Cambridgeshire is restructuring the way the Children, Education and Families leadership is organised to address the challenges of the huge reform programme for children’s services nationally, whilst strengthening strategic leadership and preparing for Local Government Reorganisation. The restructure aims to create clearer lines of responsibility, strengthen corporate and partnership leadership and a more strategic response to leading and managing services that help and support children and their families.
Mirroring the success of this structure in other part of the Council as well as learning from outstanding Council’s across the country where similar “place-based” leadership models have been implemented, it is to support our drive for constant improvement and better outcomes for children. By aligning leadership arrangements more closely to priorities and outcomes, the new structure supports improved performance, greater integration across services, stronger safeguarding oversight and enhanced partnership working. It is designed to provide the capacity and resilience required to deliver sustainable improvement, respond to future challenges and achieve better outcomes for children, young people and families in Cambridgeshire.
Aligning the social care responsibilities for children across the North and South areas of Cambridgeshire will ensure we have consistency in accountability across each locality and a leadership that understands and responds to local needs, has strong relationships with local area partners who can work together to provide the best start in life for Cambridgeshire children.
Martin Purbrick
Executive Director for Children, Education and Families
Cambridgeshire County Council
Cambridgeshire County Council has made a clear, unequivocal commitment to transform children’s social care. We want all our children and young people to feel safe, supported and have stability in their lives, and be able to access integrated support that strengthens families and keeps them together. And we know - from external feedback as well as our own assessments - that we’re making sustained progress towards this commitment.
To continue our improvement journey, we’re moving to a model of place-based and more empowered leadership. Both of these new roles are accountable for statutory children’s social care across their place - from early help and safeguarding to children in need, child protection, intervention, support for children in care and for care leavers.
Between the roles, responsibility for countywide functions will be distributed, including Assessment, the MASH, Family Support and Safeguarding, and Youth Justice. Reporting directly to and deputising for the Executive Director for Children, Education and Families (DCS), you’ll lead the provision of safe, inclusive, and high performing services underpinned by personalisation, trauma-informed practice, and co-design with children, young people, and their families.
Making a decisive contribution from day 1, you’ll ensure we provide responsive, effective and integrated place-based support that improves outcomes for children and young people. And, as Cambridgeshire and Peterborough looks ahead to Local Government Reorganisation, you’ll be an active and engaged part of leading change and transitioning services safely and well to our successor councils.
To succeed, you’ll already have an impressive and comprehensive track record of effectiveness, with particular experience in service improvement, reconfiguration and transformation, working closely with both council colleagues and partners. These roles offer significant career development and stretch and will place you in a prime position to be a future leader of children’s services at the highest levels.
For further information on these two roles, please view the role profiles below.
Role Profile (North) Role Profile (South) Children's Leadership Structure
Contact Information:
Rob Naylor
Tel: 0121 312 3755
Email: rnaylor@faerfield.co.ukBen Cox
Tel: 0121 312 3755
Email: bcox@faerfield.co.uk
Indicative Timetable:
Closing date: Sunday 4 October 2026
Preliminary Interviews: w/c 12 October 2026
(dates may be subject to slight change)
To apply for this job please click on the Apply button below and fill out the requested information. When prompted, please submit your CV and a Supporting Statement of no more than 1,000 words.
With your CV, please also provide the names and contact details of two referees, one of whom should be your current or most recent employer. Referees will only be contacted if you reach the final stages, and we will not contact referees without your permission.
Your supporting statement should express why you are interested in this role and what experience you can bring to the organisation. The statement should tackle the specific requirements of the role; outlining examples and outcomes showing how you meet those requirements.