Children's Commissioner (SEND)

Do you have experience in Children’s Commissioning, and a passion for ensuring Children receive the best support and services?

Our Children’s Commissioner is responsible for commissioning high quality services to meet the needs of children with a focus on service for those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, including places in Independent Special Schools and Colleges.

Our Purpose

The Children’s Commissioning Team is looking for a Commissioner who can be part of the Partnership Approach to deliver excellent outcomes for our children.

Your Role

You will be responsible for robust, efficient and effective commissioning, procurement and contract management processes that ensure Children’s Services, makes the very best use of all its resources, particularly in relation to children with SEND. You will build strong productive relationships with colleagues and external partners to ensure commissioning, procurement and contracting is effective and secures high quality services for the children of North East Lincolnshire. In addition you will support the Head of Service on strategic work to ensure that we have robust and effective commissioning activity, that supports the council’s aim of providing excellent services for vulnerable children and their families.

You will have experience of ensuring that value for money is provided by external partners and oversee the quality assurance and contract management of provision, supported by the team.

Another important aspect to the role, will involve working closely with colleagues across different organisations and facilitating partnership working to make improvements to services in the interests of children and families.

About You

Previous experience of commissioning and/or contract management is essential. You will need strong skills in working in partnership with a range of colleagues and being able to evaluate and analyse information.

You will also be an effective team player team with the ability to work autonomously when required.

Our ideal candidate would have a good understanding of the needs of children in with special educational needs and disabilities and have worked in a similar organisation/environment. Ideally, you have understanding of the requirements of the SEND Code of Practice and knowledge of what good services for children with SEND look like in practice.

You will have strong communication skills and the ability to produce concise and accurate reports based on data, as well as excellent IT skills and the ability to follow a project management approach towards improvement.

Working Arrangements

This role is a blended working role (the duties of the role may require a blend of home & office working in line with needs of the service)

Think you have what it takes to be our Children’s Commissioner and make a difference? We want to hear from you.

Your Application

All applicants are advised to carefully read the information provided in the Role Profile and Person Specification.

If you require an informal discussion about the role please contact Mary Ryan, Head of Commissioning, Children’s Services, mary.ryan@nelincs.gov.uk

Key Dates

Advert Closing Date: Sunday 22nd November 2026

Interview date – week commencing 7th December 2026

We want you to have the best interview experience with us, so will provide candidates selected for interview their questions by 4pm the evening before.

We reserve the right to close our adverts early if we have received a significant volume of suitable applications.

Check out our NELC Benefits brochure attached for more information on the brilliant benefits available working at North East Lincolnshire Council!

We love AI and think it plays a great role in the world of work. However, for your application, we want to hear from YOU! As such, we will be testing applications to determine the use of AI, and applications that have heavily utilised the function will be scrutinised for suitability.

Do you need support?

If you need any help applying for this position, please contact Wendy Trask on 07702 338542 (text or call). Wendy can support with digital access as well as offering advice and guidance about completing the different sections of the application form.