative leader with strong operational, financial and stakeholder management skills, and are motivated by the opportunity to create positive outcomes for people, we would love to hear from you.

What we need from you

• Excellent people management skills.
• Ability to organise, plan and meet set targets.
• Ability to forward plan long term, make effective judgments, and continuously develop services and staff to meet objectives and deadlines.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills. Confident in supporting staff in managing more complex cases and customers.
• Ability to deliver a comprehensive client transport planning and delivery service.
• Experience of supporting key stakeholders through complex and challenging processes and delivery mechanisms.
• Experience of delivering projects and service improvements.
• Management of large-scale budgets / expenditure.
• Management and development of teams of staff delivering key projects.
• Report writing and presenting experience, including for senior / political reports.
• Sound and accurate IT skills.

For more information on the Key Skills as well as the Qualifications and/or experience required, please refer to the Job Description attached.

Working for us

As well as adding real value to our service users and our communities, as an employer we recognise our employees are central in being able to achieve this. To recognise this we want to help support your development and provide a great place to work ensuring you can fulfil your full potential, have access to a range of benefits including:

• an excellent local government pension scheme
• generous holiday entitlement of 30 days (plus opportunity to buy additional leave)
• arange of flexible working options, depending on your job role
• maternity, paternity, dependencyand adoption leave
• volunteering opportunities
• training and development opportunities, including coaching and mentoring
• a range of discounts giving our staff access to hundreds of offers; groceries, travel, cinema tickets, days out, leisure activities, high street retailers and the opportunity to save over £1,000 a year through our West Sussex Choices benefits platform (see our Staff discounts page if you are a business looking to offer a discount)
• health and wellbeing benefits including access to our Employee Assistance Programme,Mental Health First Aiders and Voluntary Health Cash Plans

For a full list this can be found at our Rewards and Benefits page.

Further information

The reference number for this role is EIE01609.

For an informal conversation or for further information regarding the role, please contact the Hiring Manager Charlotte Weller (Transport Co-ordination Manager) at [e-mail].

For issues or queries regarding your application please contact [e-mail].

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults.This post is subject to 3 years referencing and a health check.

Equity, inclusion, accessibilityand diversity is very important to West Sussex County Council. We welcome and encourage applicationsfrom people of all cultures, ethnicities, identities, backgrounds and lived experiences, as this helps us build a diverse and talented workforce, that reflects the communities we serve. We ensure our approach to recruitment is flexible and supportive to enable all applicants to be at their best and to ensure they have the best possible chance of success.

We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that have a disability, are a veteran or are a care leaver. More information can be found on our application help page.