Senior Manager

Fixed Term Appointment (Initially Two Years)
Reference 1424413

We have recently appointed new Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs). This is a significant step for the Department in delivering Ministers' vision of a sector-led system and marks an important new phase for the academies programme. RSCs will be responsible for requiring academies to address underperformance, recruiting new academy sponsors, approving significant changes to existing academies, and will play a key role in approving new academy provision.

We have recruited teams of about six to support the RSCs. They will be RSCs' close advisers, their eyes and ears in the region and their voice in the Department. They will be founding the new offices, building new relationships in the region, and helping RSCs to become established figures in the education landscape.

Each team will support their RSC to deliver their priorities by developing regional strategies, building and managing relationships with a wide network of regional partners, acting as the interface with the Department, supporting their region's headteacher board, and providing a slick administrative operation. To serve RSCs, the teams will combine exemplary stakeholder management skills, excellent analytical abilities, operational and educational credibility, and civil service experience.

This senior manager role is for the leader of the team in Coventry that will support the RSC for the West Midlands in taking important operational decisions on behalf of the Secretary of State about academies in the region. This Head of Office will also play a key role in working closely with the region's Headteacher Board.

In the first phase, the post holder will play a key part in helping the RSC to establish their office: shaping the design and structure of the team, facilitating the recruitment of staff, inducting the RSC into the academies decision-making landscape, and preparing them and their office to assume their functions successfully in September 2014.

In the second phase, once the RSC has assumed their functions, the Head of Office will be responsible for leading and managing a small regional office supporting the RSC in their day to day business and engaging with key stakeholders both within DfE and externally in academies and the wider educational sector. The successful candidate will be able to demonstrate the ability to build credibility quickly with a wide range of senior stakeholders in the education sector. To this end, education sector or private sector client relationship management experience is desirable, though not essential.

The post holder and their team will be responsible for advising the RSC and providing a sounding board and source of counsel to the Commissioner, keeping up to date with developments in their region, assessing progress, monitoring and interpreting trends in data across their RSC's responsibilities, coordinating action with the DfE's central functions teams, responding to requests for briefing from Ministers and senior officials, and ensuring efficient and accurate information flows to and from the RSC's office.

The role holder will need well-developed management and leadership skills, with depth of understanding in policy development and delivery. They will be leaders and provide direction and context for all their team members, so that all staff understand the role they play in both directly and indirectly delivering ministerial objectives.

They will be able to manage a range of policy/delivery projects and manage staff in a way that helps build capability and performance. They will ensure that as well as delivering their day to day responsibilities, they invest time in delivering improvement and change.

Core to this role will be critical analytical skills, so not just accepting things at face value but seeking to question the norm and in doing so, being uncompromising, passionate and relentless in their desire for individual and corporate excellence. The individual will seek feedback, act on it, and pursue their own development and acquisition of knowledge to improve their performance. They will pursue brilliance in their policy or delivery areas, professions or functions. The role holder will embody the Civil Service values and have a keen sense of how ministers, the civil service, and education sector operate and understand how their work fits into this picture.

How to apply

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Closing date: 8 September 2014

The Department for Education is an equal opportunities employer.