Head of Service – Placement Sufficiency Programme

At Bath & North East Somerset Council we have one overriding purpose – to improve people’s lives.

Head of Service – Placement Sufficiency (fixed term)

We are looking for a skilled, creative and experienced leader to join us in developing our Placement Sufficiency Services in B&NES. Ofsted rate us as Good, but we want even better for the children in our authority. For us to achieve consistently outstanding services, we need the best and most committed social care leaders to join our leadership team.

This role is key to our improvement journey and our financial strategy. We want the best for children who need to be in our care, and so we want you to work with key stakeholders and the market to create more and better homes for children in care. You will have responsibility for leading on the implementation of the placement sufficiency strategy and action plan, supporting workstreams as well as progressing plans for children in residential care and all high-cost placement provision.

We are looking for someone with exceptional communication and people skills, who has a friendly, patient and confident approach with colleagues, professionals and members of the public. We value relational approaches with all stakeholders and promote this via our systemic practice model. We expect you to provide high levels of support to staff, alongside constructive challenge, to develop confident autonomous managers and practitioners. You will need strong organisational skills to manage and prioritise your work. The successful candidate will have experience of managing teams, be proficient at using and analysing key data, and, crucially, must have the child/young person/family at the centre of their work and decisions.

To enable our employees to practice at the highest level we offer:

- A friendly and caring team

- Excellent administrative support

- First-rate supervision and support

- Extensive training programme

- A corporate commitment to improving outcomes for our children and young people

With the Assistant Director, and as part of the Senior Management Team, the post holder will participate in the formulation of detailed Directorate objectives and policies and work as an active member of the senior management team to make Directorate-wide decisions linked to key local policies and procedures and national policy.

About the role

• Fixed term contract (initially for 6 months)
• Full time (37 hours across 5 days per week)

If you think you have the required skills and are interested in hearing more about this role, then please contact Paul Shallcross, Assistant Director paul_shallcross@bathnes.gov.uk for more information and a conversation.

Interview date: 17/07/2026

Please no agencies.

*Please note, BANES Council operates a policy of prior consideration for roles for any individual on the Council’s at-risk register (redeployee). This means should a redeployee express an interest in this role, providing they meet the essential criteria for the role they will be considered ahead of external applicants.

Please note that this advert may close earlier than the stated closing date due to high demand. We advise all interested candidates to apply as soon as possible.