Do you have a strong background in Children’s residential care and fostering services?
Are you committed to achieving the best outcomes to children and young people?
Are you looking for a new challenge?
We are developing a brand-new service and would like to hear from you!
City of York Council are in the process of re-designing and developing our residential care for young people and further developing our fostering service. We are looking for a motivated and forward-thinking Head of Service to join us on our journey.
This is a fantastic opportunity for someone who is committed to driving forward a multi-disciplinary service and you will be part of developing the blueprint for what care services for young people, families and carers in York should look like. You will work closely with the senior leadership team including the Director of Children Services who was the original author of the No Wrong Door approach, first developed in North Yorkshire.
About the role:
The successful candidate will provide dynamic and innovative leadership across fostering and residential services in the City of York. This will include visionary working with strategic leaders to re-design our in-house residential provision to ensure high quality care to young people, creative edge of care services and intensive work with families to enable reunification plans where it is appropriate to do so.
As a Head of Service you will ensure strategic leadership across the fostering service ensuring robust assessment and support services to all carers while ensuring maximisation of our in-house capacity alongside legislative compliance across all placement types.
Ranked within the top 10 places to live in the UK, York is a vibrant, trailblazing, digital City which continues to make history. Our unique location means the Dales, Moors and Coast are all within an hour offering a positive work life balance.
You can look forward to a generous pay and reward package including:
Competitive salary and relocation expenses
Local government pension scheme with generous employer contribution
Up to 30 days annual leave entitlement
Family friendly policies
Assistance with travel to work expenses including discounted Park & Ride annual travel pass and 0% loans for train travel
Comprehensive staff benefits package
We can offer flexible working practices, community engagement and volunteer activities and, as part of our commitment to you, promote continuous Learning & Development. In addition we also offer a growing range of discounts, rewards and savings.
As this role is public facing, applicants will need to demonstrate, at interview, their competency to converse and provide advice and guidance to members of the public, in spoken English to CEFR level C2: Can express him/herself spontaneously at length with a natural conversational flow, avoiding or backtracking around any difficulty so smoothly that the person with whom they are conversing is hardly aware of it.
City of York Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment. We require the successful candidate to undertake an enhanced Criminal Record check via the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Relocation expenses, in accordance with the City of York Council’s Relocation Policy, may be available for the successful candidate subject to meeting the relevant criteria.
Hybrid working arrangements are available for this role. Each role at CYC is different and your working arrangements will be determined based on the requirements of the role and in collaboration with you and your needs as part of the recruitment process. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team.
For further information or an informal discussion please contact Danielle Johnson, Director of Safeguarding, Danielle.johnson@york.gov.uk or on 07429994704
Closing date: 19 February 2023 at 12 midnight
Interview date: w/c 06 March 2023