Brighton and Hove (On-Site)
Permanent, Full time
No DBS check required
£98,024-£110,000
37
Job introduction
Brighton & Hove is a fantastic place to live, work and visit. Our city was recently named one of Time Out’s top 50 cities in the world, and in the UK’s top 3.
Our vision as a council is to create a better Brighton & Hove for all - a city to be proud of and a healthy, fair and inclusive city where everyone thrives.
It’s an exciting time to join the council. We now have:
- a majority administration with a clear mandate to improve the city
- a new Cabinet system
- a new Corporate Leadership Team
- a refreshed Council Plan
You’ll be part of a progressive organisation that values creativity, inclusivity, and excellence, and that will invest in your professional growth and development.
We offer a competitive salary, flexible working arrangements, and the opportunity to lead key services that directly support our community.
Ways of working in our learning organisation
As an organisation, we want to be:
- collaborative
- inclusive and diverse
- confident
- innovative and creative
- healthy and safe
We are looking for senior leaders who will support our drive the council to meet these aims.
Be collaborative
- Enable a connected organisation that has a clear One Council mission to create a better Brighton and Hove for all.
- Build a leadership that brings critical resources together to address the challenges we face as a city.
- Create a structure with clear accountability, communication and transparency that empowers Officers to make decisions as close to the front line as possible.
Be inclusive and diverse
- Enable the organisation to become more dynamic.
- Build a diverse workforce and leadership which reflects the communities we serve.
- Support a network of leaders at all career stages.
To find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work, read:
- our fair and inclusive actions
- our anti-racism strategy
- how we create a fair and inclusive workplace.
Be confident
- Build agile, ‘test and learn’ working practices that
- Embed reflective practice and a growth mindset where we all learn from our mistakes and use these to grow as an organisation.
- Build the workforce skill and acumen to be courageous leaders.
Be innovative and creative
- Build the space and capacity for experimentation, reflection, and innovation.
- Enable creative policy development
- Influence and lead in key policy that will change residents’ lives..
- Embrace AI and new technologies to create efficiency and space to deal with the critical challenges our residents face, while recognising their limitations.
- Create space for our great staff to learn and grow with technological change so they can grow their careers with the skills they need.
- Create a culture where focus on efficiency and value for money is embedded in our ways of working.
Be healthy and safe
- Create a trusted environment, enabling everyone to bring their best selves to work.
- Build a resilient workforce that looks after its health and wellbeing.
About the role
Part of the extended Corporate Leadership Team, you will play a visible and influential role in:
- setting the tone and culture of the organisation
- advising at the most senior level
- ensuring resources and effort are aligned to the delivery of the Council Plan
- ensuring we demonstrate our values and behaviours in all we undertake
Brighton & Hove is a vibrant and diverse city. It’s also a place of distinct social and economic contrast, and many families and young people present with complex needs.
This is an exciting professional opportunity for a Children’s Social Care leader who wants to work in an organisation which:
- has a proven track record of delivering high quality services
- is committed to innovation and creative thinking in pursuit of continued improvement
Our council is an incredibly rewarding place to work. You’ll encounter real professional challenges, but you can also be assured of a shared sense of purpose and responsibility in addressing these.
We have an embedded model of relationship-based practice and aspire to be a learning organisation that supports and empowers staff. We recognise that risk is an inherent part of our work and ensure the right mechanisms are in place to manage this effectively.
We have:
- been rated Outstanding by Ofsted following ILACS in March 2024
- achieved Grade 1 in our Local Area SEND and AP inspection in March 2023
- been graded Outstanding across all domains in our HMIP Youth Justice Inspection in July 2021
These achievements tell us we’re getting things right in improving the lives of our children and their families.
A stable workforce, with no reliance on agency staff, balanced budgets alongside excellent performance against key indicators, and carefully managed caseloads all contribute to shaping a great place to work and lead.
Your experience
We expect that you will be a qualified social worker with:
- the strategic awareness to help shape our response to the social care reforms
- the professional grounding to understand the pressures of frontline services
- commitment to a One Council approach to achieve a better Brighton and Hove for all.
An empathetic and relational leadership style will fit well with our culture. It’s important that you have resolute professional values and a readiness to stand by these when required.
Additional information
Further information and how to apply
We are working with Solace in Business to support this appointment. You are encouraged to contact Steve Guest on 020 7976 3311 to discuss the role in more detail.
To apply, you will need to submit:
- an up-to-date CV
- a personal statement (maximum of four A4 pages) detailing how your skills, knowledge, and experience align with the requirements of the role
- a covering letter outlining your motivation for applying, including your mobile number and personal email address. Please ensure your email address is one you check regularly, as we will use it to contact you regarding your application
Send these to applications@solace.org.uk by noon on Monday 10 March. You will receive an acknowledgement of safe receipt within 1 working day.
If you have any concerns, please call Solace on 020 7976 3311.
Key dates
- Closing date - noon Monday 10 March 2025
- Interviews - week commencing Monday 31 March 2025
Please note that dates are being finalised and may change. Prospective candidates will be kept updated through the recruitment process.
Solace in Business is an inclusive recruiter. If you need any reasonable adjustments to participate in the selection process, state this in your covering letter.
If you are applying for a role under an employer-specific commitment (for example Disability Confident, Armed Forces Covenant), please clearly state this in your covering letter.
This role is politically restricted. For further information on what this means for employees in post, please click on the document attachment below.
Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only.
We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.
Company information
Encouraging a diverse workforce
Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans.
Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and How we create a fair and inclusive workplace.