Head of Service, Practice, Performance and Quality Assurance

The role oversees all aspects of quality and practice across the service, both internally and those of the partners we work with. 

You will be the guardian of ensuring we’re delivering the best service for our communities, continuously learning and continuously improving.

You’ll be someone who has experience of working effectively with partners, specifically those who are important to our improvement journey, and you’ll be open to external scrutiny and the value this has in supporting us to strengthen our practice.

We’re looking for someone who has a proven track record of developing and implementing comprehensive and effective quality assurance processes that give all our leaders a clear line of sight to practice.

As our Head of Service, Practice, Performance and Quality Assurance you will have a relentless commitment, focus and drive to ensure the quality of service provided to children across Swindon is of the highest quality.

You’ll be enthusiastic and resilient and up for a challenge. We’ve got a lot to do to get to where we want to be, but we have a clear transformation plan developed and supported by colleagues and all our partners.

And we’re making real progress, recognised by OFTSED. For example, we’ve worked hard to embed the Family Safeguarding Model and it has transformed how we work with our children and families. However, there’s more work to be done to ensure we are truly maximising the approach across all our teams and partners, and this will form a key part of the role.

In this role, you will ensure that we are delivering effectively against our transformation plan, establishing high quality data and information for the service.

You’ll lead our Independent Reviewing Service, working with colleagues and peers to drive quality through this critical function.

You will also review how we are recording and reporting information, identify gaps in service and work with peers across the Council and partners to ensure best practice and drive change.

We believe our colleagues are our greatest asset and we simply wouldn’t have made the progress we have achieved over the last 12 months without their hard work and commitment.

Our new Head of Service Practice, Performance and Quality Assurance will be committed to growing and developing all colleagues across children’s services, supporting them to achieve their potential.

You’ll play a key role in growing our dynamic Social Work and Leadership Academy. Our Academy aims to develop our practitioners and leaders, providing a framework that supports workers at any level through their employment with us, whether a student on placements, a newly qualified workers in your first year, an experienced social worker or a manager. We have built good relationships with local universities and training providers to enable a comprehensive programme of learning for all staff. Alongside this we support a range of practice-led learning within teams. The academy keeps up to date with new research and national initiatives, which enables us to promote good practice and be innovative in our ways of working.   

We’re looking for our Head of Service, Practice Performance and Quality Assurance to take our academy further.

As the guardian of quality and practice standards, you’ll hold the leadership team to account and set the agenda for quality, review and practice across Swindon, ensuring better outcomes for the vulnerable children and families we serve.

Our new offer to you

We know that for our children to thrive, we must create the very best work environment for our teams to thrive. That is why we have invested to improve our culture, working environment and offer to our colleagues as well as delivering real operational change on the ground in our communities.

That includes focusing on smaller and more manageable caseloads, stable leadership teams, a genuine commitment to supervision and clear career progression to help our people be the best they can be.

We offer competitive salaries, flexible working because balancing life and home is so important, generous holiday allowances, pension packages and free parking on our Swindon site.

We work as a close-knit team who support each other. This is a journey we’re on together.

Here’s what else sets us apart:

• Partnership working: We work closely with our strategic partners across Swindon to ensure our children and families get the right help, from the right teams, as quickly as possible
• Our Family Safeguarding Model: This model demonstrates our commitment to developing high quality systemic and relationship-based social work practice and encompasses our principles, involving:

• using motivational interviewing in our conversations and interactions with families
• working collaboratively and in partnership with our colleagues from other agencies
• providing support and interventions for adults where domestic abuse, substance misuse and mental health may feature
• supporting staff to have time to reflect in group supervision sessions
• promoting staff to undertake direct work through the provision of direct work toolkits
• providing comprehensive staff training
• supporting managers to support staff
• providing a supporting performance management and QA framework so that we can hold ourselves to account, learn and continuously improve

• Career development and training: Our Social Work and Leadership Academy develops practitioners and leaders, providing a framework that can support colleagues at any level through their employment, whether a student on placement, a newly qualified worker in their first year, an experienced social worker or manager
• Flexible working
• Relocation allowance of up to £8,000 (eligibility criteria apply)
• Competitive salaries
• Free parking at our central Swindon campus
• A career average revalued earnings (CARE) pension scheme
• 31 days’ holiday (plus bank holidays) for 5 years or less service
• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) - access to free and confidential information, support and guidance from a team of highly qualified professionals

Please see our Rewards and Benefits offer for more details.

Your next steps

As an inclusive employer, we welcome applications from a diverse range of communities, and in particular disabled people and people from ethnic minorities. Read our statement of commitment to equality & inclusion

Read the role profile and to apply please send your CV and cover letter to resourcing@swindon.gov.uk outlining your skills and experience.

For an informal discussion regarding the position, the organisation and the team structure, please contact Gwynne Rayns, Head of Transformation Children’s Services on 0747 2086213 or email GRayns@swindon.gov.uk