Strategic Commissioner - Home to School Transport - 12 months fixed-term

Cambridge County Council; Huntingdon; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Wellbeing package

Additional annual leave (4 weeks)

Flexible bank holidays

Additional Voluntary Contributions (AV

Development opportunities and coaching

Paid volunteering hours

IDEAL diversity network

Employee Recognition Awards

Our Cambs Rewards discounts

Car Lease

Cycle to Work

Job summary

Cambridgeshire County Council is seeking a confident, collaborative, and strategic commissioner to shape sustainable transport systems for children and vulnerable residents. You will lead strategic commissioning for home-to-school travel, manage complex budgets, and drive cross‑sector partnerships with NHS, providers and community partners.

You will champion continuous improvement, oversee the full commissioning cycle, and steer innovation to deliver better outcomes while achieving value and

Qualifications

• Understanding of the wider SEND and home-to-school travel landscape and delivering change.
• Extensive knowledge of SEND legislation, the SEND Code of Practice and local authority duties.
• Experience leading change, able to influence and lead through complexity.
• Understanding of commissioning, contracts, markets, or service design in public sector.
• Experience working in partnerships across organisations.
• Commercial and financial awareness, including budget management and delivering efficiencies.
• Ability to think system-wide using data and evidence to inform decisions.
• Excellent communication skills engaging senior officers and partners.
• Commitment to safeguarding, equality, diversity and inclusion.

Responsibilities

• Set a clear strategic vision and commissioning priorities for home to school transport for children and young people, focusing on robust SEND travel support.
• Oversee the full commissioning cycle, including needs analysis, service review, market shaping, procurement, contract negotiation, and performance management.
• Work with finance, operations contract management, quality improvement, brokerage and procurement to ensure a joined-up approach.
• Lead innovation and service transformation to improve outcomes, manage demand and deliver savings.
• Manage and influence significant budgets, identify investment opportunities and financial savings.
• Represent the council at senior internal and external forums, NHS partners, providers, regulators.
• Provide expert advice, briefing and challenge to senior leaders on commissioning and system-wide issues.

Skills

SEND legislation

Leading change

Budget management

Stakeholder engagement

Strategic commissioning

Job description

It 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.

Interviews will be held during the week commencing 9th November 2026.

Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of a Standard Disclosure obtained through the Disclosure and Barring Service. The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

For more detail, please see the attached Job Description/Person Specification.

Our benefits

We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage

• A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family
• Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro-rata) through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances
• Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings
• Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth
• Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day
• Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network
• Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards
• An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in-store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes

Take a look at our Employment Benefits Brochure attached to this advert to find out more.

What will you be doing?

You will operate at a strategic and operational level, balancing long term system leadership with day to day oversight of commissioning activity. This will include:

• Setting a clear strategic vision and commissioning priorities for the home to school transport for children and young people in the area, with a particular focus on ensuring travel assistance and support arrangements for children and young people with SEND are robust, effective and promote inclusion.
• Overseeing the full commissioning cycle, including needs analysis, service review, market shaping, procurement, contract negotiation, and performance management.
• Working closely with finance, operations contract management, quality improvement, brokerage, and procurement colleagues to ensure a joinedup approach to developing and implementing recommendations.
• Leading innovation and service transformation, testing new delivery models and commissioning approaches to improve outcomes, managing demand and delivering savings.
• Managing and influencing significant budgets, identifying, and delivering investment opportunities and financial savings.
• Representing the council at senior internal and external forums, internal governance board, committees and elected member engagement, NHS partners, providers, and regulators.
• Providing expert advice, briefing and challenge to senior leaders and members on commissioning, market, and system wide issues in this area.

The role reports to the Head of Commissioning and operates with a high degree of autonomy within agreed governance frameworks overseen by an established Change Programme Group.

For more detail, please see the attached Job Description/Person Specification.

About you

We are looking for a confident, collaborative, and strategic commissioner who is motivated by improving outcomes for residents and shaping sustainable systems.

You will bring:

• A detailed understanding of the wider SEND and home-to-school travel landscape with a proven track record of delivering change.
• Extensive knowledge of SEND legislation, the SEND Code of Practice and local authority statutory responsibilities.
• Strong experience of leading change in this area, with the ability to influence, inspire and lead others through complexity and change.
• A solid understanding of commissioning, contracts, markets, or service design, ideally within children's or adult social care services, health, or the wider public sector.
• Experience of working in partnership environments, building effective relationships across organisational, professional and sector boundaries.
• Commercial and financial awareness, including experience of managing or influencing large budgets, negotiating agreements, and delivering efficiencies.
• The ability to think system wide, using data, insight, and evidence to make sound strategic decisions and manage risk.
• Excellent communication skills,with the confidence to engage senior officers, elected members, providers, and external partners.
• A clear commitment to safeguarding, equality, diversity, and inclusion, and to delivering services that respond to the needs of diverse communities.

About us

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.

Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.

We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities. If you don't meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don't be put off. We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered. We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Through a Guaranteed Interview Scheme, we will offer an interview to all applicants who disclose a disability and meet the essential criteria for a job vacancy. On your application form you can indicate you are disabled. Some examples of reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.

Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion.

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/jobs-and-careers