Norfolk County Council
Senior Zone Manager – SEND and Inclusion Support Model
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Senior Zone Manager – SEND & Inclusion Support Model (3 positions available)
11404 | Permanent Contract | 37 hours per week | £58,790 to £64,684 per annum | Grade M | Norfolk, with hybrid working arrangements (extensive travel across the county)
Help lead the next chapter of SEND and Inclusion in Norfolk
Join us at a pivotal point in the development of SEND and inclusion in Norfolk. Guided by Norfolk’s FLOURISH ambition, we are strengthening an inclusive, responsive and locally delivered system in which children and young people receive the right support at the right time, achieve their potential and can flourish in their communities.
The SEND and Inclusion Support Model is central to that ambition. Working through geographical zones and phase-based arrangements, it brings education settings, local authority services, health and wider partners together around local need. We are now looking for two Senior Zone Managers to provide accountable leadership across the model, oversee our new Zone Managers and help translate local intelligence into system-wide improvement.
The opportunity
As a Senior Zone Manager, you will provide strategic direction, assurance and leadership across an agreed portfolio of zones or phase areas. You will directly line manage Zone Managers and phase managers, setting clear expectations, developing their capability and ensuring delivery is consistent, effective and aligned with Children’s Services priorities.
Operating at the interface between frontline delivery, locality partnerships and senior governance, you will maintain oversight of performance, risk, capacity and quality across the model. You will bring together complex intelligence from settings, services and partners; identify patterns, inequalities and emerging pressures; and turn evidence into clear recommendations that influence strategic decisions, resource planning, commissioning and transformation.
This is a role with significant autonomy and influence. You will provide senior challenge and support where delivery barriers arise, ensure risks and safeguarding concerns are addressed through the right routes, and create coherence across zones, Early Years and Post-16. You will also shape the continued development of SEND and Inclusion Support Model so that it remains responsive to local learning, wider SEND reform and Norfolk’s long-term ambitions for children and young people.
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What you will do
- Provide senior accountable leadership for the delivery, assurance and continued development of the SEND and Inclusion Support Model across your portfolio.
- Line manage Zone Managers and phase managers, setting objectives, coaching performance and building a confident, consistent leadership community.
- Maintain operational grip across zones and phases, addressing capacity pressures, inconsistent practice and barriers to delivery.
- Lead transformation, future planning and continuous improvement, using evidence and learning to strengthen the model and prepare for emerging reforms.
- Provide senior leadership to governance arrangements, including the SEND and Inclusion Support Model Reference Group and relevant partnership forums, ensuring leaders receive clear performance, risk and assurance information.
- Synthesise complex data, professional intelligence and quality assurance findings into clear analysis, options and recommendations for senior decision-makers.
- Influence education, health, commissioned services and wider Children’s Services partners to align resources and activity around better outcomes for children, young people, families and settings
Who we are looking for
We are looking for an accomplished strategic leader with substantial experience in education, SEND, inclusion, Children’s Services or a closely related partnership environment. You may have developed your career within a local authority, education setting, academy trust, health service or another organisation supporting children and young people.
You will bring:
- Senior strategic leadership experience, with the ability to set direction and translate strategy into effective delivery.
- The credibility and confidence to influence, negotiate with and challenge senior stakeholders across organisational boundaries.
- Sound judgement in managing risk, safeguarding, statutory considerations and competing priorities with potentially service-wide implications.
- The ability to interpret complex data and service intelligence and communicate concise, evidence-based recommendations.
- Experience of leading service improvement, transformation, quality assurance or organisational change in a complex environment.
- A collaborative leadership style that combines high expectations, accountability and support.
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Benefits
- Competitive salary
- Generous holiday entitlement
- Health and Wellbeing services including fast-track physiotherapy and a free counselling service
- Flexible working opportunities including flexi-time, part time, remote and hybrid working – dependant on your job role and business need.
- Financial benefits such as:
- ‘Norfolk Rewards’ our employee discounts programme which helps you save money on almost anything, from everyday groceries and clothes, to holidays, new technology, gym membership, trips to the cinema and days out.
- A Blue Light card for Fire Service and Social Care Workers
- Relocation expenses (where applicable)
- An advance of your expenses if you travel for work
- Local Government Pension Scheme with generous employer contribution, life assurance, death in service payments and dependants’ pensions.
- Tax efficient ways of getting extra pension and new bikes
- Access to our tax efficient car lease scheme for greener travel enabling you to lease a brand new, ultra-low emission vehicle (subject to eligibility)
- A payment if you refer someone you know to a hard to fill job
Before you apply
We recommend reading the full Job Description and Person Specification to help you demonstrate you meet the criteria.
If you have any questions or would like further information please contact, Alison Toombs, Assistant Director – High Needs SEND Operations, via alison.toombs2@norfolk.gov.uk
Application deadlines
Priority consideration for this post may be given to current employees who are at risk due to restructure within the organisation or are in a redeployment position.
Redeployment closing date: 7 October 2026 at 23:55
All other applicants closing date: 14 October 2026 at 23:55
Interview dates: 20 and 22 October 2026
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