Quality Assurance and Contracts Support Officer
About the role
Are you an organised and analytical professional with a passion for driving quality, performance and service improvement?
The Children's Commissioning Service is dedicated to ensuring children, young people and families have access to high-quality, effective and value-for-money services.
We are looking for an organised and analytical individual to support the implementation and oversight of the Education Support Services Framework. Working closely with commissioners, providers and stakeholders, you will play a key role in quality assurance, contract monitoring and performance management, helping to ensure commissioned services meet contractual and statutory requirements.
This is an exciting opportunity to help ensure children and young people across North Northamptonshire receive high-quality education support services. By supporting provider performance, contract compliance and quality assurance activities, you will help drive positive outcomes, value for money and continuous service improvement.
You will oversee performance monitoring across a range of providers within the Education Support Services Framework, using data and performance information to identify trends, assess risks and support evidence-based decision-making. Working closely with Commissioning Managers, SEND colleagues, finance teams, education providers and external partners, you will contribute to effective contract management and provider oversight.
We're looking for someone who:
- Enjoys working with data and performance information.
- Has excellent attention to detail.
- Can build positive relationships with providers and colleagues.
- Is confident identifying and escalating concerns.
- Is passionate about improving outcomes for children and young people.
- Thrives in a role that combines analysis, quality assurance and contract management support.
What will you be doing?
In this role, you'll support the delivery and oversight of the Education Support Services Framework, helping to ensure commissioned services are high quality, compliant and deliver positive outcomes for children and young people.
Working closely with providers, commissioners and stakeholders, you'll monitor performance, support quality assurance activities, analyse data and identify opportunities for service improvement.
You'll play a key role in strengthening provider oversight by monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs), identifying trends and risks, and escalating concerns relating to quality, compliance or performance. You'll also support contract monitoring processes to ensure commissioned services meet contractual, statutory and performance requirements.
Key responsibilities include:
- Monitoring and supporting commissioned providers to ensure services are delivered in line with contracts, performance standards and the Education Support Services Framework.
- Analysing performance and quality data to identify trends, risks and opportunities for improvement, supporting evidence-based decision making.
- Supporting quality assurance and contract management activities to drive continuous improvement and positive outcomes for children and young people.
About you
For this role, you will be required to hold the following:
- Good understanding of contract management, commissioning, quality assurance or performance monitoring, with a willingness to develop knowledge in these areas.
- Ability to gather, analyse and interpret data, identifying trends and using information to support service improvement and decision-making.
- Strong organisational skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities and maintain accurate records.
- Effective written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to produce reports and communicate with a range of stakeholders.
- Ability to build positive working relationships with providers, colleagues and partner organisations.
- Awareness of quality standards, compliance requirements and risk management, ideally within children's services, education or a related field.
- Confidence using Microsoft Office applications, particularly Excel, and the ability to learn new systems and processes.
- Proactive and solution-focused approach, with a commitment to improving outcomes for children, young people and their families.
Recruitment dates:
Closing date – 11/08/2026
Shortlisting – 14/08/2026
Interviews – 18/08/2026 and 19/08/2026
For further information, please contact Lorraine Patterson
Lorraine.patterson@northnorthants.gov.uk
Our Benefits
Here at North Northamptonshire Council, we’re transforming for the better, using all our creativity and imagination to create the best life for our local people.
You’ll find that we have a wide range of careers that may be more surprising than you think!
Why choose us?
We offer a vibrant working environment with:
- a competitive salary
- a pension scheme, where we pay a significant contribution on top of your contribution. It provides life cover and ill-health protection.
- lots of opportunities to develop your skills, knowledge and potential in a large unitary council
- generous leave entitlement (28 days, rising to 33 days) and bank holidays, plus the option to buy up to an extra 10 days
- hybrid and flexible working arrangements, where practicable for service needs to help you with a healthy work-life balance.
We provide a range of great benefits such as an Employee Assistance Programme, an Employee Benefits Scheme, wellbeing support, travel rates at HMRC rates, as well as supporting a range of active Employee Network Groups.
About us
Our Values and Behaviours
Our values define who we are and how we operate, by forming the foundation for how we interact with our customers, colleagues and provide our services. They are also at the forefront of our decision making and delivery and are:
Customer-focused
Respectful
Efficient
Supportive
Trustworthy
Our key commitments help ensure that the priorities we make, now and in the future, maintain the necessary breadth of focus in those areas that we believe matter most.
Disability Confident Employer
We are proud to be a recognised Disability Confident Employer and is committed to providing an inclusive recruitment process and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role.
Our Employment and Disability Service provides bespoke support to individuals facing barriers to employment, helping them work towards their goals to start, stay and succeed in employment. For further information please click here The Employment and Disability Service (EADS) | North Northamptonshire Council
Armed Forces Community
The council obtained the Gold status award for the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS).
Further information can be found at Jobs and careers | North Northamptonshire Council (northnorthants.gov.uk)
Salary range
- £34,434 - £36,363 per year