Commissioning Officer
| Posting date: | 20 June 2025 |
|---|---|
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 20 July 2025 |
| Location: | Leicester, LE3 8RA |
| Company: | Leicestershire County Council |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 5547 |
Summary
Organisation: Leicestershire County Council
Work Location: County Hall, Glenfield, Leicester LE3 8RA
Worker Category: Hybrid Worker (Office-based at least once a week)
Salary: £34,350 - £37,950 per annum (pro-rata for part-time)
Working Hours: 37 hours per week
Contract Type: Permanent
Closing Date: 6th July 2025
Interview Date(s): 17th July 2025
Are you passionate about ensuring that children/young people and their families/carers receive high-quality support when needed and achieve their full potential?
Would you like to improve the lives of children and young people through commissioning, including procurement, brokerage of services, quality assurance, and monitoring of contractual arrangements?
Do you have an awareness of the Commissioning Cycle and commissioning practices?
If so, then this is potentially the role for you
About the Role
We are looking to recruit two permanent full-time Commissioning Officers to join the Children and Family Service Commissioning Service. These are new posts within the service.
Because of the priorities within the service, initially the roles will focus on the brokering of services to support children and young people, directly working in our Brokerage sub-team. In this area of our work, duties and responsibilities will include;
- Brokering of services for young people using an existing framework. These services include Children’s Residential Homes, Independent Fostering Agencies, Children’s Supported Accommodation, Independent Specialist School Placements and Short Break and Domiciliary Care Packages. This means that you will be expected to undertake all tasks in relation to the brokerage of commissioned services for children and young people.
- Negotiation with providers to achieve the best value whilst ensuring the best outcomes for the young people of Leicestershire.
- Working under pressure on a fast-paced, busy duty desk, where no two days are the same.
The role may also include work undertaken elsewhere in other subteams across the service, such as provider contract management, review of existing contracts/packages of support, a new commissioning exercise, or quality assurance work.
About You
Please refer to these 7 points when making your application, giving examples as evidence of how you meet them
To apply for this post, you must have :
- Previous professional experience or familiarity with settings as named above, and an understanding of the current market in relation to the support being brokered.
- Knowledge and understanding of working with and meeting the needs of children and young people (and their families/carers) with complex needs, including Children in Care, children and young people with Special Education Needs and Disabilities and the ability to work with operational staff and providers and build relationships
- Excellent communication skills, be tenacious, able to follow processes and be emotionally resilient
- Excellent literacy skills with an ability to proofread referrals and be confident in challenging colleagues on the quality of their referrals to ensure we are seeking the right placement the first time for the children/Young People of Leicestershire, and where attention to detail is critical.
- An understanding of the role of different teams within Leicestershire County Council's Children’s Services and how brokerage fits into the wider arena
- A full understanding of desired outcomes to ensure meaningful activities for Young People and respite for families/carers, care packages and educational placements
- The ability to offer flexibility and out-of-hours working in emergencies, and demonstrate the ability to work under pressure
You must also have an understanding of, and commitment to, equality, diversity and inclusion.
In addition, we also expect you to share our commitment to our values and will ask you to provide evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.
Reasonable adjustments will be considered for applicants with a disability.
Interested in Flexible Working?
We are keen to support employees in balancing their working lives with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances while still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below. This may include requests for term-time working, part-time hours, compressed hours, flexible start and finish times, home/remote working, etc.
Every role within the Council has a defined working style that determines where it can work. The worker category applicable to this post is detailed in the above advert. You can find out more about our worker categories on the Our Working Styles page on our career site.
For more information or an informal discussion, please contact:
Kim Sherriff – Commissioning Manager/ Leanne Cluley - Commissioning G2R & Brokerage Team Leader
Telephone: 0116 305 4448/ 0116 305 7464
Email: Kim.Sherriff@leics.gov.uk / Leanne.Cluley@leics.gov.uk
How to Apply
Leicestershire County Council is an inclusive organisation which is on a journey to embed and celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion at every level. We warmly welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, as having a diverse workforce with different perspectives and ideas is fundamental to our values and enriches the services we offer our communities. We particularly welcome applicants from Ethnically Diverse and LGBTQ+ communities and people with disabilities to create a balanced workforce and one that reflects the communities we serve. Applicants with a disability who meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above will be offered an interview under the Disability Confident Employer Scheme.
To apply for this job, please click on the apply button. You will need to upload a supporting statement explaining how you meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above. For more information, see the How to Apply section on our career site.
We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.
If you have any technical issues when applying for this post or you want to request an application pack in an alternative format, please contact our Employee Service Centre by telephoning 0300 3030222 (select option 2) or raising a ticket via our online portal: https://emss.org.uk/support.
By applying for this post, you agree to our Terms and Conditions.
Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme