Commissioning Officer

We are seeking an experienced Commissiong Officer to join our Strategic Commissioning Service. The Strategic Commissioning Service are responsible for the Commissioning activities in Children's Services in Social Care and Education.

We are looking for an enthusiastic motivated individual, to join the Children's Service's Commissioning Team in North Somerset Council. The person will be joining a small team that works strategically across all of Children and Families Services supporting operational colleagues, to meet the needs of children in North Somerset.

We are looking for someone who is committed, who can demonstrate creative and innovative practices to deliver efficient and high-quality services in partnership with children and their families at a time of challenge in Social Care, Education & Health in an emerging picture of the new reforms agenda.

This role will take an operational lead in commissioning overview and direction of our commissioned services for all children across Children's Services in SEND. They will be responsible for ensuring the effective commissioning of high-quality services in collaboration with key internal and external stakeholders, including and co-produced with children, their families and market providers.

The post holder will develop, shape and deliver an overarching programme to meet the needs of children and ensure that the Local Authority has access to sufficient and suitable high-quality services. The post holder will support the quality assurance and compliance of the SEND services through robust commissioning practices contract monitoring.

The post holder will need to work closely in partnership with all stakeholders to achieve this aim, with the support of the Team.

The Service comprises of a Commissioning Team, and a Placement Team, these teams work closely and are interdependent. The post holder will have a diverse role and work closely with colleagues in the Children's Services operational teams and with the procurement & strategy team. Contributing, leading and supporting needs analysis of service needs and the development of new services.

North Somerset is a beautiful area and a great place to work with good transport links. The Children's Directorate is ambitious and well led, working hard to meet the needs of children and their families. We have a good support infrastructure for staff in terms of supervision and appraisals, as well as pathway for career development opportunities. We offer excellent training and development opportunities for our staff.

The post is flexible and whilst you are required to come into the office it is a hybrid role, allowing you to work from home and the office in a flexible way., Undertake procurement processes and monitor the resulting contracts to ensure compliance with the specifications and statutory responsibilities.
Advice on specifications to be included in contracts to maintain standards in accordance with legislation and agreed local protocols.
Propose and help implement service improvements within an integrated services plan to improve the outcomes for service users and the council ensuring compliance with legislation and local conventions.
Undertake a designated specialist role/s within the team and be a lead specialist in at least one of the professional areas.
Provide support and advice to identified stakeholders as detailed within the services work programme and address identified needs to comply with quality assurance and professional standards.
Manage and oversee a programme of Quality assurance within the sector

The applicant needs to have previous commissioning experience and/or related transferrable skills in education & social care in Children's Services., We are looking for an individual who is passionate about Children's Services, and who possesses the following skills and experience:

Educated to degree level and/or with relevant equivalent professional experience in service such as commissioning or procurement management or related fields.
Hold a thorough understanding of the legislative framework and statutory guidance which underpins the provision of education, early years and children's services and a good understanding of emerging strategy and policy developments
Experience of working in a contracts and commissioning function within a local government setting or an ability to adapt approaches used in other sectors to a local government setting and be responsible for leading the commissioning process from end to end, through initial scoping to evaluation of contract performance
Experience of engaging a wide range of stakeholders to agree priorities, advise and agree the scope of commissioning in conjunction with the Head of Commissioning
Strong child-centred and outcomes driven approach to all commissioning activity
Strong skills in partnering and the ability to influence positive change through effective partnership
Ability to work effectively in a local government context (legal, financial, political)., Disability Confident
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