Principal Service Lead – Through Care

Location: Brierley Hill

Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council,

Principal Service Lead – Through Care

Salary: £76,597 - £81,370 (pay award pending)

Location: Dudley, West Midlands – Hybrid

Contract: Permanent, Full Time

Are you an inspirational, values-driven leader with a passion for improving outcomes for children and young people?

Dudley are embarking on an exciting journey of improvement. We have strengthened capacity at Associate Director level with four permanent roles AD Education and Inclusion, AD Quality, Performance and Improvement, AD Family Help and Safeguarding and AD Corporate Parenting. We are now recruiting to our Principal Service Lead roles to further strengthen our leadership capacity.

Dudley Council is seeking an exceptional Principal Service Lead – Through Care to join our Children & Young People Leadership Team. This is a pivotal leadership role, responsible for leading and improving services for children with disabilities, fostering, residential care and emotional wellbeing, with strong interconnectivity with the Principal Service lead for Children in Care and Care experienced.

In this role, you will:

• Provide strategic leadership across Through Care services, including children in care, care leavers, fostering, residential provision, placements, family time and services for children with disabilities, ensuring outstanding support and positive outcomes.
• Drive quality, performance and continuous improvement, ensuring strong safeguarding practice, statutory compliance, inspection readiness and a relentless focus on improving the lives of children and young people.
• Lead high-performing teams and partnerships, championing the voice of children and young people, embedding excellent corporate parenting, and working collaboratively across health, education, police and wider system partners to deliver service excellence and value for money.

Who we're looking for:

We are seeking a visible, authentic and ambitious leader with significant experience within Children's Social Care and a proven track record of delivering improvement in complex environments.

If you’re driven to make a real impact for children and families across Dudley, we want to hear from you.

For an informal discussion please contact Kirsty Hart on  who make necessary arrangements for a conversation with our Associate Directors

Applications close: 31/8/26

Please submit your CV andsupportingstatement with your application. Your supporting statement should be arial 12 and no more than 4 pages.

The recruitment process consists of a young person’s panel and final interview. Interview dates will be confirmed following shortlisting. Please indicate any periods you are unavailable.

Please do visit Dudley Councils Children and Young People recruitment site for more information:

-https://

Workplace Attendance:
Working in the office 3+ days a week (pro-rata) or Onsite full time.

So that we can demonstrate Dudley’s commitment to diversity and inclusion and to improve bias in the recruitment process that could create barriers for candidates. Your personal data will be anonymised when you apply, to ensure that you comply with our anonymisation process, please ensure you have removed your name and date of birth from any attachments prior to uploading them to your application.

Online application forms will only be accepted for this vacancy, online facilities for jobs are available at public libraries within the Dudley Borough.

All applicants must be able to provide documentation to prove their right to work in the UK.

Please note:

Dudley MBC does not currently offer sponsorship for candidates without the Right to Work in the UK.

If you require support completing an online or paper application form and or interview techniques, please contact Dudley Adult and Community Learning on  or  who can support with Digital Skills and Job Applications.

If you have a disability and require assistance in making an application please contact the HR Resourcing Team via

If you are experiencing a problem whilst applying for a position, please follow the link below to the WM Jobs Help Page in the first instance

If the WM Jobs Help Page does not resolve your issue then please contact the HR Resourcing Team via

Dudley Council will check the information that you have provided against any details already held for accuracy and completeness. The Council will check, share and cross match your information both internally within the council and with external organisations to protect public funds and prevent or detect crime, only where the law allows us to do so.

The Council’s full Privacy and Disclaimer Statement can be accessed on the website at

N.B. We reserve the right to close this vacancy prior to the advertised date should we receive a large number of applications

Attached documents

Employee Benefits

Principal Lead Through Care - updated August 2026.docx

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