Corporate Director for Health & Adult Social Care

Our Mission: Supporting People to Meet Their Goals

We are looking for a Corporate Director for Health & Adult Social Care who will provide the leadership to make a real difference for Tower Hamlets residents, particularly those with disabilities, those who are more vulnerable and family carers. You will be the statutory Director of Adult Social Services (DASS) for Tower Hamlets and will have the statutory Director of Public Health (DPH) as part of your leadership team.

As part of the statutory role you will lead the partnerships that are key to improving health and social care and safeguarding adults. Crucially, this role must exemplify our approach to co-production with residents particularly those who use adult social care services and their carers.

Tower Hamlets is a place of great energy, innovation and diversity alongside significant deprivation and inequality. Our services need to support people to meet their goals, be connected to other people and remain as independent as possible – that’s our vision for adult social care. Across all our services we work to ensure residents can live well and remain healthy. Our Public Health service is high profile and leads a research collaborative that aims to strengthen our capability and capacity for research based on co-production with residents.

You will lead and manage three service divisions in the Health & Adult Social Care Directorate:

• Our Adult Social Care division ensures that our Care Act responsibilities in terms of assessment and support planning are met and that vulnerable adults are safeguarded. Services include Initial Assessment, Localities, integrated mental health services, integrated learning disability services, safeguarding and practice and hospital services.
• Our Integrated Commissioning division hosts the commissioning for health and care services across Tower Hamlets for the North East London Integrated Care Board and the Council and leads on the Tower Hamlets Together health and care partnership including the Better Care Fund. It also supports our strategy, policy and improvement functions.
• Our Public Health division is responsible for our statutory public health functions, our research collaborative, joint strategic needs assessments, and commissioning functions – the service is structured around a life course model aligning to services and outcomes across the Council and partnerships.

Working closely with residents, service users, carers, providers and a range of diverse voluntary, faith and community organisations is core to the role and co-production is important across the partnership and the Council.

The directorate has passionate and committed staff who are our key strength and engagement is a key part of our culture and way of working. We are committed to the TOWER values (together, open, willing, excellence and respect) and visible leadership is important to sustaining these strengths. The directorate and its partnerships have achieved many successes and continue to focus on innovation and external facing work to raise the profile of the borough, the Council and its partners.

The workforce is very diverse and we are aiming to increase the proportion of managers and senior leaders from Black, Asian & Multi-Ethnic backgrounds. Tower Hamlets Together has committed to being anti-racist and this role must demonstrate strong leadership in this regard.

You will work with the Chief Executive and Corporate Directors to implement our Strategic Plan and ensure financial probity, compliance and transparency. The directorate has strong links across Council including with Housing, Children’s Services and Community Safety. The role operates as part of a ‘one Council’ approach, heading up an enabled directorate supported by a range of corporate services with accountability to the Chief Executive and Executive Mayor.

Financial sustainability is a key challenge for Adult Social Care and the role manages significant budgets with savings targets built into the Medium Term Financial Plans. The continued identification of efficiencies and savings opportunities are essential alongside implementation of key programmes of work around housing with care and technology enabled care.

You will enjoy working in our wonderful borough where every day brings something new. Based in the heart of the community in Whitechapel, you’ll enjoy being part of the local community and taking part in the diverse range of community events that take place. There are treasures across the whole borough that make working here hugely rewarding and enjoyable.

For an informal discussion about this role, please contact Denise Radley, Corporate Director for Health & Adult Social Care on denise.radley@towerhamlets.gov.uk

Use your leadership skills to inspire and motivate your team

To be a success in this role you’ll possess a degree or relevant qualification and a solid track record of leading successful social care and/or health services to the highest standards.

Capable of engaging with senior and strategic level colleagues while building productive partnerships with key stakeholders, you’ll have led new ways of working while delivering change in a large, complex organisation.

With a deep understanding of the external social and political environment and the ability to translate this into organisational actions, you’ll be capable of balancing strategic leadership and direction with effective operational management.

Experienced at working with service users and carers to co-produce services and support, you’ll be committed to co-production with ambition to take this to the next level. You will champion our strengths based approach to social care practice and will work across services to continue to focus on prevention and innovative approaches to supporting people to remain independence and reach their goals.

Skilled at fostering an open and trusting culture and dedicated to applying both discretion and initiative as you deal with complex issues, your relationship management and networking abilities will allow you to foster joint working across boundaries. Engaging and approachable, and with the ability to inspire the respect, trust and confidence of everyone you work with, you’ll be a great negotiator and influencer and committed to innovation and excellence.

You will need to be politically sensitive, financially astute and with a strong belief in the value of local democracy and accountability. We’ll also expect you to have a strong commitment to our values, behaviours and workforce to reflect the community approach and be ready to demonstrate personal leadership on the importance of diversity and challenging discrimination.

How to Apply

To apply, please submit:

• An up-to-date copy of your CV (four sides of A4 maximum)
• A supporting statement (four sides of A4 maximum) that addresses the criteria set out in the relevant role profile and uses examples to demonstrate how you meet the essential requirements. It should also cover your motivation for the role and the organisation.

Applications must include:

• Full contact details;
• Names, positions, organisations and contact details for two referees (we will ask your permission before contacting referees);
• Details of your current salary and notice period;
• Notification of any dates when you are not available for interview.

Once your application has been submitted, you will receive a response to confirm that it has been received. If you do not receive this response, please contact us to let us know.

The deadline for submission of your application is midnight on Sunday 24^th March 2024

Applications should be submitted via the following link:

Apply for Corporate Director Health and Social Care (DASS) 

You will receive a response to confirm your application has been received. If you do not receive this response, please contact Anna Shepherd at Anna.Shepherd@tile-hill.co.uk to let us know.

Contacts

For further information or to discuss the role in more detail, please contact:

Helen Alwell, Senior Consultant
Telephone: 07931 543313
Email: helen.alwell@tile-hill.co.uk

Anita Denton, Associate Consultant
Telephone: 07725 554802
Email: anita.denton@tile-hill.co.uk

Recruitment timeline

• Closing date for applications: Midnight on Sunday 24^th March 2024
• Longlisting meeting (no candidate involvement) – Wednesday 27^th March
• Technical interviews (virtual) – w/c 8^th April or w/c 15^th April
• Shortlist meeting (no candidate involvement): Wednesday 17^th April
• Final interviews and stakeholder panels (F2F in Tower Hamlets): Monday 29^th April