Head of Service - Localities (£66.10ph)

Location: Barnet EN/NW

Contract: Ongoing    

Rate: £66.10

Start: ASAP   

About the Role: 

The Head of Service is responsible for leading the management of a defined area of services for older people and physically disabled people for the Council. The role is responsible for the delivery of these services within set budgetary parameters and for their on-going service improvement, and works with a range of internal and external partners to achieve effective outcomes for residents of Barnet.

This post will focus predominantly on the delivery of assessment and complex case support to people in the community. There will be a responsibility for driving forward partnership work with NHS organisations and a range of other organisations in the statutory and VCS sectors. This post is also pivotal in managing demand for residential care and working with commissioning colleagues to ensure that creative offers to care are being discussed and developed. 

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead and be responsible for the management and performance of a large number of staff, a significant budget and for the effective discharge of key statutory duties in adult social care. 
• Lead and manage the social care teams in their area of practice. 
• Lead and manage teams for assessment, support planning and case management. 
• Ensure safeguarding concerns and enquiries are dealt with appropriately and effectively, ensuring procedures and timescales are followed. 
• Identify opportunities to increase the independence of service users and reduce dependence on high intensity services, through personalisation, innovation and best practice. 
• Proactively lead financial planning and budget management for their unit, ensuring robust plans are in place to achieve MTFS savings whilst maintaining service quality. 
• Work closely with other Heads of Service to identify and manage safeguarding risks. 
• Provide professional leadership to the workforce including the embedding of strength based practice. 
• Work with other Heads of Service to target interventions and services to areas where they will have the greatest impact. 
• Manage operational partnerships both internally (such as public health, family services, HR, Finance) and externally (such as the voluntary sector, health, housing, police).

Core Accountabilities:

• Think Customer: To ensure that outstanding customer service is being delivered on a day-to- day basis for all customers of the Council�s older people and disability services and that any issues or complaints are dealt with, and resolved, in an effective and timely manner. 
• Leadership and People Management: To provide strong, visible leadership and professional supervision for service staff and/or external partners to ensure a high quality of service provision within professional guidelines and standards. 
• Democratic Spine: To provide insight for elected members, as required, to highlight the performance of older people and disability services against agreed performance standards and to raise any specific, high-priority service issues for their attention. 
• Financial & Risk Management: To manage operational budgets within agreed financial parameters, and monitor compliance with relevant legislation, statutory duties and Council policies to manage risk appropriately. 
• Resource Planning & Management: To manage the use of set resources (people, assets etc.) to ensure that they are best deployed to meet identified needs and achieve agreed service outcomes and manage the day to day delivery of services. 
• Contract Management: To manage the operational aspects of specific contracts for the service area ensuring that they delivery against agreed service quality levels. 
• Stakeholder Management: To manage operational stakeholder relationships to ensure high quality service delivery and that customer outcomes are met. To develop close internal partnerships to effectively deliver high quality services. 
• Service Expertise: To maintain a high level of knowledge regarding legislation and best practice to ensure high quality customer outcomes are consistently achieved.