Corporate Director Children and Young People’s Service

Salary: £141,233 to £164,272 plus relocation support               Location: Northallerton / Hybrid

We are looking to appoint our new Corporate Director Children and Young People’s Service.

North Yorkshire is England's largest county and a beautiful, vibrant place to live and work. 

After eight years, our current Director Stuart Carlton has decided the time is right for him to retire, leaving in September, we wish him well with his retirement plans as we now look to the future and the recruitment of our new director to lead our next chapter.

We have a reputation for delivering high quality services. Our children’s services are nationally recognised for their excellence, taking a national lead to share best practice. Whilst we are immensely proud of our track record and are committed to ongoing continuous improvement to ensure that our services are of high quality and have impact in the communities that we serve whilst providing efficient use of public money. We are not complacent; we use our substantial resources to seek out and tackle issues head on. For many of our residents, the quality of life is high but the needs of communities across our localities are diverse with some areas experiencing significant deprivation, alongside the rural nature of the county which impacts on accessibility.

It is an exciting time for the Council as we have celebrated our 2-year anniversary following local government reform and the merging of the 8 district, borough and county councils to form The North Yorkshire Council in April 2023.

As the county council was the continuing authority, children’s services were unchanged by this structural transformation. However, unification brings the opportunity to improve localised services in this great county and secure greater investment through our devolution deal for North Yorkshire. The devolution deal for York and North Yorkshire could potentially unlock around £2.4 billion of investment over 30 years, with a focus on improving the economic prosperity and future long-term opportunities for all residents. Our new director will capitalise on these opportunities and drive forward our plans.

Ideal for a driven children’s service leader wanting to step up to the leadership challenge. You will be welcomed by strong corporate and service teams with a high-performance culture and significant resources that will enable you to tackle issues head on, develop innovative practice and really make your mark here

We have interim arrangements planned for the Autumn period and aim to welcome a new Director early in the new year.

We are strongly committed to ensuring children and young people are safe, happy, healthy and receive the best education within inclusive and high-quality settings, that value diversity and individualism. High quality education brings alive aspirations for adulthood, ambition and liberates talent and ingenuity. We understand children and young people thrive within family environments and prioritise support to ensure this continues for the majority of children.

Whilst we take great pride in the successful track record we have here at North Yorkshire Council, there is no space for vanity; like others we have issues to tackle, a job to do. We consistently perform well in inspections and are amongst the best performing when compared to other comparable councils. We also have a good story to tell when it comes to value for money, service delivery and impact in the communities of North Yorkshire we serve. This provides our new director with a stable platform, with extensive resources to address current and emerging issues, at pace and scale.

Whilst what we do, we do well, we are not complacent and with true Yorkshire resilience we constantly strive for further improvement, to meet growing complexity of need and significant shifts in demand for our critical services. We have a great deal more to learn, more to do for our children and families.

There are significant challenges facing the service and the organisation as a whole. We are currently in the process of delivering a transformation programme which is an ambitious programme to realign the council in the face of reduced funding levels, increasing complexity and demand for services and harness the opportunities that emerging technologies bring. The only way to address the magnitude of the challenge is by an equally ambitious programme of change. It is more important than ever that we work in genuine partnership, are crystal clear about our priorities, and are resolutely focussed on improving outcomes.

We are well placed and experienced in meeting such challenges working with our key partners to identify opportunities for transformation; involving external scrutiny and review to provide independence to our thinking and inform our decision making. We have positive and highly valued partnerships with professional associations, elected members, health, schools and settings and voluntary organisations at county and locality level to transform services to improve outcomes for children and young people and their families.   

You will be welcomed by Management Board colleagues and a corporate suite of support services, that will provide support and critical challenge as we are united as one Council: jointly ambitious for children and families across our region.

We are now looking for a professional, influential Corporate Director to drive change, help define our future direction, influence key stakeholders and support service improvement in the Children’s and Young People’s Services directorate and across the breadth of the authority.

We encourage further conversations to explore this opportunity and look forward to discussing your interest further.

Want to learn more?

Visit www.northyorks.gov.uk/directorcyps to view a video by Richard Flinton, Chief Executive talking to Sir Stuart Carlton current post holder, see further details regarding the role and details of how to apply.

Close Date: 22 September 2025