Vulnerable Childrens Data Lead

Description

Vulnerable Childrens Data Lead

Permanent

Grade Consultation grade - subject to formal evaluation under the Pay Equity Review

Working 36.5 hours per week (hybrid working typically 1‑2 days a week in the Council House and able to attend key meetings across Birmingham in person when required)

Do you want to make a difference to over 200000 children and young people and their families in Birmingham? In the Children and Families Directorate at Birmingham City Council we are looking for a bold and ambitious Vulnerable Childrens Data Lead. We're embarking on a one‑of‑a‑kind improvement journey that will affect families across Birmingham. We're putting evidence and a data‑driven approach at the heart of this improvement journey to make sure we understand our citizen's backgrounds, needs and views and can design and deliver services that allow children and young people in Birmingham to thrive.

We're looking for a dynamic and creative analytical leader to lead a team of analysts to produce insightful and impactful evidence that will lead to better outcomes for our children and young people.

In this role you'll provide strategic leadership vision and direction to digital data and intelligence services supporting vulnerable children including Virtual School Attendance and Exclusion Alternative Provision Children out of School and Education Safeguarding. You'll champion cross‑directorate collaboration to identify out of sight children and embed data‑driven decision‑making. You'll develop and implement digital and data improvement strategies, establish data governance frameworks and ensure statutory compliance, accuracy and availability of data for vulnerable children.

You’ll oversee the governance upkeep and user engagement of digital tools including case systems and AI technologies ensuring effective support for education services. You’ll ensure accurate submission of statutory returns, develop user‑centred business intelligence performance dashboards and advanced analytics to aid strategic decision‑making. You’ll facilitate collaborative engagement with stakeholders, generate actionable insights by incorporating child voice analysis, performance metrics and predictive analytics and oversee secure data transfer processes in compliance with legal, ethical and governance standards.

You’ll represent vulnerable children's data and intelligence in cross‑partnership forums ensuring visibility and influence in multi‑agency decision‑making and strategic planning. You’ll lead the Directorates Performance Clinic for Vulnerable Children ensuring safeguarding and vulnerable children's data is central to performance discussions and service accountability.

This role fundamentally supports the improvement of outcomes for children across Birmingham. The data intelligence and information your team collects and analyses will underpin education strategies and innovation programmes so this is a fantastic opportunity to work on projects that benefit young people and their communities. As such everything you do will be evidence‑based, geared towards continuous improvement and compliant with data protection legislation.

An established professional with a degree‑level qualification in a relevant subject (e.g. data analysis, research or a related field) or equivalent experience. You'll have substantial project management experience and excellent knowledge of qualitative and quantitative social research methods. You'll have proven team leadership and management experience in designing, developing and implementing information and data management systems including data collection, collation, analysis and reporting.

Ideally you will have experience working in similar roles supporting services supporting vulnerable children.

As a leader you'll be experienced, driven, creative and a passionate advocate for children and young people. You'll have experience of building and maintaining effective working relationships with a wide range of colleagues, stakeholders and external organisations. You'll set clear direction and objectives for your team using your influencing skills to inspire, empower and motivate…