Director of Education and Inclusion - Hackney Council

Director of Education and Inclusion - Hackney Council

Hackney’s education story is known nationally. We’re incredibly proud of our outstanding schools, education settings and the attainment of our children and young people, from a hugely diverse range of backgrounds. Every Hackney state school and education setting is a part of our education system with its shared values, and Hackney Education plays a key role in supporting every one of them.

This is a crucial role for Hackney’s children and young people, working across a broad portfolio of services, organisations, and partnerships, that focus on giving them the best possible start in life to every Hackney child. This role will require a senior Education professional with a proven track record of impact as an Education system leader. The role requires expertise, energy, determination, organisation, communication skills, and above all a relentless determination for our schools and education settings, to provide a consistently excellent educational experience for all our children and young people, at every stage of their education journey from early years to further education and also adulthood.

We serve a diverse community, with significant levels of deprivation, but also with high levels of aspiration. Our goal is simple: to provide a standard of education which is as good as the best that can be found anywhere else in the country.

As part of the Hackney Borough Council, Children’s and Education Directorate management team, you’ll work collaboratively with colleagues to drive change and improvement in an integrated, system-wide way. Candidates will need to have a good working knowledge of school and education setting leadership challenges, and your track record of successful educational leadership will give you solid credibility with the organisations and partners you’ll need to influence. Your values-led, inclusive approach, plus a deep personal commitment to the best outcomes for all young people – especially the most vulnerable – will set you apart.

The successful candidate’s in-tray will include planning and leading the strategy and vision for managing the region’s falling roll issue, managing increasing demand for SEND provision and creating new provision; You will also oversee a refresh of our Education Strategy, with a strengthened focus on partnership working; ensuring that high service standards for the education team are responsive to the needs of schools.

It will be important that you foster and develop excellent relationships with system leaders, particularly headteachers and partners across social care, health, crime reduction and other agencies across the Borough, to review and improve our service design and provision.

Hackney Education provides a range of services to support the education of children, young people and adults in our inner London borough. Hackney is one of the UK’s best performing local authority areas, serving one of London’s best places to live and work. Within our diverse borough we serve a wide range of children and young people. We have a particular focus on supporting less advantaged families: Hackney figures in the 10% most deprived boroughs in England on a number of measures.

Job title Director of Education and Inclusion

Salary CO2: £131,444 to £145,193

Terms and Conditions Full time, Permanent

About The Role

Reporting to the Group Director, Children and Education, and Director of Children’s Services (DCS) of Hackney Council, the role of Director of Education and Inclusion is an outstanding opportunity for a senior leader with a track record of leading Education services, organisations and staff. Our workforce is an incredible asset to the borough.

We are highly ambitious for Hackney’s children, young people and adult learners. Our fundamental purpose is to raise achievement and aspirations so that every child experiences success and is enabled to make a good start in life, regardless of where they live, where they go to school, or their family background. A key element of our success has been the maintenance of a strong and lasting partnership between settings, schools and the local authority.

As the Director of Education and Inclusion of Hackney Council, you will be expected to lead and inspire the education service and our partners through what promises to be a further period of significant change and challenge, both locally and nationally. Of course, should you be successful, as well as the change and challenge, you will gain enormous satisfaction and pride from the achievements of our children and young people - and the achievements of your team.

Who We Are Looking For

We are looking for a senior leader who will champion the highest outcomes for children, young people and the residents of Hackney.

This is an exciting opportunity to lead the Council’s Education department through a period of change whilst ensuring the highest possible standards continue to be achieved. Our ambition is to deliver the most effective way of providing services across the system within the Hackney partnership of schools.

We therefore need an ambitious leader to bring vision, passion and inspiration to our schools and to our services for children and young people.

Hackney has an enviable track record of success. This is a rare opportunity for someone who is ready to make the most of freedoms and flexibilities available, in this post, to continue this journey of improvement.

If you are interested, ambitious, clear thinking and excellence driven, find out more by contacting Paul Senior, Interim Director of Education and Inclusion by emailing paul.senior@hackney.gov.uk

For further information about this role, please download a copy of the job description.

Interested?

Please apply via our website: https://education.hackney.gov.uk/jobs/hlt

Closing date 22:59, Sunday 14th April 2024

Interviews Thurs 25th / Fri 26th April 2024

Hackney Education is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. We expect all staff to share this commitment. As this role involves regulated activity, the successful applicant will be required to undertake an enhanced DBS check and additional pre-employment checks in line with Keeping Children Safe in Education statutory guidance.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and the amendments to the Exceptions Order 1975, 2013 and 2020.

We are also working towards our vision, which is to be a place for everyone; where residents and staff can be proud; a place that celebrates diversity and where everyone can feel valued, included and involved. In order to achieve this, we look for people who are: Proud; Ambitious; Pioneering; Open; Proactive; Inclusive.

Hackney Council works to eradicate discrimination on the basis of race, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy and maternity, age and marital status. We also recognise that people can be disadvantaged by their social and economic circumstances, so we will also work to eliminate discrimination and disadvantage caused by social class. We also welcome those interested in flexible working. We particularly welcome applications from disabled people and people from a black and global majority background as these groups are currently underrepresented in our workforce.