Senior Operations Lead - Triage; Interim Head

Social Work England are the specialist regulator for social work in England, focused on enabling positive change in social work. Every day, social workers support millions of people to improve their chances in life. We are taking a new approach to regulating social workers in their vital roles. We believe in the power of collaboration and share a common goal with those we regulate – to protect the public, enable positive change and ultimately improve people’s lives.

The Senior Operational Lead provides senior operational leadership across the triage function during a period of significant organisational transformation, workforce expansion and service improvement. Working in partnership with the Head of Triage, the role exercises significant delegated authority to ensure continuity of day-to-day operational leadership, sustained service performance and workforce effectiveness whilst the Head of Triage leads the implementation of the Triage Process Review recommendations and wider transformation programme.

A key purpose of the role is to strengthen and lead the existing management structure, including Triage Operational Managers and Triage Leads. The postholder develops management capability, addresses complex performance, behavioural and capability issues, embeds consistent leadership practice and creates high performing teams, enabling the Head of Triage to focus on strategic transformation whilst maintaining high standards of operational delivery.

The role requires the application of extensive specialist knowledge of fitness to practise triage, regulatory decision making, operational leadership and workforce management to ensure the consistent delivery of high quality, legally robust and evidence-based operational outcomes.

• Provide senior operational leadership for the day-to-day operation of the Triage function, exercising significant delegated authority on behalf of the Head of Triage to ensure agreed performance, quality, workforce and service objectives are achieved.
• Provide senior operational leadership to Operational Managers and Triage Leads, holding them accountable for delivering agreed operational, quality, workforce and customer service objectives whilst strengthening management capability across the function.
• Lead the development of management capability by coaching, mentoring and supporting Operational Managers and Triage Leads, addressing complex performance, capability and behavioural issues and embedding a culture of accountability, continuous improvement and high performance.
• Be responsible and accountable for robust, accurate, clear and consistent operational decision-making in relation to triage activities, ensuring decisions are evidence-based, legally defensible and consistent with legislative, regulatory and organisational requirements.
• Analyse operational performance, workforce information, service risks and management information to identify underlying causes of underperformance, determine appropriate interventions and deliver sustainable improvements in operational effectiveness and service delivery.
• Provide operational leadership to implement and embed agreed service improvements, ensuring new ways of working are consistently adopted across the Triage function whilst maintaining operational performance, workforce resilience and service continuity.
• Lead the operational identification, management and escalation of operational and regulatory risks, ensuring appropriate mitigation, maintaining public protection and providing assurance to the Head of Triage and Assistant Director – Regulation (Investigations).
• Develop effective working relationships with colleagues, Legal Services and external stakeholders, providing expert operational advice, resolving complex challenges to regulatory decision-making and influencing the consistent application of legislation, policy and operational practice.
• Prepare and present operational performance, workforce intelligence and emerging risks to senior leaders, providing authoritative advice to support operational decision-making, organisational objectives and continuous improvement.
• Lead by example, promoting equality, diversity…