Central Bedfordshire Council
Head of Corporate Parenting
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Team: Corporate Parenting
Job Family: Enabling M - CBG16
Salary: £83,410 - £88,758 per annum (this includes an annual MRS payment of £10,000 per annum)
Hours: 37 hours per week
Location: You will be expected to attend a CBC office location as often as needed to carry out your role, which will be no less than twice per week.
Contract Type: Hybrid - Permanent
Closing Date: 13th September 2026
Interview Date: 23rd and 24th September 2026
Be the leader our children deserve
At Central Bedfordshire, being a corporate parent is one of the most important responsibilities we hold. We are ambitious for our children and young people and committed to ensuring that every child in our care experiences safety, stability, belonging and opportunity. At Central Bedfordshire, relationships are at the heart of everything we do. We believe children achieve the best outcomes when they are surrounded by people who know them well, understand their experiences and remain alongside them throughout their journey. We are committed to strengths-based, relationship-centred practice that builds on children's relationships, networks and aspirations.
We are seeking an exceptional and inspiring leader to join our senior leadership team as Head of Corporate Parenting. This is a pivotal role, providing strategic and operational leadership for services supporting children in care, care experienced young adults, fostering, adoption and permanence.
Alongside leading these services, you will have the opportunity to shape the future of fostering across Bedfordshire through our ambitious End-to-End Fostering Hub programme. As one of the leading authorities driving this approach, Central Bedfordshire is helping to transform how fostering services are delivered across the region. You will play a key leadership role in strengthening fostering sufficiency, supporting the recruitment and retention of foster carers, and ensuring more children can grow up in stable, loving family homes.
This is an exciting time to join us. We have a strong foundation, a committed workforce and an ambitious vision for children and young people. We are seeking a leader who shares our determination to deliver exceptional experiences and outcomes for children and young people and who can translate vision into excellent practice, service innovation and lasting improvement.
About the Role
As Head of Corporate Parenting, you will provide strategic and operational leadership across our Corporate Parenting services, ensuring children and young people receive the highest quality support throughout their journey in care and into adulthood.
You will lead services that place relationships at the heart of practice, ensuring children experience consistency, stability and meaningful connections with the people who matter most to them.
Key Responsibilities
- Provide strategic leadership and vision for Corporate Parenting services, ensuring excellent outcomes for children in care, care experienced young adults and those requiring permanence.
- Lead and inspire high-performing teams, creating a culture of accountability, learning, innovation and continuous improvement. Champion children's voices and lived experiences, ensuring they influence service design, delivery and decision-making at every level.
- Lead the development of the Fostering Hub, strengthening fostering sufficiency, supporting recruitment and retention, and delivering innovative approaches that improve outcomes for children and foster families.
- Drive excellence in permanence planning, fostering and adoption services, ensuring children experience stable, nurturing and loving family environments.
- Build and maintain strong partnerships across the council and wider system, including health, education, housing, safeguarding partners and the voluntary sector.
- Lead service transformation and improvement activity, using performance intelligence, quality assurance and learning to continually strengthen practice and outcomes.
- Ensure robust governance arrangements and compliance with statutory responsibilities, safeguarding requirements and corporate parenting duties.
- Contribute to the strategic leadership of Children's Services, supporting the delivery of wider organisational priorities and ambitions for children and families.
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About You
You will be a visible and authentic leader who can inspire confidence in children and young people, staff, partners, elected members and regulators, while maintaining an unwavering focus on improving children's experiences and outcomes. You will champion corporate parenting across the council and wider partnership, ensuring that children in care and care experienced young adults are at the heart of strategic decision-making and have access to the opportunities, support and aspirations that any good parent would want for their own child.
You will bring:
- Substantial management experience within children's social care.
- A proven ability to lead and motivate multi-disciplinary teams through change and improvement.
- Deep knowledge of corporate parenting responsibilities, permanence, safeguarding and children's social care legislation.
- Strong strategic and operational leadership skills, with the ability to translate vision into measurable impact.
- Experience of working effectively with partners, elected members and regulators.
- A commitment to relationship-based practice and ensuring children's voices influence decision-making at every level.
Most importantly, you will share our belief that children in care and care experienced should have the same opportunities, aspirations and support that we would want for our own children.
What we can offer you
- A real impact: Make a tangible difference in the lives of children and young people, helping to secure a brighter future for our communities.
- Career growth: Benefit from comprehensive professional development opportunities and the chance to lead transformative change within a supportive, inclusive environment.
- Work-life balance: Enjoy a modern hybrid working model that values flexibility while offering the stability of a collaborative, purpose-driven team environment.
- Competitive remuneration: A package that reflects your skills, expertise, and commitment to excellence in public service.
Join Us
This is a career-defining opportunity to lead one of the most important services within Children's Services and make a lasting difference to the lives of children and young people.
If you are an ambitious and inspirational leader who is passionate about improving outcomes for children in care and care leavers, we would love to hear from you.
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How to Apply
Please submit a supporting statement of no more than four A4 pages outlining:
- Your experience of leading children's social care services and delivering service improvement.
- Why you are the right candidate for this role and what you would bring to Central Bedfordshire Council.
Our Offer
We have a number of rewards and benefits available to our staff, to view these please visit our Rewards and Benefits page.
Our aspiration is to be a truly flexible employer. We welcome discussion on location, hours and working pattern as part of the application process.
You will be expected to demonstrate how you meet the key accountabilities and competencies in this Recruitment Pack.
Our Competency Framework and Qualification Guidance are to be read in conjunction with our Recruitment Pack.
For an informal discussion about this position, please contact: Lukas Meczykowski at Lukas.Meczykowski@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk
Safeguarding
Central Bedfordshire Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all employees, volunteers and contractors to share this commitment. This post is subject to the disclosure of criminal records.
To maintain a fair and consistent approach for applicants, it is Central Bedfordshire Council's policy to only consider applications made via our online application system and we therefore thank you for not submitting your application offline.
Our National Careers Service team offer a free monthly workshop covering CV writing and how to complete the statement sections of the Central Bedfordshire Council online application form. This MS Teams workshop is open to anyone from the UK and lasts around 1.5 hours. Please book your place here.
More information about this service can be found here: Support getting into work or learning | Central Bedfordshire Council
Your application to us is a reflection of who you are professionally and should give us an accurate and authentic picture of your skills, experiences and if applicable qualifications. Before you submit your application, we will ask you to confirm if you have used AI.
All new starters will join us on a four-month probationary period. During this time, if you are offered a Hybrid role you will be required to attend a Central Bedfordshire Council office location more frequently to support thorough and well-supported onboarding into your role. Please keep this in mind if you anticipate extensive travel to Central Bedfordshire.
Please note we are unable to offer sponsorship for our roles. Successful applicants that may require a visa will need to consider the options for obtaining and/or maintaining the legal right to live and work in the UK for the duration of the contract offered.
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