Responsibilities

The post holder will work closely with social workers to provide commissioning support to a programme of targeted reviews for high cost clients. The reviews will aim to maximise the potential for independence for the individual and ensure value for money for the public purse.

The post will be managed by the Service Director for Integrated Commissioning and will work closely with both the review team in Adult Social Care and the All Age Disability Team in Integrated Commissioning

Salary: £60,583- £63,690 per annum (salary will be pro rata based on hours worked)

Contract: 1 year fixed term contract

Working hours: 22.5 hours per week

About the role

We are looking for motivated, ambitious, and inspiring person to join us. You will be entitled to a range of different benefits to make sure you are happy both at work and at home.

Specific activities of the role will include:

• Ensuring providers are clear about the Council’s expectations for them to achieve specified outcomes from core support and additional hours
• Providing a robust challenge process with providers in regard to cost and the use of additional hours
• Working with social workers on an holistic approach to the range of services individual clients are receiving and the cost effectiveness of this
• Effective utilisation of the CareCubed costing tool to support dialogue around cost and value for money (training will be available).
• Working with the review team to identify the gaps in provision to meet the needs of disabled adults with complex needs in-county and working with the All Age Disability Team to develop potential solutions.

Here's what other members of the Integrated Commissioning team had to say:

"Working in the Commissioning team has provided me with a great opportunity to shape services locally that really make a difference to the lives of vulnerable people. It's great to see and hear service users’ stories about how they are achieving their dreams and goals of becoming more independent"

“I get the chance to be involved in a range of exciting projects which achieve real results for service users and their families, whilst continually boosting my learning. The team is highly motivated and supportive which means together we are able to deal effectively with situations that are sometimes challenging”

About you

You will need to demonstrate the following confidently and effectively:

• Experience of working in a senior commissioning role in a complex organisation with demonstrable leadership skills.
• Specific experience of commissioning services for clients with learning disability and / or autism or very similar services.
• A strong understanding of residential learning disability services, including different service models and the costs associated with running services. Previous experience of working in this or a similar sector would be an advantage.
• An understanding of what good quality care looks like for individuals with complex learning disability and or Autism.
• Excellent financial literacy, including the ability to understand financial models, organisational financial statements, and annual accounts.
• Experience of designing, leading, and managing change, including previous experience of delivering projects that improve outcomes for people and value for money.
• Able to influence others, build and manage effective relationships up to Director level across the health and social care economy. Comfortable and confident engaging in complex or challenging negotiations.
• Able to use professional curiosity and creativity to develop new and innovative solutions.
• Strong verbal, presentation, and written skills with confidence in delivering complex information to senior stakeholders in a concise manner
• Ability to manage conflicting priorities and a complex work programme in a fast-paced environment

Person Specification

Essential:

• Working within a management capacity in a complex multi-agency service organisation
• A successful track record of leading and managing change
• Experience working in Children’s, Adult’s or Health services
• Strong commissioning performance and/or contracting background
• Previous experience of developing a quality framework for a service or service users to monitor impact, outcomes and value for money
• Significant experience of implementing and aligning policies with delivery on the ground, translate strategy into detailed targets and plans, and put in place the necessary organisation to ensure the achievement of the Service’s objectives.
• Significant experience of working successfully and effectively as part of a management team and conveying strategies, policies, objectives, and targets to team members.
• A proven track record of leading and motivating multi-disciplinary staff teams and of developing a culture that has achieved a high level of performance and continuous service improvement.
• A successful record of delivering customer focussed services that involves users and drives up standards and performance.
• Evidence of working effectively in cooperation and partnership with a wide range of communities, partner agencies, private sector providers, public agencies, voluntary bodies and statutory authorities
• Commissioning policy and practice
• Quality assurance and improvement, and performance management processes
• Knowledge of procurement and contracting practice
• Budget management and analysis
• Detailed working knowledge of the national, regional and local agendas relating to children and/ or adults
• Understanding of children and/ or adults needs and how these can best be assessed and met

Broad understanding of:

• Safeguarding

• Statutory guidance relating to children and/or adult services

• Advocacy services

• Referral and Assessment Pathways

• Political and decision making processes
• Knowledge of government policies and strategies in relation to relevant services
• Strong awareness of the current issues facing local government and the wider public sector
• Leading, managing and motivating teams with the ability to support, guide, direct a team to achieve high performance
• A commitment to continuously improving services
• Enthusiasm for and commitment to the integration of services across health and social care to improve outcomes for children and/ or adults
• Highly motivated with a ‘can do’ focus on delivery
• Ability to develop working relationships locally, regionally and nationally
• Influencing, facilitation and negotiation skills
• Ability to analyse complex issues and adopt a creative approach to problem solving and service delivery in challenging circumstances and with competing priorities
• Ability to manage complex commissioning, planning, monitoring whilst dealing with staff concurrently
• Personally well organised with the ability to identify and work to priorities
• Educated to degree level or equivalent qualification
• Masters or relevant management and/ or professional qualification and/or relevant experience
• Evidence of continued professional, managerial and personal development
• Ability to travel to meetings and meet providers across Buckinghamshire
• Where the role is customer-facing and the post holder is required to speak to members of the public, the ability to converse at ease with customers and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post.

This post is covered by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare:

• Unspent convictions and/or unspent conditional cautions only

For further information on how long it takes for convictions and conditional cautions to be spent, please refer to Nacro’s guide on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act.

Desirable:

• Will hold a relevant commissioning qualification
• Project management qualification