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Job Description

Organisation: Leicestershire County Council

Work Location: County Hall, Glenfield, Leicester LE3 8RA

Salary: £43,860 - £47,829 per annum (pro rata for part time) (pay award pending)

Working Hours: 37 hrs per week

Contract Type: Permanent

Closing Date: 2nd August 2026

Interview Date(s): 13th August 2026

Are you passionate about ensuring that children, young people and their families/carers receive high-quality support at the right time helping them to achieve their full potential?

Would you like to help make a difference to the lives of children and young people through effective commissioning – with a focus on the brokerage of individual placements but may at times also focus on the procurement, quality assurance processes and monitoring of contractual arrangements?

Do you have a good understanding and experience of the Commissioning Cycle and commissioning practices, including procurement processes?

If so, this could be the ideal role for you.

About the Role

We are looking to recruit a full-time Senior Commissioning Officer to join our ambitious and dedicated Commissioning Service.

While all Senior Commissioning Officers work across a range of commissioning functions, this post will initially lead our Brokerage and Negotiation Team. This is a pivotal role, you will coordinate and oversee placement searches, engage with operational staff and providers, negotiate costs and contractual arrangements, and ensure that referrals are effectively matched to suitable provision. The role requires the ability to balance quality, sufficiency, timeliness and value for money, often within a challenging and fast-moving market environment.

As the lead for a busy placement’s duty desk, you will work in a fast-paced and changing team at the heart of Children's and Family Services, ensuring that children and young people can access the right support, in the right place, at the right time.

No two days are the same. You will need to be able, therefore, to regularly manage competing priorities, respond to urgent and complex placement requests, negotiate placement fees and work collaboratively with social workers, providers, commissioning colleagues and senior leaders to achieve the best possible outcomes for children and young people. Key skills will include the ability to manage business critical relationships with providers whilst ensuring the strategic and operational requirements of the Council are met at all times.

What we are looking for

This is a demanding but highly rewarding role that requires resilience, sound judgement and a genuine commitment to improving outcomes for children and families.

The successful candidate will:

• Have strong leadership skills and ability to manage a team and duty desk operating in a in a fast-paced environment where priorities can change quickly.
• Demonstrate resilience when managing high volumes of referrals, complex cases and placement shortages
• Have excellent attention to detail, and the understanding of the needs of the children and matching those to the market
• Be an effective negotiator, able to build positive relationships with providers whilst securing quality and value for money
• Possess strong analytical and problem-solving skills, identifying creative solutions when suitable placements are difficult to source
• Be highly organised, with the ability to manage multiple deadlines and competing demands
• Show empathy and compassion, recognising that behind every referral is a child or family requiring timely and effective support
• Have experience of supervising, supporting and developing staff within a busy operational environment

Wider Commissioning Responsibilities

Alongside leading the Brokerage and Negotiation Team, the successful candidate will work closely with other Senior Commissioning Officers, Commissioning Managers and the Service Manager to support the effective delivery of the wider commissioning function.

This may include:

Quality Assurance

• Undertaking provider quality assurance visits and meetings.
• Completing audits and reviews to ensure services meet expected standards.
• Producing clear reports and recommendations to support service improvement.

Contract Monitoring and Review

• Leading contract monitoring meetings with providers.
• Ensuring commissioned services are delivered in line with contractual expectations.
• Supporting providers to deliver positive outcomes for children, young people and families.

Commissioning, Procurement and Governance

• Supporting commissioning activity across Children's Services.
• Leading routine commissioning exercises through all stages of the commissioning cycle.
• Contributing to procurement activity, market engagement and service development.
• Working closely with Corporate Procurement, Legal Services and commissioning colleagues to ensure compliance with governance requirements.

The post will primarily focus on leading the Brokerage and Negotiation Team. However, you may also be required to provide cover for other Senior Commissioning Officers working across the areas listed above, as needed to support departmental priorities.

There is also the expectation that the successful candidate may be required to attend meetings away from the normal office base which would require appropriate car insurance cover.

This team has specific responsibility for the planning and delivering of a range of procurement activities and much of the internal governance for our commissioning activity.

More specifically, the role will include, but is not limited to:

• Coordinating and line‑managing the work of Commissioning Officers, ensuring effective use of time and skills, including monthly supervision and annual APRs.
• Leading on practice, regulations and other appropriate standards across commissioning.
• Supporting the Service Manager to ensure high‑quality services are provided in line with legal requirements and Children and Family Services policy and procedures.
• Leading on and coordinating all routine (low value, low risk and non-business critical) commissioning exercises through all aspects of the commissioning cycle. To support the commissioning of all business critical/high value commissioning exercises.
• Assisting in the development of service initiatives designed to improve the quality and provision of services received by children and families.
• Coaching and developing the team towards the required performance standards set by the Service Manager.
• Managing internal commissioning and brokerage activity, maintaining oversight to ensure requests are outcome‑focused and provide value for money.
• Ensuring providers meet Leicestershire’s high‑quality standards by conducting visits in line with the quality assurance framework, completing audits, and producing clear written reports.
• Reviewing existing commissioned care and support packages and working closely with allocated workers to ensure needs continue to be met appropriately.

About You

To apply for this post, you must be able to evidence in your application how you meet the following criteria:

• Degree in relevant subject Or Demonstrable experience identified below.
• Experience of commissioning, contracting or providing social care services to children and young people in a statutory, private or voluntary organisation. and working in a senior position and managing/coaching staff.
• Experience of developing positive relationships and managing conflict.
• Experience of using monitoring and evaluation to inform planning, including data systems to track performance.
• Experience of business process design, process testing, and the documentation of work instructions.
• Knowledge of relevant national legislation and regulation requirements including safeguarding policies, housing law and procedures and contract procedure rules.
• Ability to analyse information and write clear well-presented reports with recommendations and support the drafting of service specifications or system development.

In addition, we also expect you to share our commitment to our values and to delivering accessible and inclusive services which meet the needs of all of our residents. You will be asked to demonstrate your understanding of these commitments as part of the selection process.

Reasonable adjustments will be considered for applicants with a disability. We are a Disability Confident Employer.

Interested in Flexible Working?

We are open to discussions about flexible working, which may include part time working, job sharing, term-time working, flexible start and finish times, and hybrid working, depending on the requirements of the role and the service. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below.

For more information or an informal discussion, please contact:

Kim Sherriff, Commissioning Manager,

Phone: 0116 305 7464

Email: Kim.Sherriff@leics.gov.uk

How to Apply

At Leicestershire County Council we’re looking for top talent from all walks of life. Whoever you are, wherever you’re from, and whatever your background - we care about what you bring to our organisation, not just what’s on your CV. That’s why we’ve designed a recruitment process that’s fair, accessible, and focused on potential. And with benefits that support people at every age and stage of life, we make sure you can thrive - both personally and professionally.

If you share our passion to make a difference for the people of Leicestershire, we’d love to hear from you. Click the apply button to submit your application, ensuring that you upload a supporting statement that explains how you meet the criteria listed in the ‘About You’ section above. Without this information, we won’t be able to assess your suitability for the role, and your application will be rejected. For tips on how to write your statement, see the How to Apply section on our career site.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post or you want to request an application pack in an alternative format, please contact our Employee Service Centre by telephoning 0300 3030222 (select option 2) or raising a ticket via our online portal: https://emss.org.uk/support.

By applying for this post, you agree to our Terms and Conditions.

About us

About Leicestershire County Council

At Leicestershire County Council, we're committed to making a real difference in people's lives. Our aim is to work with communities and partners to deliver public services that make Leicestershire the best possible place to live and work for everyone.

Our employees play a key role in supporting this goal and helping us deliver the vital services we provide to the people of Leicestershire. Whether you're starting your career or looking for your next challenge, you'll find a place with us where your ideas are valued, and your work has purpose.

For further information on what it’s like to work for us and the benefits we offer, please refer to the following:

Our Recruitment Process
Our Organisational Values
Our Employee Benefits
Working for Us