Best Start Participation & Parenting Team Manager

About Us

At West Sussex County Council, we are ambitious for children, families, and our workforce. We are committed to improving outcomes for children through early, inclusive, and coordinated support. Best Start Family Hubs (BSFH) are central to this ambition, bringing together services so families can access the right help at the right time, from pregnancy through to school entry.

The West Sussex Best Start Plan sets out our shared commitment to prevention, early intervention and strong partnerships around families. It is built on a simple belief: when parents and families are supported, children thrive. Whatever a child's background, acting early and working together makes a lasting difference.

The Best Start Participation & Parenting Team Manager is a senior, system-level
leadership role. It provides strategic and operational accountability for both:
* Parenting and Home Learning Environment (HLE) programmes
* Parental engagement, participation, co-production and inclusive access.

This role ensures that services are effective, inclusive, evidence-based and co-
produced with families, delivering improved outcomes in line with national
guidance and local priorities.

About the Job

Salary: £48,226 - £51,356 per annum
Working Pattern: Full Time (37 hours)
Contract Length: Fixed-term contract until 31/03/2027
Location: Opportunities available across the county

Internal candidates wishing to apply for this role will be considered for a secondment position. Please can you therefore discuss and agree this with your manager before applying for this position.

As a Best Start Participation & Parenting Team Manager, you will lead the
design, delivery, performance and continuous improvement of parenting and
engagement work across the Best Start Family Hub network.

You will operate at a programme and system leadership level, ensuring that:

• Parenting support is evidence-based, high quality and outcome-focused
  * Family Hubs provide inclusive, accessible routes into services
  * Parental voice influences service design, delivery and improvement
  * Services reach families facing the greatest barriers and inequalities

The role includes line management of Partnership Support Officers, ensuring
coordination, quality assurance and performance across both programme areas.

You will be an experienced and confident manager or service leader, with a
strong background in early intervention, parenting support and family
engagement. You will bring a clear understanding of early childhood
development and evidence-based practice, alongside proven experience of
leading services and working effectively across multi-agency systems.

You will have a strong commitment to improving outcomes for children and
families, with the ability to work under pressure, manage competing priorities
and respond to demand.

You will need to be able to travel independently to meetings and service
locations, including areas not easily accessible by public transport. There is a
regular and intrinsic requirement to communicate in English with colleagues,
partners and members of the public.

Experience and Skills

Key Skills:

• Ability to provide programme-level leadership across parenting, home learning environment (HLE) and engagement functions, ensuring coordinated delivery, clear accountability and alignment with service priorities.
• Strong partnership leadership skills, with the ability to influence, support and constructively challenge partners to drive system-wide improvement and deliver shared outcomes.
• Proven ability to lead and manage performance, quality and delivery across multi-agency provision.
• Highly effective communication skills, able to engage and influence a wide range of audiences including families, practitioners and senior leaders.
• Ability to use both quantitative and qualitative insight to monitor performance, inform decision-making and drive continuous improvement.
• Strong organisational and programme management skills, with the ability to coordinate complex delivery across multiple priorities.

Qualifications and/or experience:

• Degree-level qualification or equivalent in early years, parenting, public health, education, engagement or related field.
• Significant experience of leading parenting programmes and/or early years services OR engagement, co-production or inclusion activity
• Experience delivering or overseeing evidence-based interventions (EBIs).
• Experience of multi-agency working across health, education, local authority and VCS partners.
• Experience of line management and workforce development.
• Strong understanding of safeguarding, including Working Together to Safeguard Children.
• Experience of budget management.
• Valid and full driving licence and access to a vehicle/ability to travel around the county independently.

Reward and Benefits

As an employer we recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive and dynamic working environment where employees can achieve their full potential, achieve a healthy work-life balance, and are rewarded for the work they do.

In addition to working within a great team and a competitive salary you will have access to:

• Access to a generous, defined benefit pension scheme
• A range of flexible working options
• Maternity, paternity, dependency, and adoption leave
• Training and development opportunities, including coaching and mentoring
• A range of discounts giving our staff access to hundreds of offers with the opportunity to save over £1,000 a year through our West Sussex Choices benefits platform
• Discounted membership at selected local sports and fitness centres
• A range of commuting and business travel discount and initiatives

For a full list of the benefits offered to you as a West Sussex County Council employee, you can find this at our Rewards and Benefits page.

Further Information

The reference number for this role is CAFHE06421.

For an informal conversation or further information regarding the role, please contact Emma Parker at . For general queries please reach out to our resourcing team at .

To apply, upload your CV and cover letter explaining the skills and experience you can bring to the role ensuring that any gaps in employment are covered in your CV. Please ensure you have saved the job description attached to the main advert on our website as, once the job has closed, you may not have the opportunity to download again.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. This post is subject to an enhanced DBS check, 5 years referencing and a health check.

Equity, inclusion and accessibility is very important to West Sussex County Council. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, as this helps us build a diverse and talented workforce, that reflects the communities we serve. We ensure our approach to recruitment is flexible and supportive to enable all applicants to be at their best and to ensure they have the best possible chance of success.

For information regarding your eligibility to apply for this role under our Disability or Veteran's Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please visit our website.