Director of Education and Lifelong Learning

Here in Surrey, we are working hard to make our county a uniquely special place where everyone has a great start in life and can benefit from education, skills and employment opportunities that support them to succeed and thrive.

It is our ambition to build an economy that is strong, vibrant and successful so that Surrey is a great place to live, work, and learn, where communities feel supported, and people are enabled to support each other. 

We are seeking to appoint a permanent Director of Education and Lifelong Learning who will help us to deliver against our ambitions. Reporting directly to Rachael Wardell - Executive Director for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning, this is a key leadership role in the directorate. We are looking for an inclusive and compassionate leader, focused on great outcomes for children and adult learners; someone that can create and enable a collaborative, open, and trusting environment in which collaboration with schools and other educational settings is a given and where innovation and creativity can flourish.
 

The Role

As our Director of Education and Lifelong Learning, you'll shape strategic initiatives that enhance educational and broader outcomes for children, young people, and adult learners across Surrey. Your collaborative leadership will drive innovation and efficiency in a challenging financial landscape and will support key activity across the whole directorate and with external partners meaning you will work closely with other senior leaders across children’s services to improve outcomes. 

This role will:

• Champion Inclusive Education - helping to shape and deliver strategic initiatives for children with additional educational needs.
• Focus on Lifelong Learning - developing and implementing a comprehensive lifelong learning strategy to facilitate skills advancement and educational opportunities.
• Promote Excellence - fostering collaboration with educational stakeholders to define and uphold education excellence in response to evolving policies.
• Ensure Statutory Compliance and Collaboration - working closely with the Executive Director of Children, Families and Lifelong Learning to ensure statutory obligations are met and collaborating on educational initiatives.
• Focus on School Improvement activity- leading efforts to enhance school systems, empowering them to deliver high-quality, inclusive learning experiences and outcomes.
• Provide Professional Leadership - engaging locally, regionally, and nationally to cultivate partnerships and innovative approaches for improved educational and broader outcomes for all learners and their families.
• Champion Community Wellbeing - providing leadership across adult and community learning provisions to promote essential skills development, community wellbeing and cost-effective service provision.
• Build organisational capacity - responding to inspections, legislative changes, and national policy shifts, fostering continuous improvement.

This role is integral to the Council responding to ongoing challenges as we seek to reduce inequalities for our learners and improve outcomes right across the County so that no one is left behind. You will draw on all available resources, plus the capacity and capabilities of our partners, communities, and residents to bring about positive change and achieve lasting impact.

A key area of focus for our new Director will be the transformation of services for children with additional needs and disabilities. This will mean a clear focus on early intervention and support for these children which will involve a large partnership component with schools and health colleagues.

In addition to this, we are also very committed to all age learning and skills and have already established a partnership with schools and other educational establishments to deliver our all-age learning strategy. This partnership will be essential to our ambitions to close the gap in educational outcomes for individuals, particularly those families facing disadvantage.
 

Who we are looking for

We are looking for an experienced senior leader with real management grip and leadership drive and a boundless enthusiasm for achieving better outcomes. You will have substantial experience of having led educational services and improvement work on a quest for genuine inclusion for all learners; this could be from a local authority environment or more broadly across the education sector.

Your experience of working in large and complex environments will support your transition into this busy and significant position, where you will showcase your ability to build and maintain excellent working relationships with a broad range of stakeholders across the county. This role does not have all the levers at its disposal so systems leadership will be key, as will a strong knowledge of relational practice – with parent’s, children and young people.

You will also bring a strong understanding of SEND due to the well documented challenges in this area, as well as a strong grasp of finances and funding.

Leaders in Surrey are open, honest and transparent. We work together in a spirit of highsupport and high challenge to achieve our aims. We’d love to hear from you if your ambition to improve educational outcomes and enhance opportunities for learners of all abilities and at every age and stage matches ours.

We are also very committed to EDI and would welcome applications from candidates with diverse backgrounds. We recognise the importance of a workforce, that reflects our communities and also the importance of diversity of thought in enabling us to achieve our ambitions moving forward.
 

Rewards and Benefits

• 26 days’ holiday (prorated for part time staff), rising to 28 days after 2 years' service and 30 days after 5 years’ service
• Annual leave allowance (for bank) or remove for term time
• Option to buy up to 10 days of additional annual leave
• An extensive Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to support health and wellbeing
• Up to 5 days of carer’s leave per year
• Paternity, adoption and dependants leave
• A generous local government salary related pension
• Lifestyle discounts including gym, travel, shopping and many more
• 2 paid volunteering days plus 1 team volunteering day per year
• Learning and development hub where you can access a wealth of resources

Please note that this role will involve the need, at times, for you to travel around the county to meet with your colleagues, services, school leaders and other partners across the education system. Our hybrid working arrangements mean that outside of the times you’re required to physically attend a Surrey location, you can work however, whenever, and wherever suits you.

Please view the role profile below to find out more.

Download role profile

Indicative Timetable

Closing date for applications: Friday 11 October 2024
Longlist meeting: Friday 25 October 2024
Preliminary interviews (via Microsoft Teams): w/c Monday 28 October 2024
Shortlist meeting: Monday 4 November 2024
Officer interviews (in Reigate): Wednesday 13 November 2024, PM
Informal conversation with Terence Herbert, Chief Executive (via Teams): Thursday 14 November 2024, 13:00 - 14:00
Final interview panel with members (in Reigate): week commencing Monday 18 November 2024

For an informal conversation about this role, please contact:

Martin Tucker
Email: mtucker@faerfield.co.uk
Phone: 0121 312 3755

Ben Cox
Email: bcox@faerfield.co.uk
Phone: 0121 312 3755