Children's Services Strategy and Improvement Manager


Company:	inploi
Salary:	Competitive
Hours:	Full-time
Location:	Oldham, OL1 1HD
Job type:	Permanent
Posting date:	5 Aug 2026
Closing date:	4 Sept 2026

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Summary

Children's Social Care

Children’s Services Strategy and Improvement Manager

Ref: 001668

Contract: 12 months fixed term

Salary: £47,181 - £51,356 per annum

Hours: 36.66 per week

Location: Spindles offices, George Street, Oldham, OL1 1LF

Closing Date: Wednesday 26 August 2026

Interview Date: TBC.

Role Overview:

This is an exciting time to join Children’s Services in Oldham. We’re looking for an innovative and motivated person to develop and drive strategic improvement and transformation to help families keep children and young people safe and for them to have the best start in life.

If you’re looking to make a real difference, we are looking for people like you, to track progress, outcomes, and impact of improvement programmes across children’s services and co-ordinating directorate wide work such as business planning, inspection preparation and strategy and policy development.

For an informal discussion, please contact sheila.garara@oldham.gov.uk

Key Responsibilities:

To drive the development and implementation of robust Children’s Services strategies, improvement plans and local policy to deliver national reforms
To track and evidence the implementation and outcomes of strategies, development activity and practice standards
To work with senior leaders to deliver key priorities and projects
Establishing a positive performance culture that delivers effective performance and continuous service improvement
Provide effective, independent challenge, which is underpinned by robust evidence

Key Requirements:

To succeed in this role, you will need as a minimum:

Experience in leading and managing a high performing team
Experience of working with a broad range of stakeholders, building consistently positive relationships, influencing senior decision makers and positively promoting organisational reputation and interests
Well-developed presentation, communication, and interpersonal skills with an ability to explain complex information clearly and concisely to a variety of audiences
Ability to work through problems, evaluate risks and offer practical solutions

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 stage of assessment under our Guaranteed Assessment Scheme.

Data and Privacy:

For details of how we use your data please see our Privacy Notice

Important Information:

Please note that should a vacancy that has been released for internal or external recruitment be deemed suitable for a current employee at risk of redundancy, it can be pulled back at any point, up to the post being formally offered to a candidate who is not at risk of redundancy.

Right to Work in the UK from 1st July 2021.doc