Head of Service - Quality Assurance and Improvement, Adult Social Care

A leadership role at the heart of quality, assurance and improvement across Adult Social Care.

Lancashire is one of the largest and most complex Adult Social Care systems in the country. We are looking for an experienced and credible senior leader who can provide strategic leadership across quality assurance, safeguarding assurance, professional practice, market quality and continuous improvement helping ensure that services are safe, person-centred, strengths-based and focused on delivering better outcomes for people.

This is a broad, influential and high-profile role, working across Adult Social Care, commissioning, operational services and the wider care market. You will lead the development and embedding of quality, safeguarding and professional assurance frameworks, ensuring clear standards, effective governance, robust risk management and a strong culture of continuous improvement.

As Head of Service – Quality Assurance and Improvement, you will play a central role in Lancashire’s preparation for, and response to, Care Quality Commission assessment and assurance activity. You will ensure evidence, self-assessment, improvement plans and governance arrangements are current, robust and clearly owned across the directorate. Working closely with senior leaders, elected members, operational colleagues, commissioning teams and partners, you will bring together performance intelligence, audit, feedback, lived experience and learning to strengthen practice, evidence impact and drive measurable improvement.

You will also provide strategic oversight of the Principal Social Worker and Principal Occupational Therapist functions, ensuring professional standards, practice development, statutory responsibilities and workforce learning are aligned to Lancashire’s priorities and national requirements. Alongside this, you will work with commissioning colleagues and providers to support quality assurance and improvement across the care market, helping to manage risk, strengthen sustainability and improve outcomes for people who draw on care and support.

We’re looking for an accomplished Adult Social Care leader with significant experience operating at scale in a statutory and regulated environment. You will bring strong professional credibility, sound judgement, political awareness and the ability to influence senior stakeholders across complex systems. Whether your background is in social work, commissioning, occupational therapy, nursing or another relevant health and social care discipline, you will be someone who can build confidence, lead through complexity and translate evidence, insight and assurance into meaningful service improvement. 

Why Lancashire?
This is a rare opportunity to shape quality, assurance and improvement across a major county-wide Adult Social Care system. You will join an ambitious and collaborative leadership team committed to Lancashire’s vision for Living Better Lives, with a strong focus on strengths-based practice, safe and effective services, professional leadership, partnership working and continuous improvement.

If you’re a values-led Adult Social Care leader with a strong track record in quality, assurance, safeguarding, professional practice and improvement and you want to help shape the future of services across Lancashire we’d love to hear from you.

For a confidential discussion, please contact our colleagues at Tile Hill, Anita Denton on 07725 554802 (anita.denton@tile-hill.co.uk) or Helen Alwell on 07931 543313 (helen.alwell@tile-hill.co.uk).

For more information or to apply, please visit http://www.leading-lancashire.co.uk/

Webinar: 
Join us for a live Executive Search Webinar exploring career enhancing opportunities with Lancashire County Council's Adult Social Care Directorate:

• Head of Operations
• Head of Service, Quality Assurance and Improvement

Hear directly from Helen Coombes, Executive Director of Adults, Health and Wellbeing at Lancashire County Council, and John Williams, Director of Operations for Older People, as they discuss Lancashire's vision for adult social care, the priorities shaping services across the county, and the important role these appointments will play in delivering safe, high-quality, person-centred support for residents.

Monday 10th August at 2:00pm

This is an opportunity to gain insight into the scale, complexity and ambition of adult social care in Lancashire, learn more about these key leadership roles, and discover how you can contribute to improving outcomes for adults, carers and communities across one of England's largest county councils.

Register your place here:
https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/cf2d52e6-8f1c-4f93-90db-0cb70ad04589@6a2831ce-7b24-4bd8-b168-a40e6c4ac076

Closing Date for Applications: Midnight Sunday 23rd August

To apply:
To apply, please submit an up-to-date copy of your CV (three sides of A4 maximum), along with a supporting statement (three sides of A4 maximum) detailing your experience, and achievements and addressing the key criteria for the role set out on this site and using examples to demonstrate how you meet the requirements. Documents should be uploaded via our website, please include and upload the below information in two documents only. If you experience any issues whilst applying, please contact ella.vanderhook@tile-hill.co.uk

Local Government Reorganisation
The Government has confirmed that local government across Lancashire will be reorganised, with the current 15 councils being replaced by four new unitary councils covering North, South, East and West Lancashire from April 2028.

If you are successful in your application, you will initially join Lancashire County Council. However, as part of the planned transition, your employment will transfer to one of the new unitary councils from April 2028, subject to the implementation of the reorganisation and relevant employment legislation.

Throughout this period, our focus remains on delivering excellent services to our communities. By joining us now, you'll play an important role in shaping the future of local government and helping to build a strong new organisation that will serve residents for years to come.

Timetable:

• Applications Closing: Midnight on Sunday 23rd August
• Shortlisting Meeting: Thursday 27th August (PM)
• Final Panel Process (In person): Monday 7th September

Applications must include:

• Full contact details;
• Names, positions, organisations and contact details for two referees (we will ask your permission before contacting referees);
• Details of your notice period;
• Notification of any dates when you are not available for interview.

At Tile Hill, we are committed to inclusion and accessibility. We champion and support all individuals to ensure everyone feels valued, listened to and motivated to get the very best out of each recruitment process and that processes are designed to meet the needs of individuals. If you have any specific requests and would like a confidential discussion with the Tile Hill team, then please email inclusion@tile-hill.co.uk.

If the organisation we’re representing is a member of the Disability Confident Scheme and you’d like to apply under the scheme, please mention this clearly in bold at the top of your supporting statement. If there are any adjustments that would support you during the application or interview process, please let us know.