Chief Executive

Salary: £140-£150k

Be the Future of Cherwell

Cherwell District Council, set in the beautiful landscape of Oxfordshire serving a population of 150,503 across 227 square miles. But do not be misled by this serenity, we have a complex mix of urban communities with high levels of deprivation that are often hidden from the wider world.  

Cherwell is a bold and ambitious Council on behalf of its local communities - with a strong track record of strategic programmes and initiatives that put us at the leading edge of delivery.

We benefit from strong and effective member,  officer relationships and you will build on our success to navigate and develop our ambitious vision for the Council, and lead and inspire our staff, partners and all stakeholders to give Cherwell a strong future, bringing innovation and inspiration to deliver on  our clear ambitions.

With leadership experience gained in the public or private sector, you’ll have a proven track record in delivering service improvement and outcomes, demonstrable commercial acumen, along with engaging and inspiring leadership skills. You will also evidence establishing effective relationships with a range of internal and external partners,  while achieving shared outcomes through collaborative working.

Be the Future of Cherwell and ensure that through our outcomes the Council is recognised at a local, regional and national level.

For more information and to apply, please visit https://futurecherwell.co.uk

For a confidential discussion, please contact our retained consultants at Penna – Julie Towers on 07764 791736 or Rob Naylor on 07922 417550.

Closing Date: 13th October 2023

Chief Executive

Southend-on-Sea City Council

Up to £190,162 p.a.

Southend-on-Sea is truly a City like no other. It’s a vibrant, entrepreneurial, and can-do City, where people want to get things done. It is a place of contrasts and diversity, with a burgeoning cultural scene, a place of business enterprise, but also escapism and fun with London just 45 minutes away. A City by the Sea where the vision, impact and potential are limitless.

For such a unique City we need a special Chief Executive. Someone who can deliver results today while steering us into and maximising the future potential. Your ability to drive performance in the here and now, as a truly values based leader, with the confidence to work with and support our political leaders will be most important.

Working collaboratively, inclusively, and inspirationally across the Council and with our partners, businesses and stakeholders will be second nature to you. We are fiercely proud of our City and our people and with a new Chief Executive we can meet our ambitions together. 

For further information please visit: https://southendcityleadership.co.uk

For a confidential discussion please contact our retained Penna consultants: Julie Towers on 07764 791736 or Amin Aziz on 07709 514141.

Closing Date: 13th October 2023

Durham County Council

Powered by People

Head of Corporate Finance and Commercial Services (Deputy s151)

£128,007

County Durham is a forward-thinking area with a strong sense of community. Our friendly people, fascinating history and beautiful natural environment, from the dales and area of outstanding natural beauty in the west to the heritage coast in the east, are what makes our county great. We are a centre for innovative business and manufacturing – and we’re determined to create more opportunities right across County Durham. The diverse nature of our county means we also face some challenges – and we are meeting them head-on and creating opportunities and possibilities for everyone – wherever they live or work.

We now have an exciting opportunity to lead the management and development of the council’s financial management services, to ensure that the councils financial arrangements continue to be secure and robust and meet both council and statutory requirements. Working closely with elected members and senior officers across the Council you’ll also develop, lead and implement an innovative, growth focused commercial strategy for the council that will support us in delivering our ambitious County Durham Vision 2035.

In this key role you’ll report to our Corporate Director, Resources and will be the designated Deputy s151 Officer for the Council. You’ll lead a broad portfolio of finance and commercial services and will operate as part of the Extended Management Team of the Council and Senior Leadership Team of the directorate. You’ll inherit an experienced team with a clear record of robust financial management and strong relationships with partners across the Council and beyond.

We are looking for a highly motivated, qualified and experienced local government finance professional with good strategic vision and substantial operational experience who can think beyond finance boundaries. You’ll be a creative thinker who challenges where appropriate, supports where needed and understands the importance of our resources both from a financial and workforce perspective. With your excellent people skills, you’ll build strong partnerships, inspire teams and work confidently with senior figures.

If you relish a challenge and have the energy, enthusiasm and skills to make a real impact and deliver the best possible outcomes, then we would like to hear from you.

For more information, please visit: https://durhamleaders.com/

For a confidential discussion about this exciting role, please contact our consultants at Penna: Nick Raper on 07715 690 463 or Priyesh Bhadressa on 07548 108 176.

To apply, please click the link below.

(Closing date: Friday 20th October 2023, midnight)

North Northamptonshire Council

Chief Executive

Salary £174,475 - £184,625 (pay award pending)

Significant progress in reforming public services. A long-term vision for both the council and the area. Many wouldn’t expect such pace from a council that’s just over two years old. But at North Northamptonshire Council, we’re moving past expectations. Change doesn’t scare us – in fact, we’re excited about the possibilities it brings. And now, we’re looking for an enthusiastic new Chief Executive to lead with bold ideas and support our council and the residents we represent.

As our Chief Executive and Head of Paid Service, you’ll play a vital role in redefining our future. Working closely with elected members and our senior management team you’ll shape services, build relationships, and implement strategies that help us achieve our vision. Your work managing resources, advising on policies, and delivering high-quality services will impact over 350,000 residents. But your influence doesn’t stop here.

You’ll also shape our council inside and out. As a leader, you’ll create a positive culture of support, helping employees to fully realise their potential. Along with this, you’ll develop our digital transformation by leveraging different digital systems and tools to make our services even more efficient for the people who call North Northamptonshire home. And with previous experience of managing large scale budgets, you'll further build on the financial foundations in place and help lead the organisation through the challenges ahead.

You’ll know how to lead and manage services during complex transformations and have a good understanding of local government to help you guide effective partnerships and collaboration. We've laid strong foundations, and now we're looking for someone like you to add more bright ideas, energy, and pace.

For more information please visit: https://www.leadingnorthnorthamptonshire.com/

To find out more about this exciting opportunity please contact our consultants at Penna:

Julie Towers onn 07764 791736 / Rachael Morris on ?07840 711217.

Closing Date: Sunday 1st October 2023

Service Director – Inclusive Growth

Salary: £85,870 - £93,531 plus £3,990 car benefit

Luton 2040 - A place to thrive!

Our vision is that Luton will be a healthy, fair and sustainable town, where everyone can thrive, and no-one has to live in poverty. We want our business to profit from thriving economy, our residents to have the opportunity to contribute to and benefit from economic growth and everyone in the Council will play a key role in achieving our ambitious Luton 2040 Vision. We are looking for our next Service Director of Inclusive Growth  who will have a passion for transformation and be ready to make changes for the better.

We think differently here at Luton, we have already made positive strides within the Inclusive Economy directorate. We are looking for a creative strategic thinker and someone who can display a strong partner ethos. We want to build on our achievements and develop our economic infrastructure and environment ensuring Luton improves its desirability as a place to live and work for our residents, businesses, and communities.

Reporting to the Corporate Director of Inclusive Economy, you will be responsible for Economic Growth, Employment and Skills, Adult Learning, Community Wealth Building, Procurement & Quality Assurance and Contribute towards the Anti-Poverty agenda. In this role you will increase the impact of the local investment and economic growth on social and environmental well-being, civic pride, and opportunities for local people. You will be a systems thinker and take a holistic approach to achieving Luton 2040.

We want leaders who will inspire, support and motivate colleagues across the Council and work collaboratively with partners to realise the remarkable opportunities and deliver our ambitious vision.

If you are passionate about making a difference, have a can do attitude and have a strong track record of delivery within Inclusive Growth , we want to hear from you!

For more information and to download candidate information pack please click the 'Apply' button below.

For a confidential discussion about your suitability, please contact our retained Penna consultants:

• Amin Aziz at amin.aziz@penna.com or call 07709 514141

• Tom McElroy Williams at tom.mcelroywilliams@penna.com or call 07895 300517

Closing date: Monday 9th October

Service Director – Neighbourhood Services

Salary: £95,362 – £101,078 plus Car Benefit £3,990

Luton 2040 – A place to thrive!

Our vision is that Luton will be a healthy fair and sustainable town, where everyone can thrive, and no-one has to live in poverty. Neighbourhood Services enable vibrant places and communities to flourish which is fundamental to achieving Luton 2040 ambitions.   We are looking for a Director of Neighbourhood Services who will lead, manage, deliver and develop the Directorates services and contribute to the vision through clean and tidy neighbourhoods, green and healthy places and building resilient communities.   

We are looking for a creative strategic thinker and someone who can display a strong partner ethos. We want to build on our achievements and develop our infrastructure and environment ensuring Luton improves its desirability as a place to live and work for our residents, businesses and communities.

Reporting into the Corporate Director of Inclusive Economy, you will be responsible for, CCTV, Civil Protection & Emergency Planning, Environmental Enforcement, Environmental Health, Licensing & Permits, Neighbourhood Regulatory Services, Parking, Parks, Cemeteries & Crematorium, Registrars, Street Cleansing & Refuse and Trading Standards. You will be adept at leading and able to align priorities and deliver concrete results with and across public, private and community sector partners. As an effective leader you’ll need to enable your teams (approx. 300),  members, partners and residents to deliver our Neighbourhood services. This will be critical in creating a climate and culture that supports people to take risks and deliver their best for Luton.

You will be strategic in your approach to deliver Luton’s 2040 vision, challenging but with a fair and firm approach. You will be a creative thinker who is solutions focused and a fundamental understanding of leading front line and on the ground services. You will have a successful track record and background as a senior manager including strategic and transformational programmes, operational performance and financial budgets. You will be able to procure and commission products, equipment, services, systems and facilities as well as be able to understand and apply commercial principles to the service considering costs, profits, markets and added value.

If you are passionate about making a difference, have a can do attitude and have a strong track record of delivery in Neighbourhood Services, we want to hear from you!

For further information and to download a candidate briefing pack, please click the 'Apply' button below.

for a confidential discussion about your suitability, please contact our retained Penna consultants:

• Amin Aziz at amin.aziz@penna.com or call 07709 514141

• Tom McElroy Williams at tom.mcelroywilliams@penna.com or call 07895 300517

Closing Date: Monday 25th September 2023

Service Director – Infrastructure and Environment

Salary - £101,900 - £121,707

Are you passionate about playing your part in growing a great city in the right way?

Do you care about keeping people safe from harm, and working with businesses to make sure they do too?

Can you help us to realise our ambitious carbon reduction targets, as well as to further strengthen our energy strategies?

If you can answer yes to these questions, we’d love to hear from you as we search for our first ever Service Director for Infrastructure and Environment.

Nominated as most improved council this year, Peterborough has big ambitions – including a £1bn growth and regeneration plan, stretching carbon reduction targets, job creation and skills programmes, and leading a major shift towards active travel to improve health and wellbeing – all set out in our new corporate strategy.

Our new Service Director for Infrastructure and Environment will play a key role in making sure our ambitions turn into our realities. Responsible for leading highways and transport, regulatory, climate change, and waste services, you will form part of a dynamic leadership team across all Place and Economy functions.

Although some knowledge and experience in some of the services you’d be leading is necessary we are more interested in your passion to deliver positive change in a fast-paced, ever-evolving environment.

If you think you can make a difference in Peterborough, and have the ambition to shape this new role, apply now below.

We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Peterborough and want our workforce to reflect this diversity, which we believe is beneficial for our employees, the organisation and the communities we serve.

For more information, please visit https://leadingpeterborough.com/

For a confidential conversation about this role please contact our consultants at Penna, Pete John on 07701 305617 or Zara Bruton on 07743980867.

To apply for this role, please click the button below.

(Closing date - Sunday 8th October 2023, midnight)

Service Director Education

£101,900 - £121,707

This is an exciting time to join us as we embark on our new journey in Peterborough City Council. We have the rare opportunity to establish and build our services in a new and innovative manner, delivering to our residents in the best way possible.

We are a values-based organisation, with a strong culture of inclusion and empowerment. As the strategic professional lead for children and young people’s education and learning you will be passionate about securing improved educational standards. Our schools are diverse in nature but have a common purpose and commitment to providing the best possible education environments and life chances to enable our children and young people to flourish and achieve.

You will ensure that the Council’s statutory education duties in relation to early years, schools, school improvement, schools funding, support for vulnerable young people and young people’s wider well-being are not only being effectively met, but also offer the chance for children and younger people’s voices to be heard.

The majority of our children feel safe and supported, giving them the best life chances. However, we know this is not the case for everyone nor for every child, this is where you come in; to further our ambition for all residents across the city.

If you are looking for the opportunity to effect change for good and want to be part of something new and inspiring, then this could be the role for you.

For more information, please visit https://leadingpeterborough.com/

For a confidential discussion, please contact our Penna consultants: Amin Aziz on 07709 514 141 or Ali Tasker on 07514 728 114.

To apply for this role, please click the button below.

(Closing date - Wednesday 27th September 2023, midnight)

Service Director Targeted Support & Safeguarding

£101,900 - £121,707

This is an exciting time to join us as we embark on our new journey in Peterborough City Council. We have the rare opportunity to establish and build our services in a new and innovative manner, delivering to our residents in the best way possible.

We are a values-based organisation, with a strong culture of inclusion and empowerment. We are looking for an effective leader who will deliver on the Council’s Achieving Outstanding Plan, raising the quality of practice across Targeted Support and Safeguarding and multi-agency partnership to ensure that this is a highly performing service.

You will be responsible for the leadership and management of the Targeted Support and Safeguarding Services function together with undertaking a full leadership role in the Children’s and Young People’s Services Management Team. You will ensure that children’s needs are met across the whole spectrum of intervention and prevention.

With children at the heart of every decision you will work in partnership with the Service Director for Education and all schools and Head Teachers to achieve the best outcome for children and families.

If you are looking for the opportunity to effect change for good and want to be part of something new and inspiring, then this could be the role for you.

For more information, please visit https://leadingpeterborough.com/

For a confidential discussion, please contact our Penna consultants: Amin Aziz on 07709 514 141 or Ali Tasker on 07514 728 114.

To apply for this role, please click the button below.

(Closing date - Wednesday 27th September 2023, midnight)

Bracknell Forest

Assistant Director of Digital, Customer Focus and ICT

£92,752 - £98,266 pay award pending

As the Borough of Opportunity Bracknell Forest is pioneering digital change and breaking boundaries in customer focus and technology innovation. We are striving to continue to transform our services to enable our customers to access the right services, at the right time in the right way. We have a growing and thriving tech community here in Bracknell Forest and we are looking for someone to ensure that the council keeps up in our people focus service transformation.

We are looking for an innovative and influential customer championing leader. A leader who has the capability to be corporately impactful, a strong collaborative team member and supportive people manager. A leader who through the holistic use of our digital, customer services and technology services, keeps our residents at the heart of everything we do. We are looking for a chief storyteller to narrate our customer service transformation and technology innovation. To encapsulate the needs and aspirations of all the communities of Bracknell Forest, both in the mediated and self-service channels.  

You will have industry knowledge of current best practice in this space and be able to critique our offering with an expert lens. You will have a background in digital, ICT or customer experience but what is most critical for this role is the power of collaboration. We need the right candidate to bring forward challenging conversations to help us to continue to develop and to create a solid foundation for further transformative technology enabled services.   

This is a strategic position and will require passion for people, vision, and being comfortable working with the Senior Leadership Team. Working with our partners and perhaps most importantly, our residents, visitors and businesses is a key success factor. You will be charged with opening future-thinking conversations to fully realise what our residents need. To be a digital pioneer in the local authority space.

We champion equality, diversity and inclusion here at Bracknell Forest and we know creating innovation for our diverse communities starts from having diverse people at the decision-making table. We need someone who embodies this value in attitude, work style and lived experience.  

If this exciting opportunity has piqued your interest, please contact our Resourcing specialists at Penna for a confidential conversation.

Rob Naylor on 07922 417550 or rob.naylor@penna.com

Rachael Morris on 07840 711217 or Rachael.morris@penna.com

To download a candidate pack, please click APPLY NOW

Closing Date: Midnight Sunday 24 September 2023

Head of SEND and Inclusion

Salary up to £99,063

London Borough of Camden (with hybrid-working, alternative / flexible working options are available)

We’re making radical social change a reality, so that nobody gets left behind

The role

This is a unique and exciting opportunity to make a real difference for children and young people with special needs and disabilities in the London Borough of Camden.

Reporting to the Director of Education Commissioning & Inclusion, and part of the Education & Inclusion Senior Management Team, you will play a vital role in forging and maintaining strong and resilient relationships with schools, education settings, FE providers and voluntary sector partners to further improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND.

Leading a high-performing and cohesive team, you will inherit a strong SEND partnership; an outstanding track record of coproduction with children, young people, carers and parents; and new Education and SEND strategies which have Equity and Excellence at their heart.

You’ll be tasked with

• Implementing Camden’s new SEND Strategy

• Leading on national initiatives as set out in the SEND & Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Pan

• Delivering service transformation with a continued focus on timely intervention and inclusive practice

• Leading Camden’s SEND provision: overseeing all operational management, financial control, and statutory duties for the service area

• Overseeing commissioning for SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) and reviewing the sufficiency of places

• Working with partners across the system to ensuring that co-production is at the heart of service delivery

• Building on a solid foundation (e.g. 99% of EHCP assessments are completed within 20 weeks, positive SEND Local Area inspection 2019) to identify how services can be further improved via training, more consistency, and even better strategic relationships.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act and will require an Enhanced DBS; please note Camden also offers the DBS update service.

About Camden

Camden is a place where everyone can thrive and the council is committed to all its children having the best start in life: enjoying an excellent school experience in an ambitious and inclusive environment, and having opportunities to lead flourishing lives.

We’re making radical social change a reality, so that nobody gets left behind.

Here’s where you can help decide a better future for us all.

We’re ready to welcome your ideas, your views, and your rebellious spirit. Help us redefine how we’re supporting people, and we’ll redefine what a career can be.

To find out more about what it is like to work at Camden, meet some of our people by visiting www.camdenjobs.co.uk/our-stories

About you

This forward-thinking role calls for a highly-organised individual, with the ability to lead a multi-faceted professional service and to influence a network of partners and officers drawn from across council services (including health agencies, settings and schools, partners in the voluntary and community sectors and service users in the local community.)  

You’ll need a recognised postgraduate qualification in one of the professional areas within the service (which includes EPs, Senior Teachers and Specialist Teachers), and knowledge of children’s legislative and statutory frameworks in relation to SEND will be required for success.

Inclusion and Diversity

We want Camden Council to be a great place to work and to ensure that our citizens are represented in leadership roles and positions of power. A vital part of this is ensuring we are a truly inclusive organisation that encourages diversity in all respects, including diversity of thinking. We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and those of Other Ethnicities, LGBT+, disabled and neurodiverse communities to make a real difference to our residents so that equalities and justice remains at the heart of everything we do.

To discover more about Camden and our commitment towards diversity, equality and safeguarding, please visit https://www.camdenjobs.co.uk/inclusion-and-diversity

Asking for Adjustments

Camden is committed to making our recruitment practices barrier-free and as accessible as possible for everyone. This includes making adjustments or changes for disabled people, neurodiverse people or people with long-term health conditions.

If you would like us to do anything differently during the application, interview or assessment process, including providing information in an alternative format, please let us know.

Next Steps

So if you’re looking for a rewarding role with a supportive and cohesive team that is performing well and keen to achieve even more, contact Andrew Tromans to arrange an initial confidential conversation (07805 226 301 / andrew.tromans@penna.com)

Please click apply now to download a candidate briefing pack.