Head of School Place Planning & Educational Capital Delivery

Working on behalf of a Local Authority, Aatom Recruitment has an opportunity for Head of School Place Planning, Commissioning & Educational Capital Delivery on a 3 month contract with a possibility of an extension.

This position will be a total of 38 hours per week, with hours from 09:00am – 17:00pm.

Job Purpose:

Leading the Corporate Schools Sufficiency Planning Process and school place planning and commissioning service, meeting statutory targets, and ensuring agreed service plans and performance targets are delivered. Lead all school place planning, commissioning, and decommissioning of schools and education services, in order to provide residents with sufficient high–quality places in all types of school across the borough, and maintain culture of putting our residents first and continuous service improvement.

Job Specific Accountabilities:

Work closely with the Data and performance officers, SEN Commissioner and colleagues across the council in Education, Data, Finance, Property and Planning.
Establish strong working links with relevant DfE officers and project managers in order to progress school improvement projects and new schools across the borough.
Initiate and respond to school issues – raised by Members, schools; headteachers, governing bodies, Trusts, parents, other stakeholders.
To be responsible for the selection, development and performance of the School Place Planning and Commissioning service team in line with the Council's HR policies.
To ensure all team members receive the appropriate level of communication to maintain engagement with the Council's activities.
Establishing and leading the school places planning process with school partners and practically with teams within the Council to align to the MTFF process for capital resource planning etc. (Business Performance, Finance Capital Lead, Planning Services, Education team leads, Capital projects team etc.)
Ensure various analytical tools, data presentations are used – e.g. place based mapping
Review the analysis / forecast and lead service teams to achieve an intelligent, risk–based interpretation of the forecast to balance the statutory duty with ensuring the best use of resources. Prepare recommendations.
Prepare accessible, risk–based briefings for Senior Managers and Cabinet Members setting out the findings of place planning analysis and recommendations, next steps etc.
Commissioning and monitoring for basic need for community schools through the council's own property service.
Co–ordinating the LA interest in the current 13 DfE funded school building projects and Free Schools in the borough. This involves substantial strategic and project detail as the single point of contact into the LA to co–ordinate and drive LA processes – e.g. Pre–Application Planning Advice, Legal Services re: leases, Finance review of funding proposals, signatures to sign–off key docs, liaison with school Head Teachers & Governing Bodies.Knowledge, Qualifications and Experience:

Degree or equivalent qualification or equivalent proven knowledge, skills or abilities
Evidence of continuous professional development
Understanding and experience of applying DfE standards such as BB103 and BB104 in reviewing schools and planning adaptions, new schools, and SEN provision.
Ability to work across a large borough, travelling as required to meetings and events, including occasionally in twilight/ evenings. Site meetings are needed as many were delayed due to Covid. Prepared to work flexibly as required to meet the demands of the role.
Experience of leading school place planning and education capital functions, ideally in London.
Experience working with many different academy trusts and foundation schools as well as a minority of community schools
Experience of leading free school bids, PAN reductions, bulge classes, infant and junior amalgamations, academy conversion.
Strong analytical skills.
Sound knowledge of school organisation legislation and policy and demonstrate analytical skills to undertake statistical data analysis for DfE returns, Cabinet committees and Education Estates Strategy.
Knowledge and understanding of the key issues affecting schools and local authorities in relation to the areas of school place planning, school reorganisation and school maintenance.
Sound knowledge of legislation and guidance on school organisation, academies and free schools, and school maintenance.
Knowledge and/or practical experience of managing school transformation and re–organisation, commissioning, and de–commissioning.To get more information about this role and how to apply please contact Kartik