Director Education and Lifelong Learning

The salary range for this key leadership opportunity is £96,432- £119,552 per annum.

Travel around the county to meet with your colleagues, services, school leaders and other partners across the education system will be required. Agile working is supported meaning you can work however, whenever, and wherever suits you best around requirements to physically attend a Surrey location.

Here in Surrey we are working hard to make our county a uniquely special place where everyone has a great start in life and can benefit from education, skills and employment opportunities that support them to succeed and thrive.

It is our ambition to build an economy that is strong, vibrant and successful so that Surrey is a great place to live, work, and learn, where communities feel supported, and people are enabled to support each other.

We are seeking to appoint a permanent Director of Education and Lifelong Learning who will help us to deliver against our ambitions. Reporting directly to Rachael Wardell - Executive Director for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning, this role is a key leadership role in the directorate. We are looking for an inclusive and compassionate leader, focused on great outcomes for children and adult learners; someone that can create and enable a collaborative, open, and trusting environment in which collaboration with schools and other educational settings is a given and where innovation, creativity, and inventiveness can flourish.

The Role

As our Director of Education and Lifelong Learning, you'll shape strategic initiatives that enhance educational and broader outcomes for children, young people, and adult learners across Surrey. Your collaborative leadership will drive innovation and efficiency in a challenging financial landscape and will support key activity across the whole directorate and with external partners meaning you will work closely with other senior leaders across children's services to improve outcomes.
This role will:

• Champion Inclusive Education - helping to shape and deliver strategic initiatives for children with additional educational needs.
• Focus on Lifelong Learning - developing and implementing a comprehensive lifelong learning strategy to facilitate skills advancement and educational opportunities.
• Promote Excellence - fostering collaboration with educational stakeholders to define and uphold education excellence in response to evolving policies.
• Ensure Statutory Compliance and Collaboration - working closely with the Executive Director of Children, Families and Lifelong Learning to ensure statutory obligations are met and collaborating on educational initiatives.
• Focus on School Improvement activity- leading efforts to enhance school systems, empowering them to deliver high-quality, inclusive learning experiences and outcomes.
• Provide Professional Leadership - engaging locally, regionally, and nationally to cultivate partnerships and innovative approaches for improved educational and broader outcomes for all learners and their families.
• Champion Community Wellbeing - providing leadership across adult and community learning provisions to promote essential skills development, community wellbeing and cost-effective service provision.
• Build organisational capacity - responding to inspections, legislative changes, and national policy shifts, fostering continuous improvement.

This role is integral to the Council responding to ongoing challenges as we seek to reduce inequalities for our learners and improve outcomes right across the County so that no one is left behind. You will draw on all available resources, plus the capacity and capabilities of our partners, communities, and residents to bring about positive change and achieve lasting impact.

Who we are looking for
We are looking for an experienced senior leader with real management grip and leadership drive and a boundless enthusiasm for achieving better outcomes. You will have substantial experience of having led educational services and improvement work on a quest for genuine inclusion for all learners; this could be from a local authority environment or more broadly across the education sector.

Your experience of working in large and complex environments will support your transition into this busy and significant position, where you will showcase your ability to build and maintain excellent working relationships with a broad range of stakeholders across the county.

Key dates:

• The job advert closes at 23:59 on the 19th of May 2024.
• Longlisting for this role is planned for W/C 20th May 2024.
• Technical interviews are planned for W/C 27th May 2024 and will likely be undertaken virtually.
• Shortlisting is planned for end of W/C 27th May 2024
• Final Assessment is planned for Friday 7th June and will be held face to face at our Woodhatch office based in Reigate.

Should you be successful at the assessment on the 7th of June 2024 there will be a requirement to meet with our new Chief Executive prior to a final interview with members.

If there are any changes to process dates these will be shared at the earliest opportunity to allow for adequate planning.

An enhanced DBS 'Disclosure and Barring Service' check for regulated activity (formerly known as CRB) and the Children's and Adults' Barred List checks will be required for this role.

This post has been designated as a politically restricted post in accordance with the Local Government and Housing Act 1989.

Our Commitment
Surrey County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. A guaranteed interview will be offered to all disabled applications where:?

The candidate has evidenced the minimum criteria for the role through their application.
The candidate has chosen to share that they have a disability on the application form.
Our application form and onboarding process will provide an opportunity to request any reasonable adjustments for the interview and/or the role.?

We want to be an inclusive and diverse employer reflecting the community we serve and particularly welcome applications from all underrepresented groups.?