Senior Contract Officer

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.

What is the job role?

To support the Children's Commissioning Team Manager by taking the lead on quality assurance across all commissioned services, including managing Contract Officers and effectively responding to quality concerns with commissioned services, in particular fostering, residential and supported accommodation providers.

To take responsibility for the monitoring of quality and contract compliance of children's social care services by Contract Officers, including undertaking visits to residential, fostering and supporting accommodation providers, responding to complaints, developing relationships with providers and ensuring that quality standards are met.

To support the planning, development and commissioning of services through the provision of contract and quality data to meet the required outcomes for children and young people and to ensure delivery to the required quality standards.

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).

We are looking for a dedicated and enthusiastic individual with experience working within an education, health or social care environment with either children and young people or other vulnerable people in an operational, commissioning or quality assurance role.

You will need to be able to lead a team of Contract Officers to ensure commissioned services for children are of a good standard and where required challenge providers to improve service delivery. Reports will need to be complied including analysed data, which will contribute to commissioning the right services for children.

You will be experienced in partnership working, managing projects to deliver the desired outcomes, working in a fast-paced environment and effectively prioritising and managing your workload.

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 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