Commissioning Officer

**Salary**

£39,862 - £42,839

**Contractual hours**

37

**Basis**

Full Time

**Date posted**

26/08/2025

**Job reference**

REQ003066

**Job title**: Commissioning Officer

**Salary**: PO2 ( £39,862 - £42,839

**Hours**: 37 hours

**Contract**: Temporary to Cover Maternity Leave to 08/01/2027

**Location**: Kernel House, Leeds (hybrid)

As a Commissioning Officer you’ll thrive on working in partnership with a range of partners and stakeholders to develop commissioning practice that improves outcomes for children, young people and their families.

Leeds City Council is one of the largest employers in the region with over 14,000 employees. We seek to recruit and develop talented individuals who embody our council values and ambitions.

**About you**

As a Commissioning Officer, you will bring to the role:

- Experience in commissioning and/or project management and/or front line working with children and families with transferable skills.
- Flexibility to contribute to all aspects of commissioning, contract management and quality assurance across the Children and Families Directorate.
- A passion for learning with the ability to challenge and drive change.
- A restorative mind-set, focussed on improving outcomes for children and young people.
- The ability to use own initiative and take ownership of work programme.

**About the role**

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Children and Families Commissioning & Market Management Service. This specific role sits within the Children Looked After Commissioning Team.

The role is critical to support all aspects of placement finding for young people in Leeds, you will:

- Commission placements and services that deliver good outcomes for children and families, ensuring placements are best value, quality and compliant.
- Work with providers and stakeholders to deliver good quality placements, through contract monitoring and quality assurance visits.
- Be part of developing a flexible range of responsive provision for our children and young people that provides the right support at the right time
- Work to build stronger commissioning based relationships, support the work to manage the market and address escalating cost.

**What we offer you**

We take pride in offering the best employee experience, with benefits including:

- a competitive salary and annual leave entitlement plus statutory holidays
- membership of the West Yorkshire Pension Fund with generous employer contributions
- a clear career pathway and continuing professional development opportunities
- a range of staff benefits to help you boost your wellbeing and make your money go further

**How to apply**

**If you do not have the right to work in the UK, you must consider your own eligibility for sponsorship for a particular role through the**Skilled Worker visa**route before applying. To be eligible for sponsorship you'll usually need to be paid the standard salary rate of at least £41,700 per year or meet one of the other eligibility criteria. Ensure you are eligible before applying.**

**Job Purpose**:
Working as part of the Commissioning Service you will assist in effective delivery of commissioning and contract management outcomes, modelling values and behaviours to help us to achieve our ambition to become the best city council in the country, and our partnership aspiration to be a Child Friendly City.

Through commissioning and contract management processes you will support colleagues to deliver our collective responsibility to keep all children safe. Using the principles of project management you will undertake aspects of the commissioning programme including:

- Contributing to the Strategic Review of services
- Managing a portfolio of contracts and support colleagues in the management of complex services.
- Co-ordinating projects within the Commissioning Manager’s portfolio
- Contributing to the procurement of services
- Using appropriate tools and practice to identify and quantify need.
- Undertaking data analysis of service performance and completion of reports which can influence decision making
- Managing relationships with internal and external stakeholders to ensure effective and efficient service delivery
- Designing and developing services to improve children’s outcomes and meet need whilst ensuring efficiency and effectiveness.
- Supporting the active involvement of children and young people and families in how Children and Families services are commissioned and delivered and how they contribute to the ambitions of the Council as set out in the City Plan for Leeds, ensuring that children and young people have a voice and their views are heard
- Developing and maintaining knowledge of key work programmes and service area priorities
- Developing and maintaining systems and processes such as Safeguarding, Quality Assurance, Information Governance, Performance and Risk Assessments across the team.

**Responsibilities**:

- Use of project management techniques to support the strat