Children's Workforce Strategic Lead

Children's Services

Workforce Academy

Childrens Workforce Strategic Lead

Ref: 001838

Contract: Fixed Term (2 years)

Salary: £57,427 - £60,840 per annum (SM3)

Hours: 36.66 per week

Location: Spindles Shopping Centre

Closing Date: Tuesday 17 November 2026

Interview Date: TBC.

Shape the Future Workforce for Children and Families in Oldham:

This is a rare opportunity to lead one of the most important transformation programmes across Children's Services.

As our Children's Workforce Strategic Lead, you will drive the workforce ambitions that sit at the heart of the national Families First for Children reforms and wider children’s social care transformation. You will work across Oldham Council and with partners across the borough to ensure we have the skilled, stable and resilient workforce needed to deliver outstanding services for children, young people and families.

This is a strategic leadership role where your influence will help shape workforce policy, attract and retain talented professionals, develop future leaders and support the implementation of national reform programmes.

About the Role:

Reporting to the Assistant Director for Quality, Practice and Partnerships, you will provide strategic leadership for workforce development across Children's Services and partner organisations. You will lead a dedicated workforce team and oversee a programme of workforce improvement activity focused on:

• Recruitment and retention
• Workforce planning and succession management
• Professional development and learning
• Leadership development
• Children's social care reform implementation
• Workforce transformation and service redesign
• Partnership workforce initiatives across the borough

You will use data, evidence and workforce intelligence to identify future workforce challenges and develop innovative solutions that strengthen capacity, capability and resilience across the children's workforce system.

About You:

We are looking for an experienced, ambitious and collaborative leader with a strong understanding of children's services and workforce development.

You will be able to demonstrate:

• Significant experience within children's social care, early help, family support, education, youth services or a related children's service.
• A track record of leading complex programmes, projects or transformation activity.
• Experience of workforce planning, recruitment, retention and organisational development.
• The ability to influence senior leaders, partners and stakeholders across organisational boundaries.
• Strong strategic thinking, analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Experience of delivering improvement through collaboration and partnership working.
• Knowledge of children's services policy, workforce challenges and reform agendas.

Join Us:

If you are a strategic leader who is passionate about workforce development, service improvement and creating the conditions for children and families to thrive, we would love to hear from you.

Help build the workforce that will deliver the future of children's services in Oldham.

About Us:

We want Oldham to have vibrant, safe neighbourhoods where people are proud to live with opportunities for healthier, more fulfilled lives; and a sustainable, thriving economy. As we look to the future, the challenges may be significant, but so are the opportunities. We’ve identified three missions with our residents and partners, focusing on what will deliver the biggest impact:

A Great Place to Live, Healthier, Happier Lives, and Green and Growing.

We’re looking for candidates who will support us to achieve our ambitions and we encourage you to download our Corporate Plan: Ready for the Future and our Oldham Plan for further information.

Our Values and Behaviours:

By driving innovation, investing in our people, and championing our communities, we will ensure that Oldham continues to be a place where everyone can live their best life. To support this, we have three core values which define who we are and how we operate. These are ‘Proud, Ambitious, and Together’, and they shape our culture, inform our decisions, and inspire us to deliver on our commitments to the people of Oldham.

We have translated these values into five behaviours which guide our actions and are the standards we hold ourselves to, day in and day out:

• Work with a resident focus
• Support local leaders
• Committed to the borough
• Delivery high performance
• Take ownership and drive change

You can find out more about our values and behaviours on our greater.jobs Oldham page

Our Benefits Package:

At Oldham Council we offer a great benefits package for our employees, which includes the following:

• 25 days annual leave which increases after 5 and 10-years’ service
• The option to purchase additional annual leave.
• An attractive LGPS benefit pension scheme with the option to make shared cost additional voluntary contributions.
• Discounted gym membership with Oldham Active.
• Staff discount scheme for shopping, entertainment, eating-out, eating-in, travel, motoring and more.
• Salary sacrifice scheme for home and electronics and Cycle to Work.
• Wellbeing support, including a Mental Health First Aider network and an Employment Assistance Programme that provides 24 hours access to advice and support.
• Staff recognition and celebration events.
• Peer support groups

Inclusive Recruitment:

We work closely with employees to help them work at their best, including making adjustments such as flexible working, describing available working patterns, providing equipment or making changes to the workplace.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and therefore expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

If you have lived or worked abroad for 3 months or more in the last 5 years or 12 months or more (whether continuously or in total) in the last 10 years whilst aged 18 or over, please refer to the link below for details for how to obtain your Certificates of Good Character. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/criminal-records-checks-for-overseas-applicants

Unfortunately, at this time we are not able to offer sponsorship.

If you have completed the GM Elevate (Leadership Development) Programme please indicate this within the ‘About You’ or ‘Supporting Statement’ section of your application.

If you’re an applicant with disabilities and have previously been in or currently in care, a carer, someone who has served in the Armed Forces, or you’ve participated in the GM Elevate Programme, and you meet the essential criteria of the role, you are guaranteed to reach the first st