Vacancies

Head of Access and Sufficiency

About the role

Are you a visionary leader ready to make a lasting impact on the lives of children and families across our communities? Do you believe every child deserves access to a high-quality education in a safe, inclusive, and inspiring environment? If so, we invite you to bring your passion, expertise, and leadership to our team. 

At North Northamptonshire Council we are committed to delivering excellence in education and inclusion. As Head of Access and Sufficiency, you will lead the strategic planning and delivery of school places, admissions, and capital investment—ensuring every child can thrive in a great school, close to home. 

What will you be doing?

What You’ll Lead: 

Strategic education place planning for mainstream and special education 
Commissioning and delivery of capital schemes, including SEND provision 
School admissions and the establishment of new schools 
Innovative partnerships and funding strategies to expand and enhance provision

What You’ll Champion: 

Compassionate, inclusive leadership that empowers teams and communities
A culture of innovation, continuous improvement, and high performance
Equity, diversity, and inclusion at every level of service delivery
Financial stewardship of a £30m capital budget, driving value and impact

About you

What You’ll Bring: 

Proven senior leadership experience in complex, dynamic environments 
Strategic vision and political acumen to influence and inspire 
A deep understanding of education legislation, place planning, and infrastructure 
The ability to lead transformational change and build strong partnerships

We’re looking for someone who leads by example, embraces challenge, and is driven by a genuine commitment to improving outcomes for children and young people. 

Shortlisting w/c 8th December 2025.

Interviews w/c 5th & 12th January 2026.

Should you have any queries, please contact us via email at recruitment@northnorthants.gov.uk.
We kindly ask that you include a brief description of your enquiry to enable us to respond promptly and appropriately.

Our benefits

Here at North Northamptonshire Council, we’re transforming for the better, using all our creativity and imagination to create the best life for our local people.

You’ll find that we have a wide range of careers that may be more surprising than you think!

Why choose us?

We offer a vibrant working environment with:

A competitive salary
A pension scheme, where we pay a significant contribution on top of your contribution. It provides life cover and ill-health protection.
Lots of opportunities to develop your skills, knowledge and potential in a large unitary council
Generous leave entitlement (28 days, rising to 33 days) and bank holidays, plus the option to buy up to an extra 10 days
Hybrid and flexible working arrangements, where practicable for service needs to help you with a healthy work-life balance.

We provide a range of great benefits such as an Employee Assistance Programme, an Employee Benefits Scheme, wellbeing support, travel rates at HMRC rates, as well as supporting a range of active Employee Network Groups.

About us

Our values define who we are and how we operate, by forming the foundation for how we interact with our customers, colleagues and provide our services. They are also at the forefront of our decision making and delivery and are:

Customer-focused
Respectful
Efficient
Supportive
Trustworthy

Our Key Commitments

Our key commitments help ensure that the priorities we make, now and in the future, maintain the necessary breadth of focus in those areas that we believe matter most.

We are proud to be a recognised Disability Confident Employer and is committed to providing an inclusive recruitment process and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role.

North Northamptonshire Council re-signed the Armed Forces Covenant in June 2024 which highlights the Council’s pledge to support the Armed Forces community. The council obtained the silver status award for the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) and we are now currently working towards achieving Gold status.

Further information can be found at Jobs and careers | North Northamptonshire Council (northnorthants.gov.uk)

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