Contracts Manager County Hall

Salary £37,563 - £41,177 per annum | 37 hours per week | Permanent, Full time | County Hall | Preston, Lancashire

An exciting opportunity to work in a fast-paced environment supporting social care and our agency providers. You will be responsible for the effective contract monitoring, performance management, and oversight of agency residential care and independent fostering agency providers for our looked after children and young people ensuring high‑quality placements and best value for money is achieved. Your role will lead on the development and maintenance of strong, professional relationships with contracted placement providers, working proactively to monitor performance, manage risk, and address emerging issues.

This includes delivering robust provider risk profiling, identifying concerns early, and escalating or intervening where required to protect children, placements, and the local authority. You will be responsible for reviewing and managing contracts and agreements, ensuring that services are of high quality, compliant with contractual requirements, and deliver value for money. This includes checking the accuracy of fees and costs, ensuring agreed discounts are applied, and leading negotiations with providers where variations, additional services, or fee discussions are required.

Your role works closely with Legal Services to ensure appropriate handling of contractual matters, including mergers, takeovers, contract variations, novations and formal agreements. You will lead activity to resolve concerns and complaints relating to providers within their portfolio, ensuring issues are addressed promptly, proportionately, and in line with agreed processes.

Lancashire is a place we’re very proud of and we’re proud of the role the county council plays in it too. As the fourth largest local authority in the country and the largest in the North, we serve 1.2 million residents and deliver a wide range of innovative, successful services that really make a difference to people’s lives. The work we do can both challenging and rewarding at the same time.

To provide the best service to our children and families, and for this work to be rewarding, front line practitioners need a positive culture and effective support around them. We are proud of the reflective, safe, healthy learning culture here in Lancashire, as well as the range of support for practitioners, particularly for staff starting out in their careers. New recruits to Lancashire Children’s Services attend our Social Work Academy.

One of the first local authorities to set up a Social Work Academy, our programme is well developed and a fantastic support for your first year in practice. This consists of a 1 week induction programme for all staff, with a second week's induction programme for ASYE's. This is followed by regular recall days and training throughout the first year for ASYE's to support increased knowledge and confidence in practice.

The Academy is run by our team of Advanced Practitioners who provide a range of support, training and development across our service to help practice to be at the highest standards.

• Staff have access to the latest research to help embed high quality practice.
• As a large local authority we are able to offer a wide range of excellent training and development opportunities as well as many avenues for career progression.
• All staff have the equipment they need to work flexibly at home.
• Our managers are focused on the wellbeing and positive cultures in their teams.
• There are a range of practitioner forums and initiatives to get involved in.

Please contact our Principal Social Worker Be with any questions or to discuss opportunities to…