Strategic Children's Commissioning Manager

Job Introduction

Our Story: 

Halton is a vibrant local authority with a rich history and heritage, featuring two iconic bridges that connect communities across the River Mersey. Located in Cheshire, Halton boasts excellent transport links between Liverpool and Manchester, as well as close proximity to both Liverpool John Lennon and Manchester Airports.

 Our progressive community strategy aims to bring about meaningful, long-term improvements that enhance lives. It’s an exciting time to join us as we develop new policies and transform the way people access services.

We are immensely proud that when asked what’s great about working for Halton, the most popular response from our workforce has been ‘our colleagues’. 

Our Team:

Based in Runcorn, the Commissioning and Placements Team is a fast paced and responsive service, providing a vital function to both internal council operational teams across Children in Care, Care Leavers, SEND and Education. We source placements for the most vulnerable young people of Halton, ensure these placements are safe and provide the right level of care and support, and ensure that the councils standards are held in the highest regard. We are also responsible for designing and creating services across Halton to support those young people, and the councils priorities for its children and young people.

 Hours: 37 per week, Monday -Friday Flexible Working

We are seeking an experienced and motivated Strategic Children’s Commissioning Manager to lead the commissioning of services that meet the education, health, and social care needs of children and young people in Halton. Working across partner agencies, you will drive strategic planning, develop and implement policies and procedures, manage large and complex budgets, and foster strong partnership networks to ensure effective commissioning and positive outcomes for children and families.

Your Contributions:

You must hold, or be willing to work towards, a degree or level 5 vocational qualification and have an in-depth knowledge of all relevant legislation especially within specialist services for vulnerable children, young people and families. In addition you will have:

 * Extensive strategic management and commissioning experience in a relevant area

• Evidence of experience within strategic planning and commissioning, and the implementation and performance management of services including budget management in a relevant area.
• Knowledge and understanding of anti-oppressive practice. 
• Ability to think and plan strategically and able to understand and use numerical information.  
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence people and promote change.  
• Ability to exercise personal judgement with awareness of the sensitivity of context and be focused on customer cantered services.
• Ability to self-manage with a high degree of personal and professional integrity.

 Our Offer:

Aside from working with a great team, our employees have access to a fantastic range of benefits, including:

• A generous annual holiday allowance starting at 34 days per year (including bank holidays), increasing with long service
• Membership of our defined benefit, salary-linked Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) with generous employer contributions
• 3 x Salary Life Cover via Local Government Pension Scheme
• Investment in your personal development 
• Free Car Parking at HBC sites 
• Flexible working arrangements 

Next Steps:

At Halton Borough Council, we want all of our candidates to feel well-informed so if you would like to have an informal chat about this role, please contact Lee Ellis at Lee.ellis.gov.uk

Interviews will take place on 10/07/2026

At Halton Borough Council we want to ensure that our communities are represented across our workforce and a vital part of this is to encourage diversity in all respects. We are committed to making our recruitment practices barrier-free and tailored to best suit the needs and strength of the individual. This includes making adjustments for people with a disability, neurodiversity or with long-term health conditions. If you require accommodations, please reach out during the recruitment process so that we can make this the best possible experience for you – resourcing@halton.gov.uk

Please refer to the attached Job Profile for further information about the role and our values.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy earlier than the specified date should we receive sufficient applications. If you’re interested, please complete your application as early as possible.

We look forward to receiving your application!