Senior Commissioning Officer

Contract Type: Permanent

Salary: Grade H. Scale 29 - £39,862 to Scale 31 - £41,771

Hours Per Week: 36 hours

Base Location: Tameside One

Assessment Date: 6th January 2026

To apply for this role please upload your CV together with a supporting statement that provides evidence of how you meet the essential requirements of the person specification

Please also include details of your education and training and employment history and any reference to your qualifications that are specified on the person specification within your CV/supporting statement.

The Role

We are looking for two new Commissioning Officers to work in Children's Commissioning (StartWell).

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Commissioning Team in Tameside Children's Services. The roles offer opportunities for personal and professional development and a chance for someone to bring their own skills, knowledge and experiences to contribute to service innovation and improvement within a fast-moving, demanding and ever-changing environment.

You will be responsible for delivering the commissioning agenda across Children's Services including Early Help, SEND, and Social Care, through a place-based approach working with partners to achieve improved outcomes for children and young people.

You will support the development of our annual commissioning intentions and will have an exciting and varied agenda of work. Delivering all aspects of the commissioning cycle you will have coproduction central to your working practice.

You will have the opportunity to shape the services our children and families receive in Tameside and make a lasting impact. Working to review existing commissions and new opportunities, you will develop commissioning intentions, work with procurement, and lead the engagement with providers to ensure they are delivering for Tameside's children and families.

You will assist in the planning, co-production, development, co-ordination, and delivery of an ongoing programme of commissioning projects, providing effective challenge, support and project management across the directorates and partners to ensure that the improvement and integration strategies are effectively implemented to achieve significant and lasting change.

About You

We are looking for highly motivated, energetic people with great interpersonal skills and the capacity to forge excellent relationships and effective multi-agency working. You will be passionate and have the ability to work strategically on intelligence led and high-quality commissioning. You will have the ability to deliver multiple projects within timescales while achieving required outcomes.

You will be driven to ensure the best for our children and young people and will be committed to involving them in coproduction along with partners to enable a fully comprehensive approach to commissioning.

You will have excellent analytical skills and lateral thinking to develop creative and innovative solutions. You will be positive about change and have experience of supporting innovation and culture change, to drive improvements across Children's Services. You will have experience of overcoming barriers to deliver successful outcomes. You must be capable of working on your own initiative to help drive and enable improved outcomes for or children. The post is a minimum two - three days office based and the remainder hybrid working.

About Us

Message from Jill Colbert, Director of Children's Services

"I joined the council at the beginning of 2025 and was instantly charmed by the warmth, openness, and energy of colleagues.

"I came to Tameside for one reason; because I know we can do fantastic things for our families here.

"We're a children's service on a significant improvement journey. We know what needs to be different for our children and families and we're ambitious to deliver that change.

"We have a growing range of specialist services for children, where you can test and grow your skills and practice. We have a Social Work Academy that is led by people who bring passion to learning and who know that the DCS' of the future are right in front of them. We are working on our progression pathways so that staying in Tameside is rewarded and recognised. We have investment in innovation and improvement from the council so that we can grow services and support for families that we can sustain, from family hubs through to complex safeguarding.

"I am so certain that we can build a proud, inclusive and safe climate for great practice to flourish in Tameside. I'd love you to join me on the journey here at Team Tameside."

At Tameside, we are committed to ensuring all our Citizens lead long, fulfilling and healthy lives. We are committed to supporting economic growth, providing high quality health and care services, protecting our most vulnerable and creating strong and supportive, self-sufficient communities.

We recognise that our people drive our success and enable the organisation to deliver on its vision, purpose and priorities, and that our people are our most important resource and asset. Our values underpin our practice and behaviours, and are at the heart of everything that we do; and we understand that how we do things is just as important as what we do. We pride ourselves on living by our STRIVE values of Support, Trust, Respect, Integrity, Value Diversity and Engage. Our values underpin our practice and behaviours and are at the heart of everything that we do. How we do things are just as important as what we do.

Our employees' skills, experience and knowledge are essential to our success along with their happiness, wellbeing, commitment, enthusiasm and motivation to be the best they can be.

Please note, previous applicants need not apply.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults and expect all staff to share this commitment. This position is subject to Enhanced Disclosure Procedures.

Unfortunately, at this time we are not able to offer sponsorship.

We are committed to developing a culture which respects individuals, appreciates difference and allows everyone regardless of background to reach their full potential. We are proud to be an accredited disability confident employer. Reasonable Adjustments will be considered in accordance with the Equality Act 2010 in relation to the Job Role Criteria.

Our rewards and benefits package can be viewed here

For further information about this role please contact the recruiting manager Sally Atkinson on or