Salary: £48,338 - £61,881 pa

Swindon Borough Council has developed a strong reputation for creativity and innovation. The Council's Stronger Together change programme has led to a radical redesign of the organisation enabling it to focus on quality commissioning, excellent service delivery and locality working.

At the heart of this redesign is a clear intent to work with local people, communities and partners to build meaningful relationships, which in turn will result in positive action in the places people live.

Our overall objectives are to develop stronger and more resilient communities; increase trust in the Council; develop greater participation in public life; work together with local people and above all be a focused, relevant and effective organisation.

We are looking for an experienced manager who is able to help manage and deliver services to children in a challenging environment and in addition, help to redesign and shape our services for the future.

As a Children's Service we aspire to be the best we can be to help families lead fulfilling lives. We have a good track record for service improvement and benefit from strong partnerships with a shared set of goals known as One Swindon. We are building on our success as an integrated service which includes children's community health. We are testing innovative approaches to enable families to make change who experience chronic crisis, implementing a solution and safety orientated approach to service delivery and desire to create neighbourhood networks to build community capacity.

We are designing a new operating model known as Strengthening Families which seeks to develop greater multi-disciplinary working at every stage of our involvement from information sharing, decision making, help and support.

We are also committed to a workforce development programme to ensure staff have the right skills, to develop meaningful relationships with families, children and young people to bring about change. We want our children to be safe, have stability and experience success.

We are looking for an individual who can combine their skills in managing people with the ability to demonstrate their enthusiasm, drive and experience in leading service improvement to embed change; with a flair, imagination and passion to break new ground. For the Head of Service role you will need substantial management experience including child protection and be a qualified social worker registered with HCPC.

Swindon Borough Council is determined to respond to the challenges that Local Government faces in new and exciting ways. This clarity of intent is backed up by a disciplined approach to change management that ensures we deliver effective results at pace.

If you think you are up to the challenge, and motivated by the chance of shaping your own role within the service we would very much like to hear from you.

Closing date: 12th April 2013

Application forms and further details are available from our website  or alternatively contact jobs@swindon on 01793 463646 or e-mail Minicom for deaf users 01793 436659.