Regional Director - West Midlands

at  Department for Education

JOB SUMMARY

The Regional Director for the West Midlands, one of 9 Regional Directors across the country, will be at the heart of the Department’s work within their region. They will work to improve outcomes for children, families and learners, breaking down barriers to opportunity within their region through:

• Being place-shapers and influencers, relationship-holders and the front face of many aspects of the department’s work.
• Delivering across a number of key programmes which sit at the heart of major policy priorities, particularly those that focus on Schools, Care, and SEND.
• Regulating and stewarding to deliver system improvement.

The Regional Director will lead their team to deliver locally across Children’s Social Care, SEND and schools. They will also take on a leadership responsibility across the Group through leading on one of our cross cutting National Programmes, which work to ensure the services we deliver operate consistently across our regions, and to play a key role of our Group to help shape policy across DfE to better reflect local needs and regional variation.

JOB DESCRIPTION

Within their region, the Regional Director will lead the West Midlands team to deliver on the vision set out in Government policy, aligned to Regions Group strategic priorities and informed by local context:

• Providing local leadership where appropriate for programmes and activities in support of the Government’s Opportunity Mission.
• Leading the new regional approach to school improvement, to ensure schools that most need it receive targeted support, to work in partnership to identify and respond to local and thematic school improvement priorities and to work with the schools sector to promote knowledge of and access to wider school improvement support. Working in partnership with local authorities, academy trusts, dioceses and, through them, all types of state-funded schools will be central to this.
• Leading intervention in schools where needed, generating rapid solutions via strong providers, and brokering immediate support.
• Leading improvement and intervention in children’s social care functions in local authorities, working in partnership with the sector to identify solutions to deliver rapid improvement.
• Leading follow up to area wide SEND inspections, ensuring effective challenge and support in partnership with the sector to enable areas of weakness to be remedied quickly.
• Taking decisions relating to our oversight of the academy trust system, including those linked to: trust growth, academy transfer, voluntary academy conversions and significant changes to academies and free schools; underperformance and compliance with the Academies Trust Handbook; and shaping school system provision.
• Working with local authorities to ensure every local area has sufficient places for pupils.
• Working effectively with Ministers: providing advice, briefing and support.
• Leading a strong inclusive and effective culture of delivery, effective line management and people development and wellbeing across a diverse team based across Coventry, Nottingham and Sheffield.

NATIONALITY REQUIREMENTS

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Senior leadership