Lead Officer - Strategic Commissioning

Job Details

This is an exciting time to join the Children and Families and Justice social work service within the Communities Directorate. You will lead on the review and development of commissioned services to support the provision of responsive local services which achieve positive outcomes for children and their families. Working closely with the Quality Assurance Team and Third Sector commissioned services this post holder will:

• Work closely with external care providers and voluntary sector organisations, using the Council’s monitoring framework to develop local services that are available to provide support to children and families at the right time, and in line with strategic priorities.
• Develop relationships with external services and lead regular monitoring meetings to analyse service provision and performance in consideration of the aims agreed within service level agreements.
• Lead the assessment of grant applications, tendering activity and procurement processes while maintaining oversight of the commissioning budget.
• Contribute to the strategic needs analysis for Fife, analysing data from professionals, children and families to identify strengths, gaps and areas for development in service provision.
• Represent the Service at committees and strategic meetings, participating in Service Working Groups liaising with internal, voluntary and independent service providers.

The Person

• You will be educated to SCQF level 9, which includes a Degree or equivalent.
• You will demonstrate a good understanding of the range of challenges families can face through your experience of working with children and families in a social work or third sector setting.
• You will have an in-depth knowledge of key policy drivers such as The Promise, Getting it Right for Every Child, UNCRC, Children & Young People (Scotland) Act 2014.
• You will have strong analysis skills, and experience of planning and motivating others to creatively problem solve and implement improvement activity.
• You will be an organised individual who is able to work autonomously to achieve objectives on multiple tasks.
• For communication skills, focus on type of skills -persuading, advising, listening. Don’t use ‘excellent’ or ‘good’
• As a progressive employer, we offer the opportunity to work in this role as a “blended working” arrangement with home-working opportunities and occasional office-working as required.
• You should have the ability to travel across Fife.

Before confirming your appointment, you will be required to obtain Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme membership through Disclosure Scotland.

This post requires SSSC registration, and the successful applicant will have three months to apply for registration.

For further information please contact Laura Lowrie - [email protected]