Interim Head of Service – Children in Our Care, Care Leavers & Disabled Children and Young People’s Services

Contract: Interim assignment
Duration: 4 months, with potential to extend
Driving Licence: Required

The Opportunity

We are seeking an experienced and dynamic Interim Head of Service – Children in Our Care, Care Leavers & Disabled Children and Young People’s Services to provide strategic leadership, stability and direction during a period of transition.

Reporting to the Director of Children’s Services, you will lead services across Children in Care, Leaving Care, Corporate Parenting and Disabled Children’s Services, ensuring high-quality practice, strong safeguarding arrangements and positive outcomes for children, young people and their families.

You will play a key role in supporting the ongoing Families First, reunification and service improvement agendas, maintaining service performance and providing consistent leadership while permanent recruitment is underway.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide strategic leadership and oversight across Children in Care, Care Leavers, Corporate Parenting and Disabled Children’s Services.

• Maintain high standards of safeguarding, permanence planning and service delivery.

• Drive improvements in outcomes for children and young people, promoting stability, resilience and independence.

• Support the delivery of Families First and reunification initiatives.

• Strengthen partnership working with health, education and other key stakeholders.

• Oversee complex placement sufficiency challenges, ensuring appropriate and effective care arrangements.

• Navigate SEND-related complexities, funding pressures and resource challenges.

• Maintain performance, manage risks and identify opportunities for service improvement.

• Provide clear leadership, professional challenge and support to operational teams and senior colleagues.

• Contribute to the wider transformation and improvement of Children’s Services.

About You

You will be a credible, values-led senior leader with substantial experience in children's social care and a strong track record of leading complex services.

You will bring:

• Significant senior leadership experience across Children in Care, safeguarding, permanence and care leaver services.

• A strong understanding of corporate parenting responsibilities and the needs of care-experienced children and young people.

• Experience leading disabled children's services or working across complex SEND and additional-needs provision.

• Excellent partnership and relationship-building skills, particularly with health colleagues and multi-agency partners.

• The ability to navigate complex placement sufficiency, commissioning, funding and resource challenges.

• A proven ability to maintain performance, manage competing priorities and deliver service improvements.

• Strong strategic thinking, sound professional judgement and confident decision-making.

• The resilience and adaptability to make an immediate impact in a high-profile interim leadership role.

• A full driving licence.

Why Apply?

This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced children's social care leader to take on a pivotal interim assignment, providing continuity and stability while helping shape the next phase of service improvement and transformation.

You will have the opportunity to influence strategic priorities, strengthen partnership working and make a meaningful difference to the lives of children in care, care leavers and disabled children and young people.

If you are an experienced senior leader ready to make an immediate impact, we would welcome your application.