Strategic Lead - Children in Care Commissioning

Strategic Lead – Procurement & Partnerships (Children in Care)

Transform how we support children in care. Lead the system. Shape the market. Deliver better outcomes. Because every child deserves the right home, the right support, and the chance to thrive.

This is not just a leadership role — it’s an opportunity to change children’s lives.

We’re looking for a passionate and values-driven leader to join us at the heart of Children’s Services, working across commissioning and social care to ensure children in our care experience stability, quality and belonging.

You will play a crucial role in shaping how we support some of our most vulnerable children — making sure their voices are heard, their needs are met, and their futures are better.

About the Role

You will play a leading role in:

• Overseeing children in care placements – ensuring robust systems are in place to secure high-quality, stable homes that meet children’s needs

• Driving effective commissioning and contracting – leading strategic procurement and contract management to secure value, quality and positive outcomes

• Lead and improve how we find homes for children – working across teams to create more responsive, effective and compassionate home-finding processes

• Shaping and influencing the provider market – ensuring a diverse, sustainable and high-quality local market that can meet current and future demand

• Monitoring provider effectiveness – using data, intelligence and relationships to continuously improve provider performance and outcomes for children

• Leading on budget oversight and value for money – influencing significant spend and ensuring resources are used effectively to deliver the best outcomes

• Driving system-wide improvement – developing and embedding better processes, governance and partnership working across services

• Bring people together – working across commissioning and social care to break down silos and create a more joined-up system that works for children

• lead strategic procurement activity and partnership arrangements, ensuring strong governance and delivering best value across the system

This is a role where relationships matter, where your leadership will influence not just systems and processes, but the lived experiences of children every day.

Who We’re Looking For

We’re looking for someone who:

• Is deeply committed to improving the lives of children in care

• Brings experience from commissioning, procurement, or children’s social care, with a strong understanding of placements

• Leads with empathy, integrity and purpose

• Can bring people together, building strong partnerships across services and with providers

• Is confident in driving improvement and managing complexity, with the resilience to lead change

• Understands the importance of quality, value and sustainability in delivering better outcomes

• Is motivated by doing things differently and doing them better

Why Join Us?

You’ll be part of an organisation that is:

• Committed to putting children and young people first

• Ambitious about improving outcomes and transforming services

• Supportive, collaborative, and driven by shared values
• Focused on innovation, learning and continuous improvement

Most importantly, you’ll be in a role where you can:

• Make a real and lasting difference to children’s lives

• Help shape a system that is more responsive, compassionate and effective

• Lead work that truly matters — every single day

Ready to make a difference?

If you believe every child deserves the very best start in life — and you want to play a key role in making that happen — we would love to hear from you. Apply now and help us build a better, stronger and more responsive care system.