Job Title: Associate Director, Children in Care and Care Experienced

Location: Dudley

Contract: Interim/Temporary

Rates: Competitive

Job Overview:

• Our children's and young people social care teams plays a critical role in driving the vision and delivery of high-quality, effective safeguarding and support services for families with responsibility for overseeing multi-disciplinary teams that work collaboratively to protect vulnerable children and adults, promote family resilience, and improve outcomes.
• Leading the development and implementation of strategies that ensure early intervention, prevention, and tailored support for families experiencing complex challenges and championing a strengths-based, trauma-informed, and child-centred approach, ensuring safeguarding practices are robust, proportionate, and focused on achieving long-term positive change.
• Effective partnership working is critical - across wider teams, external agencies, and communities to create seamless, integrated services that keep children safe, support parents, and strengthen families.

Job Purpose

1. To provide strategic leadership, professional accountability, and operational oversight for services that safeguard, support and improve outcomes for children in care and care experienced young people.
2. To be professional responsibility for ensuring that children who cannot live with their families experience safe, loving, stable and aspirational care, with a clear focus on permanence, sufficiency, quality of practice and achieving the best possible outcomes. This includes a strong drive to support more children to remain connected to, and cared for within, their home communities wherever it is safe to do so.
3. To have a proven track record of developing children's residential provision and fostering services at pace, alongside the ability to lead complex change, mature commissioning arrangements, and deliver improvement and financial sustainability within a demanding statutory environment.
4. To be a member of the Council's Senior Leadership Team, supporting organisational transformation, maximising use of technology/automation and cultivating a high-performance culture focused on continuous improvement, efficiency, and improved customer experience and choice.
5. To support the delivery of the Council Improvement Programme, implementing the new operating model, and ensuring that all transformation work streams have clear deliverables to modernise service delivery.
6. To ensure evidence-based decision-making and, robust financial management, and to model effective leadership behaviours and accountabilities underpinned by adherence to the Nolan Principles, while articulating a compelling vision for change.
7. To act as the lead and direct the provision of children's social care to meet statutory and regulatory expectations whilst driving excellence, inclusion and innovation across the remit.
8. To ensure the best outcomes to support family safeguarding, early help and children with additional needs across the Borough by developing best practice in social care and early interventions to avoid children entering the social care system.

Connect2Dudleyis a trading style of Dudley & Kent Commercial Services LTD - A joint venture between Dudley Metropolitan Council & Commercial Services Kent Ltd. Connect2Dudley is an equal opportunities Employment Agency & Business. It positively encourages applications from all suitably qualified and eligible candidates.