Lead Commissioner, SEND and Health

Lead Commissioner, SEND and Health

Grade: PO8/PO9 (Career Grade) or 8B (dependent upon employer)

£61,206 – £71,058 per annum

Permanent/Hybrid Working

Lambeth is a borough of huge diversity, strength, and possibility. Lambeth is home to approximately 63,000 children aged 0-18, representing nearly 20% of our borough’s population. Our Lambeth partnerships have the highest ambitions for our children and want them to grow up to be happy, safe and thriving in supportive communities. We have a rich network of good and outstanding schools, a passionate voluntary community sector and an exciting youth and play offer. Children growing up in Lambeth are surrounded by beautiful green spaces and a borough with a rich history, arts, and music scene.

Despite this, our children also face challenges and adversity. There are several health and wellbeing indicators that are higher in Lambeth than other boroughs, including children in need due to parent disability, first time entrants to youth justice system, and children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. We have significant demand for mental health and emotional wellbeing provision, and have critical challenges in regards to placement sufficiency for our Children Looked After. Lambeth is the fifth most densely populated borough in the UK with sharp contrasts between wealth and poverty. It is estimated that 27% of our children and young people are living in poverty, rising to 43% when housing costs are factored in: we know Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated challenges for many families in Lambeth and created a new set of problems for others.

It’s an incredibly exciting time to come and work in Lambeth. There’s plenty to get your teeth into – be it leading the implementation of our strategy for youth services, overseeing the transformation of our emotional health and wellbeing provision, or presiding over the development of a new team delivering efficient brokerage for our teams.

We’re passionate about integration of services and teams across education, health and social care to ensure our population can access services that are joined-up and seamless. All of these roles play very important roles in partnership development with internal and external stakeholders.

About You

You’ll be an experienced Commissioner who is passionate about SEND, health, and mental health and emotional wellbeing. You’ll be used to managing a diverse portfolio of programmes and have seen through various commissioning projects.

The successful candidate will be required to act as one of the key borough representatives in South East London ICS, ensuring Lambeth’s interests and work is promoted and that information is readily produced and shared. There is also a requirement the candidate work with and develop strong relationships with a range of partners and agencies including children’s social care, Evelina London, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, education settings, voluntary and community organisations, Lead Cabinet Member, families, and children and young people. You’ll be committed to collaborative working and enjoy working in a fast-paced environment.

Successful applicants should have a drive to get things done and have experience of line management, commissioning services, project management, and financial management. You’ll be joining high-performing, passionate and diverse teams of individuals who are passionate about reducing inequality and improving outcomes for our population.

We especially encourage applications from people from Black Asian and Multi Ethnic backgrounds and while the role is open to all applicants, Lambeth will utilise the positive action provisions of the Equality Act 2010 to appoint a candidate from a Black Asian and Multi Ethnic background where there is a choice between two candidates of equal merit.

A message from The Director

If you have any queries in relation to this job vacancy, please contact Dan Stoten,

Successful candidates will be asked to apply for an Enhanced Certificate from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). Further information about the DBS can be found at

Please note we operate an anonymised application process. If you are uploading your CV or a personal statement, please remove your personal details and replace these with your unique candidate application number.

Interested, click on the apply button and complete an on-line application, explicitly evidencing in the supporting statement field how you meet the shortlist criteria marked with an ‘A’, along with uploading your CV.

Job Description and Specification

Closing Date: Sunday 5th March 2023 at midnight

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