Welcome to Birmingham

Thank you for your interest in becoming Birmingham’s Executive Director of Children and Families.

There are few children’s leadership roles in the country with the scale, complexity and possibility of this one. Birmingham is home to hundreds of thousands of children and young people.  It is one of the youngest and most diverse cities in England and it is a city of enormous energy, talent and ambition.  

The opportunity here is not simply to lead a major statutory service, but to help shape the life chances of children and young people across the city, through education, safeguarding, SEND, early years, skills, youth opportunity, partnership and system-wide reform.

This is also a particularly important moment for Birmingham. The Council is undergoing a fundamental reset in how it thinks, feels and acts, with a clear focus on tackling inequality, improving life chances and creating a positive, productive place for staff to work. As a member of our Corporate Leadership Team, you will be expected to play a full corporate role, not only leading your own portfolio, but contributing to the overall success of the organisation and ensuring that residents, children, families and staff experience one council working together.

In Children and Families, the foundations are now stronger. Significant progress has been made on the improvement journey. Birmingham Children’s Trust has been judged Good by Ofsted, SEND has moved out of special measures, and we now have the opportunity to move beyond recovery and compliance into a more strategic phase – raising expectations, improving outcomes, strengthening partnerships and thinking differently about the wider determinants of children’s lives.

That strategic leadership matters. Our elected members are ambitious for Birmingham’s children and young people. They understand that outcomes are shaped not only by statutory services, but by education, skills, work, housing, poverty, community safety, youth violence, inclusion and opportunity. This role will therefore require someone who can work right across the Council and beyond it.  Working with schools, academy trusts, Birmingham Children’s Trust, health, police, the voluntary and community sector, the Department for Education, Ofsted, the West Midlands Combined Authority and many others to create the conditions in which children and young people can thrive.

You will inherit a role with real breadth. The portfolio includes education services, schools and education settings, early years, safeguarding, admissions, placements and support for vulnerable groups, SEND, asset management, contractual oversight of Birmingham Children’s Trust, and the development of new and joint ways of working. You will also act as Birmingham’s champion for children and young people, provide statutory leadership, continue and strengthen the Council’s good working relationship with the Trust, oversee education and school improvement, and lead reform across the system to reduce NEETs and tackle youth violence.

The task is not without challenge. Birmingham, like other large councils, must ensure that services are financially sustainable and focused on best value. We have a clearer financial position and a credible four-year financial plan, but Children and Families must now live within that framework while continuing to improve outcomes, manage demand, strengthen early intervention and use technology, data and partnership more effectively.

The successful candidate will need to be an exceptional strategic leader: visible, credible, collaborative and outcome focused. You will need to build trust quickly with schools, partners, elected members, colleagues and staff. You will bring strong professional judgement, political awareness, financial grip, and the confidence to operate in a complex democratic environment. Just as importantly, you will bring energy, the ability to lift ambition, create momentum and help the organisation move from a necessary period of recovery into a more outward-looking, creative and confident future for children and families.

You will be joining a strong, stable and increasingly established Corporate Leadership Team with a collegiate approach to leadership. Following a period of significant change, the wider corporate leadership team is now settled, providing continuity, clarity of direction and a shared commitment to Birmingham's long-term transformation. This stability has enabled the Council to focus on delivery, improvement and organisational culture, creating a positive environment in which senior leaders can collaborate effectively and achieve lasting impact.

Children and Families is entering this next phase from a much stronger position. Alongside Birmingham Children's Trust's Good Ofsted judgement and improvements across SEND services, the recent Good judgement for the Council's Adults services demonstrates that improvement is being embedded across the organisation. Together, these achievements provide a strong platform from which to accelerate progress, improve outcomes for residents and deliver sustainable change.

We need Children and Families to be fully part of that corporate leadership endeavour: shaping decisions, anticipating impacts across the whole council, and ensuring that the voice of children and young people is heard in everything we do.

Birmingham is a remarkable city. Its scale is demanding, but it is also what makes the role so compelling. The city’s diversity, youthfulness, community spirit and potential create an extraordinary platform for impact. If you are motivated by complexity, serious about improving outcomes, and ready to lead with ambition, authenticity and purpose, I hope you will consider applying.

Joanne Roney
Chief Executive
Birmingham City Council