Assistant Director of Corporate Parenting

Number of Vacancies:

1

Time Type:

Full time

Worker Type:

Regular

Proposed Interview Date:

Wednesday, July 15, 2026

Hours of Work:

37

Hiring Manager:

Pauline Turner

Contact Number: 

01482 616325 x6325

Job Description Summary:

This is a Full Time Permanent position.

Please Note: The proposed interview date is subject to change and will be confirmed to shortlisted candidates as soon as possible.

Assistant Director of Corporate Parenting

Hull City Council is looking for an exceptional leader to join us as Assistant Director of Corporate Parenting within our Children, Young People and Families Directorate. This is an exciting and new opportunity to shape the future of children in our care and our care leavers across the city.

As a key member of our Senior Leadership Team, you will drive our ambition for every child to thrive, championing a strong child‑centred culture and ensuring that the voices of children and families are integral to everything we do.

About the Role

In this role, you will provide strategic leadership for all children looked after and care leaver services, including our regulated children’s homes, supported accommodation, fostering and adoption provision.

You will:

• Lead the development and delivery of Corporate Parenting services, ensuring excellence and aspiration for every child
• Influence policy and practice at local, regional and national levels, working with Government departments, Ofsted, Health, Police and wider partners
• Act as a visible, compassionate and ambitious leader, modelling strengths‑based practice and a culture of high support and high expectations
• Oversee a budget of £38.5 million and lead approximately 370 FTE colleagues across the service
• Ensure organisational readiness for all statutory inspections and compliance with safeguarding duties
• Represent the Council in key forums, strengthening relationships with Elected Members, partners, external agencies and the community
• Be part of the Council’s emergency response rota under the Civil Contingencies Act.

What We’re Looking For - We are seeking a leader with:

• Essential Qualifications & Professional Standing
• A recognised professional or managerial qualification (Master’s level or above) and
• A Social Work qualification and registration with Social Work England and
• A commitment to continuous professional development.

Experience You Will Bring

• Extensive senior leadership experience improving outcomes for children and families within a large, complex organisation
• A track record of driving service improvement and cultural change
• Strong political awareness and experience working effectively with Elected Members
• Expertise in partnership working, commissioning, and delivering high‑quality services across agencies
• Significant financial and resource management experience
• Demonstrable success leading multi-disciplinary teams at scale.

Skills & Leadership Qualities

• A compelling, credible leadership style that inspires trust and excellence.
• Ability to think strategically, influence across systems and translate vision into action.
• Highly developed communication, negotiation and relationship‑building skills.
• Strong analytical skills and the ability to deliver innovative solutions to complex issues.
• child‑centred, relational and strengths‑based approach.

Our Values

You will embody and champion our leadership values of:
People First | Respect | Learning | Ambition | Partnership

These underpin how we work with children, families, partners and colleagues across the city.

Why Hull?

Hull is a place of strong identity, community pride and ambition for its children. With major investment across Children’s Services, this is an opportunity to be at the forefront of meaningful, lasting change and to make a difference that matters.

For an informal discussion about the role, please contact: Pauline Turner, Executive Director of Children, Young People and Families on 01482 616 325.

ROLE AND PURPOSE

The Assistant Director of Corporate Parenting has responsibility for strategic leadership of children looked after and care leaver services in Hull as well as our regulated services that provide the care and support for our children and young people. Accountable for the development and delivery of the business plan and influential in setting the vision and strategic objectives for children and their families across Hull.

Works alongside Cabinet, Elected Members, Corporate Strategy Team, Assistant Directors, statutory partners (Health and Police) and other partners to develop and deliver the City Plan, Council Plan and Children’s Plan.

 

PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES

1    Policy and Strategy Development and Implementation – Engaged at a national and regional level with government departments to influence statutory guidance which impacts on children and families.  Leads the implementation of government guidance and ensure this is delivered in a way which builds on Hull’s strengths and has a position impact for children and families.

2    Customer Focus and Engagement - To be visible in gaining service user insight, positively and professionally representing the Council and communicating with stakeholders and partners to meet strategic needs.  Driving a child focused service culture and acting as a central point of focus for all development engagement activity across the Council and our partnerships to ensure best use of resources and help the organisation understand our children and families better.

To be an advocate for the voice of children and ensure that children and their families can influence and shape the development and delivery stratgy and are at the heart of decision making.

3    Performance Management - To set the framework for standards for commissioning and delivery; including the promotion of innovative aproaches and appropriate risk management systems which are responsive to performance improvement requirements and challenges.

Pro-active and strategic long-term planning to efficiently deploy resources ensuring the workforce and budgets are utilised effectively in response to changing requirements and in the context of the government agenda, national policy and local landscape for children and families.

To be a visible leader who inspires a child focused culture where families are supported to stay together safely in their communities. Delivers a whole-system, child-centred approach to improve outcomes for children.

To ensures that Cabinet/CST decisions are implemented effectively and efficiently across the Council.

4    Financial Management - To be accountable for the service budgets of £38.5 m and the direction of the Executive Director of Children’s Services, ensuring the Council receives value for money across general budgets and income streams applicable to the services.  Contributes to the wider corporate budget setting, identifying budget pressures and bringing forward proposals for variations to bring services in line with available budets, in support of the Council’s Medium Term Financial Plan.

5    Employee Engagement - To ensure the positive engagement of staff across all Council services in the delivery of services to children looked afer and care leavers.  To ensure effective communication with teams, participation in corporate initiatives and ensuring a feedback mechanism is effective in engaging and managing staff development and well-being.

Encourage transparent and honest discussions with the workforce, listening to feedback and act upon it to ensure that steps are taken to deliver best practice to children and families.

6    Leadership - To be a visible and effective leader, modelling exemplary behaviour for staff in promoting a culture of seeking excellence in the quality-of-service provision and of valuing equality and diversity in all aspects of service delivery and employment practices.  To actively promote and foster a culture of organisational learning and development, including the identification and coaching/mentoring opportunities for staff with talent and leadership ability.  Also including visible support for staff development and training more widely, leading to a high standard of service delivery for children and families.

Foster and enable relational, strength-based practice to deliver a whole system, inclusive, child centred approach and be a driving force in champining a culture of ambition for children and families across the partnership.

7    Statutory Obligations - To ensure all statutory functions within services for children looked after and care leavers are met and that services repond accordingly to Government initiatives on behalf of the Council.

To lead inspection readiness and ensure that services meet the requirements of all statutory inspection regimes.

8    Emergency Management and Response - In fulfilment of its statutory requirements under the Civil Contingencies Act, the Council operates an out of hours emergency response rota of which this post is part.  The post-holder will be required to become part of this rota and assist in any emergency situations when an incident is declared.

9    Partnership Working – Role model systemic leadership and be instrumental in collaboration across the city-wide partnership to maximise the impact for children and families across Hull.

Create and sustain influential relationships across the city-wide partnership and with families to create and embed a shared sense of purpose to tackle barriers experienced by children and families to ensure they can thrive and stay together safely.

Lead and manage, in conjunction with the Executive Director of Children’s and Family  Services and the Senior Leadership Team, all aspects of partnership working across the full range of Council activities including governance, resources, delivery and engagement at various levels, including internal and external senior leadership.

To provide expert advice, support, advocacy and leadership to ensure an evidence-based approach to commissioning and developing high quality, equitable services within and across a range of organisations including the voluntary, public and private sectors.

10    Elected Members - To build strong and positive relationships with all Elected Members that recognises and responds to their various roles and responsibilities and provides information and professional advice on all aspects of strategic development and delivery of all service activities.

To provide advice and direction on all aspects of children’s services, ensuring that appropriate professional advice, including that in relation to sensitive corporate, strategic and political issues, is given to Members in their roles representing the people of Hull.

11    Representation and Reputation - To represent and promote the Council on Directorate related issues at appropriate local, regional and national forums, maintaining and developing working relationships enabling effective management of the Council’s professional and public reputation, including relationships with the media, Government agencies and other key bodies.

 

NC5082.Assistant Director of Corporate Parenting

Compensation Grades:

GRADES 17.

Pay Ranges:

£111,872.00 - £111,872.00

Job Classifications:

1- Specified Under The Act - Specified Under The Act (Politically Restricted Posts), 5- Enhanced & Childrens Barring List - (Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)), Casual - (Travel Allowance Policy), No - (Childcare Disqualification Requirement), Post Fulfilling Statutory Duty - (Statutory Post)

Benefits of Working of Hull City Council:
- A competitive salary
- An excellent pension through the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)
- Initially 23 days annual leave depending on length of service. You will also get eight public holidays per year, and three additional days off, one in May/August and one during the Christmas/New year period
- Career development and learning experiences from a range of training courses and learning methods
- Supportive and forward-thinking culture
- Great career development opportunities

Please ensure that you complete and submit your application by midnight prior to the closing date. Please ensure that your application demonstrates how you meet the essential criteria against the person specification as listed in the job description. 

We are committed to increasing the diversity, equality, and inclusion within our workforce to represent the people we serve and build an environment in which everyone can feel like they belong. We encourage people from all backgrounds to apply. 

We adopt a ‘name blind’ approach to shortlisting. Recruiting managers will not have access to personal information, including your name and contact details, until a shortlisting decision has been made. Equality monitoring information is not accessible by recruiting managers at any stage.

We reserve the right to amend the dates associated with this advert, which may include closing the advert early where required.

The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

Online searches, including social media, may be carried out as part of the recruitment process.