Strategy and Commissioning Officer - Working Age Adults

We have a great opportunity for a Strategy and Commissioning Officer to join our team, focusing on working age adults at Wokingham Borough Council. This is a full-time, permanent role. As a Strategy and Commissioning Officer, you will play an important role in planning, designing and improving services that help residents live well, stay independent and access the right support at the right time. You will support commissioning across Adult Services, working closely with colleagues, partners and providers to deliver local priorities. This role involves contributing to strategy and policy, shaping the local care market, and improving services to ensure better outcomes for residents, good value for money, and a sustainable, high-quality adult social care system. It's also a great time to join us! Our service was recently recognised as one of the highest performing in the country after a CQC inspection. Wokingham Borough Council is part of the Social Care Future movement, which champions a vision where everyone can live in a place they love, connected to the people and activities that matter most whatever their age, health or disability.,

• Support commissioning work across all areas of Adult Services.
• Work with internal teams and external partners to plan and deliver local priorities set out in the Adult Social Care Strategy.
• Work with Commissioning Managers to make sure the services we commission are high quality, effective, good value for money, and meet the requirements of the Care Act 2014 and upcoming social care reforms.
• Procure and manage contracts for services that support vulnerable people in Wokingham.
• Build a good understanding of the local care market and support a wide range of services, helping to keep them sustainable and improve outcomes for Wokingham residents., AI in Applications - We recognise that candidates may choose to use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support the preparation of their job applications. When used appropriately, AI can be a helpful aid in structuring responses, checking clarity, and improving presentation.
However, applications must reflect your own skills, experience and understanding. If an application appears to rely excessively on AI-generated content, it may not meet the required standard and could be rejected. We encourage all applicants to ensure their submissions are authentic, tailored to the role, and clearly demonstrate their own knowledge, experience and suitability. If your application is shortlisted for an interview, you will be required to provide proof of your right to work in the UK at that stage. Additionally, successful candidates must present proof upon receiving a job offer. Please note that all offers are conditional and subject to the satisfactory completion of pre-employment checks. Please be aware that we will be reviewing the applications we receive on a daily basis, and we reserve the right to close the advert early if suitable candidates are identified. Wokingham Borough Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff, other workers and volunteers to share this commitment. All successful candidates for this role will be subject to Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks along with other relevant employment checks. Due to the high volume of applications we receive, we regret that we are unable to respond to every applicant individually.


• A relevant qualification or equivalent experience, with a good understanding of adult social care, including how services are delivered, funded and commissioned.
• Strong writing skills, able to produce clear briefings, reports and strategic documents that support decision-making.
• Experience of working collaboratively across teams and organisations, building relationships and influencing partners to achieve shared goals.
• A track record of improving services, including identifying opportunities, delivering projects and managing performance to achieve results.
• A genuine interest in improving and transforming social care.
  
  Wokingham Borough is set in the heart of Berkshire with excellent transport links to Reading and central London. Our area comprises of a vibrant and historical market town, attractive villages, and miles of beautiful countryside.
We're home to a range of high performing schools, a host of international businesses and an incredible community. We have a strong local economy with accelerated growth, a range of excellent public facilities and low levels of crime, offering an exceptional quality of life. Wokingham Borough Council has committed to becoming a Marmot borough to embed prevention, early intervention and address inequalities in all aspects of our work. This is especially important given the significant and continued growth of our Borough and the diversity of its residents. If you want to make a real difference to people's lives in Wokingham, we'd love to hear from you., Our Children's services When Children's Services get involved in the life of a child, our priority is to make sure our social workers have the support, time, and resources they need to provide an excellent quality of service - the kind of service we ourselves would wish to receive. We're committed to social workers having case loads that give them time to focus on relationship-based practice and we're growing our workforce to reflect this. We want to maintain an environment where practice can flourish and we offer:
• Good quality supervision
• A wide range of training and development opportunities
• A visible and responsive leadership team
We've adopted Signs of Safety as our practice framework. This is a strength based and safety-focused approach which prioritises direct work and relationships with the child and their network. Our commitment to this includes training staff at all levels in Children's Services. We also use this strengths based approach in the support and line management of our staff. https://wokinghamjobs.jgp.co.uk/ Careers in adult social care Adult Social Care makes a positive impact on so many lives. Working in social care is a fulfilling job that transforms lives for the better. With your help, people will have the ongoing support they need to live their lives to the full and help continue to deliver our outstanding services Roles are varied and every day is different. Working in adult social care will give you a huge sense of pride and satisfaction at the end of every working day. You won't find a more rewarding job.


• Excellent pension benefits
• Flexible working hours
• Annual leave - starting at 26 days (plus bank holidays dependent on grade and working hours)
• Training and support
• Free eye tests
• Free gym access
• Free advice and counselling through our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)
• Relocation package worth up to £8,000 (subject to eligibility
• Employment referral scheme of £1000 for successful candidates (subject to eligibility)
• We pay professional registration fees for Social Workers and Occupational Therapists
Apprenticeships Sign up for an apprenticeship, where we will support you, to launch your career in Adult Social Care.