About the role Are you a compassionate leader with keen eye for continuous improvement and upholding standards within education? We’re looking for an Assistant Director, a key member of the Children, Education and Families Extended Leadership Team, to join us and oversee various educational services, including school improvement across schools and early years settings, pupil place planning, admissions, home to school transport and traded services, holding responsibility for strategic planning in these areas. You’ll inspire and motivate teams, drive continuous improvement, and collaborate across the Council to meet broader objectives, modelling and promoting our values and behaviours, ensuring effective communication and engagement with service users, stakeholders, and partners. Overseeing governance, you’ll ensure compliance with the Council's Constitution, financial regulations, and policy frameworks. They support the democratic process by advising elected members and upholding transparency and accountability in decision-making. For more information or to chat about this opportunity please contact Sarah Callaghan, Service Director for Education at sarah.callaghan@cambridgeshire.gov.uk Interviews are expected to be held on 4th October 2024 at New Shire Hall, Alconbury Weald. Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of an Enhanced 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. What will you be doing? This role spans a number of key priorities for the council including planning and reviewing the educational provision for children and young people aged 0-19, ensuring sufficient early years and childcare places, and leading education capital programmes. This role will be fundamental in driving improved educational outcomes across our settings and schools. The position also oversees education and social care transport policies, ensuring value for money. You'll be leading consultations on changes to school provision, taking a lead role in academy conversions, and establishing new free schools in Cambridgeshire, while maintaining regular communication with the Department for Education (DfE). You'll also deputise for the Service Director for Education when required. About you You’ll have demonstratable experience of working in large organisations, managing public services, delivering projects on time and within budget, and leading strategic decision-making. Driving innovation, fostering a strong performance culture, developing staff, and building positive stakeholder relationships. A comprehensive understanding of the challenges facing local government as well as the statutory framework governing education, taking into consideration the wider system involved in meeting the needs of children and young people. You’ll have a clear and strong personal commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and a track record of leading by example. As well as a commitment to and evidence of successful strategies in managing personal resilience and wellbeing and promoting positive leadership practice, role modelling these behaviours for others. For a full list of the requirements of the role, please check out the Job Description & Person Specification. 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 Employer. 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. Some examples of adjustments 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 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
