About the role
Are you passionate about transforming and improving services to support Children, Young People with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and their Families in North Northamptonshire?
We are seeking an experienced and dynamic Programme Manager to lead our exciting Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Partnership Transformation Programme.
This pivotal role will involve managing the transformation of SEND services, placing the needs and voices of children and young people with SEND at the heart of collaborative, efficient, and inclusive decision making. The successful candidate will be adept and comfortable working in partnership across local authorities, education providers and healthcare services, with an emphasis on coproduction with parent/carer representatives to drive forward meaningful change in the SEND sector.
What will you be doing?
As a Programme Manager, you will:
- Lead the SEND Partnership Transformation Programme from initiation to delivery, ensuring alignment with strategic objectives and local priorities.
- Oversee the design, planning, and implementation of transformation initiatives, ensuring timely and high-quality delivery.
- Collaborate with key stakeholders, including education providers, health and social care services to develop and implement shared goals and solutions for SEND service improvement.
- Manage programme governance, ensuring appropriate project management frameworks, reporting, and risk management processes are followed.
- Lead, motivate, and support a multidisciplinary programme team to deliver programme objectives, fostering a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement.
- Monitor and report on programme progress, providing regular updates to senior leadership, stakeholders, and governance bodies.
- Champion the voice of children and young people with SEND, ensuring that their experiences and needs are embedded in the transformation process.
- Promote best practices in SEND service delivery, ensuring that services are inclusive, effective, and responsive to evolving needs.
- Drive stakeholder engagement, facilitating consultations and maintaining strong relationships with all partners to ensure buy-in and support for programme initiatives.
Please review the Job Description and Personal Spec for more detail.
About you
The right candidate for this role will have:
- Proven experience in managing large-scale, complex transformation programmes, ideally within the SEND, education, or health sectors.
- Strong leadership skills with a track record of building and leading effective teams.
- Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to build relationships across a range of partners and engage effectively with senior leaders, local authorities, parents, and carers.
- Deep understanding of SEND policy, legislation, and the challenges faced by children and young people with SEND and their families.
- A strategic mindset with the ability to balance the broader vision with day-to-day project delivery.
- Strong organisational skills, with the ability to manage multiple projects and work to tight deadlines.
- Excellent problem-solving and decision-making abilities.
- A relevant qualification in project or programme management (e.g., PRINCE2, MSP) or equivalent experience.
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 and Behaviours
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.
We aim to be a carbon neutral Council by 2030.
Further information can be found at Jobs and careers | North Northamptonshire Council (northnorthants.gov.uk)
Attached documents
