We value diverse perspectives and experiences and are striving to create a workplace culture that is inclusive, is accepting of all and is free from discrimination and bias.

The Commissioning Team leads on the delivery of a range of commissioning projects for looked after or vulnerable children and young people which meet identified needs and deliver value for money, and to ensure robust systems for the effective implementation and delivery of commissioned services.

The Commissioning and Partnership Service ensures that good quality, value-for-money services are in place for children and families that meet their needs wherever possible close to home, school, family and friends.  The service leads on the development of strong and effective partnership working across agencies, working collaboratively with the health sector and with other Children’s Services and Trusts across the region. 

The Commissioning Team monitor’s the quality of provision for Looked After Children, including undertaking visits to residential, fostering and supported accommodation providers, responding to complaints, developing relationships with providers and ensuring that quality standards are met. We strive to work with providers to improve their service offer for our children and young people as we believe they deserve the best outcomes.

In line with our One Coventry Values we strive to have a workforce that reflects our local communities and welcome applicants from all sections of the community. We particularly welcome applicants from minority ethnic backgrounds, applicants who have a disability and applicants who are from the LGBTQ+ community to apply for our senior leadership roles. 

Our Values are:

• Open and fair: We are fair, open, and transparent.
• Nurture and develop: We help and encourage everyone to be their best and do their best.
• Engage and empower: We talk and listen to others, working together as one.
• Create and innovate: We embrace new ways of working to continuously improve.
• Own and be accountable: We work together to deliver the best services for our residents.
• Value and respect: We put diversity and inclusion at the heart of all we do.

Coventry Children's Services has successfully secured Department for Education funding up to March 2025 to develop their Family Hubs and early help offer to children and families.

To support this work, the Senior Commissioning Officer will provide commissioning expertise to the project, contributing to needs analysis, developing service specifications, carrying out procurement activity to award contracts, and service monitoring and evaluation.

You will need to work across Council services, working with managers and colleagues in Early Help, Public Health, Joint Commissioning, Procurement/Legal, Education, external partners in Health, different service providers and critically, children and families to develop provision to meet their needs.

This is an exciting opportunity to develop good commissioning practice in Early Help services and contribute to this family support and early years work at the forefront of the Government agenda and to make a real difference in the lives of children and families in Coventry.

This post is exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to this post will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).
 

You will be experienced in commissioning services, preferably in a local authority context and understand the steps required to put contractual arrangements in place, to monitor and evaluate outcomes with providers and partner agencies. 

You will have skills in building positive working relationships with a variety of stakeholders, able to offer high support as well as high challenge to get services that are value for money and good quality. 

You will have good organisational skills to manage priorities flexibly, working to different managers in different parts of the service e.g. reporting progress to the project manager and Early Help lead manager responsible for the project. Data analysis, report writing, budget management, organisational and financial planning skills are essential. 

You will be enthusiastic about working to ensure the right services are available at the right time for the children and families in Coventry who need them.

As this is a fixed-term post for 12 months, requests for secondment internally or from partner agencies will be considered with support from your manager or employer.

For a confidential discussion about the role, please contact Bridget Atkins - bridget.atkins@coventry.gov.uk

If you need help or support to complete your application, please visit our accessibility page to see how we can assist you.

For full details on the application process please read the attached document on our jobs page labelled 'Coventry City Council Application Process'

Interview date: 9th or 10th May

Coventry has a proud, innovative and creative spirit that throughout its history has seen communities come together to tackle problems and bring about real social change.

We are cutting-edge, challenging, youthful, vibrant and diverse.

At Coventry we are committed to excellence in everything we do. With around 4800 staff from a range of different backgrounds, our aim is to recruit and develop talented people who will focus on our customers, take responsibility, work together and find better ways of doing things.

To deliver the best services to our residents, we need the best people working for us to make a difference to our communities.

If you join us, we will provide a fantastic rewards and benefits package - to find out more please visit https://www.coventry.gov.uk/council-vacancies