Dear Applicant

Thank you for your interest in working for Derby City Council.

This is a time of great change for Derby and Derby City Council. The City has ambitious plans to transform and regenerate itself, building on a strong foundation that is having a huge impact on the face of Derby, both culturally and economically.

The Council’s Strategic Management Team has given its continued commitment to developing high quality, value for money, customer focused services to the people of Derby.  In order to achieve this, the Council is going through a total organisation transformation programme, ‘One Derby, One Council’ (ODOC), developing new ways of working and delivering its services.

This post of Director of Commissioning for Children and Young Peoples Services reflects our longstanding commitment to bring together the strategic leadership for commissioning in children and young people's services and children's health.  It will build upon the strengths of our partnership work in both organisations so that every child or young person has a seamless experience of services to achieve the best possible outcomes.

The impact of this post will be significant and enhance the working relationship with the new NHS Derbyshire Cluster and the Clinical Commissioning Groups. It will provide leadership during a period of national policy change and response to the implementation of local health services reform.  The post holder will be expected to represent the views of both organisations and attend strategic management meetings of DCC and NHS Derby where appropriate.  
The leadership from the successful candidate will need to demonstrate a record of high performance, effective strategic planning and commissioning for CYPS with an understanding of how to deepen partnerships with our Children's Trust; Health and Well-being Boards and service providers in order to be effective in this post.

You will need to maintain the momentum to deliver current priority areas of work which include:

• The commissioning of early intervention and prevention services as a part of our ‘Keeping Families Together’ strategy 
• Conclude reviews of our fostering service and remodelling of disabled children's services
• Managing placement contracts and securing value for money for children in care services
• Monitoring of existing contracts and grants allocation to the community and voluntary sector

This post will not be without its challenges and in the initial phase the post holder will need to establish a thorough understanding of the governance arrangements whilst the current duties and responsibilities of commissioning children's health is in transition between NHS Derby and Derby City Council. However there are some early operational priorities including the establishment of pooled budgets for complex placements and confirming delegated responsibilities for existing service contracts. 

Please take some time to link to our website www.derby.gov.uk, where you will find more information about our plans for the City of Derby, together with our business plans for the Council.  You will see that we are looking for a highly skilled committed individual with the drive and ability to contribute to our ambitious plans.  This is an ideal opportunity to join our Senior Management Team as one of our Service Directors and to be a central part of our team leading the authority into the next generation of working styles.

We are looking for people who will provide strong leadership and management to the organisation at a senior level, make the best use of available resources and deliver change effectively within a diverse and multi-disciplined workforce.

Yours faithfully

Andrew Bunyan
Strategic Director of Children and Young Peoples Services