Senior Programme Officer (SME Children's Social Care)

Senior Programme Officer (SME Children's Social Care) | £48,738 - £51,928

Position reference:

Working Arrangements : A gile Working

Contract type: Permanent

We are happy to talk flexible working arrangements with you, please get in touch .

This post requires an Enhanced DBS Check

If you are currently living overseas or have lived overseas in the last five years please be aware, if you are the preferred candidate for the post, you will be required to apply for an overseas criminal records check from the country/countries you have resided in. If you experience difficulty in obtaining an overseas criminal record check please email

When applying, please ensure you are prepared to start work with all the necessary legal documents, such as a valid visa, relevant to the type of work you will be undertaking. Please be aware that our organisation does not possess a Home Office license and, as a result, is unable to provide sponsorship for anyone seeking a visa as a skilled or temporary migrant worker.

Pensions Regulations have provisions to reduce pension payments in certain circumstances of those who return to work within local government service. If you are in receipt of a pension upon commencing employment with the authority, this may affect your pension entitlements and you should therefore seek advice from the relevant Pensions Authority.

At Barnsley Council you can start a career that makes a real difference to people’s lives, helping our council and residents to be the best they can be.

We’re an award-winning council and one of the biggest employers in the borough, supporting around 243,000 people. We put people at the heart of everything we do, and that includes our employees. As part of the team, we offer lots of benefits and rewards to support you to thrive and grow, like flexible working, employee discounts, support for your health and wellbeing, and opportunities for training and development to grow your career and develop your skills.

There’s so much happening in our thriving borough, and now’s the perfect time to join our excellent children's servicesteam as we work to make Barnsley the place of possibilities.

• We’re an award-winning team and one of the biggest employers in the borough supporting around 243,000 people.
• Working at Barnsley Council means being part of a team that makes a real difference to people’s lives, where you can develop the skills you need to make change happen.
• If you join the team you’ll receive great pay alongside an excellent pension scheme. With flexible working we’ll also support your work/life balance, helping you to adjust your hours and take time off when you need it.
• We’ll help you to develop your career and grow your skills with opportunities for training and development.
• Key to our success is working with our residents, partners, businesses and organisations and building these partnerships to bring about change in Barnsley.

About the Post:

Build Something That Matters

Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council has made a significant and deliberate investment in children’s services. The Children in Care Sufficiency Strategy is a Cabinet-approved, four-year programme designed to change how Barnsley plans for, commissions and delivers provision for children in care and children with special educational needs and disabilities. It’s funded, it’s live, and it’s already delivering.

The strategy works across three pillars: reducing avoidable entry into care, stabilising placements for vulnerable adolescents, and strengthening how the Council commissions and directly provides residential and specialist care. The interventions it funds include Reset Home, Mockingbird constellation fostering, a new Vulnerable Adolescent Pathway, a Reunification Fund, a strengthened kinship offer, and Barnsley’s own internal residential homes.

This sits alongside one of the most significant periods of national reform in children’s social care and SEND in a generation. Barnsley has chosen to get ahead of that, investing in real change rather than waiting to react.

The workforce that delivers this will grow alongside the programme. The strategy sets out additional staffing capacity across specialist intervention services, the Adolescent Pathway, commissioning and the development and operation of internal residential provision. Some of those roles are in development and will be advertised as the programme progresses.

The roles we’re recruiting to now are the Programme Management Office: the team that sits at the centre of all three pillars, keeps the programme on track, maintains the evidence base, and provides the governance and assurance infrastructure that makes everything else possible.

If you want to be part of building something that genuinely changes outcomes for children in Barnsley, we’d like to hear from you.

Children in care sufficiency is at the heart of this programme. Barnsley is investing in a strengthened kinship offer, foster care service, the Mockingbird constellation model, and its own internal residential provision. This role holds the thread across all of it.

You’ll bring subject matter expertise in looked after children, placement sufficiency or children in care commissioning. You’ll know the system from the inside, whether through social work practice, commissioning, data or programme delivery, and you’ll understand what the pressures facing children in care teams actually look like day to day.

Strong analytical skills are essential. You’ll be working with complex demand and cost data, interpreting trends, and translating that analysis into clear programme intelligence for senior governance. Excellent written communication matters too: the reports and briefings you produce will inform gateway decisions and go to senior leadership. Accuracy and clarity are not optional.

Reporting to the Head of Programme Management Office, you’ll work closely with social work teams, commissioners and the Head of PMO to keep the Children in Care workstream on track against milestones, and you’ll be expected to spot drift and elevate risks before they become problems. This is a role for someone who takes both their subject matter and the quality of their outputs seriously.

We welcome the opportunity to have a chat about the role and are happy to address any questions you may have about flexible working arrangements, including as a result of caring responsibilities.

We're committed to creating a workplace where differences are valued and everyone truly feels able to be themselves. If you have any support needs during the recruitment process, please let us know.

CV's are not accepted for this role.

At Barnsley Council, we believe in second chances and value diversity. Our recruitment process is inclusive, and we welcome applicants with past convictions. We’re committed to fairness and do not discriminate. Join us in building a future where everyone has the opportunity to thrive. #InclusiveHiring #SecondChances

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