Assistant Director

Social Work England are the specialist regulator for social work in England, focused on enabling positive change in social work. Every day, social workers support millions of people to improve their chances in life. We are taking a new approach to regulating social workers in their vital roles. We believe in the power of collaboration and share a common goal with those we regulate - to protect the public, enable positive change and ultimately improve people’s lives.

Purpose of the role

This is a newly-established senior leadership position, offering an exciting opportunity for the right person to support, enhance and develop the work of existing teams and to shape and develop the role within the directorate and wider organisation.

We have been established as a successful and values driven organisation. The assistant director role is a central part of the leadership that aims to build on the platform that has now been established, to have a significant impact on the quality of social work practice in England.

The assistant director will work autonomously and alongside the executive leadership team to continue to shape our leadership structure, to optimise service performance and reinforce our core values and behaviours throughout the organisation. You will play a key, visible, leadership role in delivering our statutory responsibilities, and contribute to the development and delivery of our corporate and organisational priorities.

Our assistant directors will be accountable for delivery in their own areas of the business. They will also work together in collaboration with the executive directors, ensuring the effective delivery of our statutory and strategic objectives, deputising for the executive directors and other assistant directors as appropriate.

Together with the other assistant directors you will build a suitable structure for the organisation, executing key decisions in relation to operations and finance as well as supporting and informing strategic direction. You will also give strategic direction to our heads and be the escalation point for risk, feeding up to the executive directors, weighing and identifying corporate risk and appropriate mitigations.

You will contribute to our focus on delivering our ambitions as a regulator, and in delivering for people, and on our commitments to equality, diversity and inclusion. The team respect differences and make decisions that benefit the organisation.

What you will do
- Deliver visible leadership of a multi-disciplinary team, developing and implementing our strategic and policy aims and objectives. Supporting, managing and providing strategic direction to heads of function to enable them to deliver the objectives within their area of responsibility.
- Act decisively and make robust, unbiased decisions at a strategic level and act as decision maker for agreed areas of our statutory framework. Support heads of function in their operational decision making in their respective areas.
- Be accountable to the executive director in relation to team, directorate, and corporate risk, ensuring they are appropriately addressed and are appropriately profiled and reviewed. Understand regulatory risk and the strategies that can be developed to reduce risk and prevent harm. Work alongside the executive director in ensuring that our policy and strategic activities are undertaken with this in mind.
- Identify and implement organisational changes that enhance flexibility, responsiveness, and quality of service.
- Establish, build and maintain relationships with our Board and the sponsor departments, the Department for Education and the Department of Health and Social Care, as well as other key stakeholders. Attend meetings and networks as the representative for the team, directorate and wider organisation.
- Model our values and behaviours, inspiring and motivating leaders and our people to achieve our strategic objectives and to achieve our ambitions as a regulator. Work closely with other assistant directors to ensure cohesive, collaborative and effective delivery of our operational activities and strategic aims.
- Deputise for executive directors and other assistant directors as necessary.

Directorate specific
- Work to the executive director, people and business support on matters relating to governance, quality assurance and customer feedback, business planning and improvement, data and performance reporting, management of the annual project portfolio and benefits realisation, information governance and data protection. Provide day to day support and advice, to ensure compliance with statutory requirements, internal policies and procedures and best practice. You will be accountable for the quality and integrity of decision making, and the performance of our processes.
- Work flexibly across the directorate, deputising for the executive director, people and business support and leading collaborative and cross-cutting projects as required
- Establish robust