Improvement Manager

Job Introduction

Job Title: Improvement Manager

Starting Salary: £61,443 progressing to £68,775 per annum (pro rata for part time) - Pay award pending

Hours: 37

Base

Location:

Farnham House, Stevenage - Hybrid Working. The role is expected to be present in the office 3-4 days a month. Ability to travel across Hertfordshire required, but driving licence not essential.

Contract Type: Fixed Term/Secondment 2 years

Directorate: Children’s Service

The Improvement & Transformation Team work across the Inclusion & Skills and Education Directorates within Children’s Services, delivering projects and programmes that support the continuous improvement of services. In particular, we focus on Special Education Needs & Disabilities (SEND) and Inclusion, driving improvement work that leads to better outcomes for children and young people.

This is an exciting time to join the team, we are recruiting various project and programme roles to support delivery of the Hertfordshire SEND Reform Plan. You will work with partners across the SEND Local Area Partnership including local authority services, health, education, and parent carer representatives, delivering elements of the plan, enabling the partnership to deliver its commitments to reform the local SEND system, improve experiences for children and young people, and prepare for wider national reforms.

You will be joining a well‑established and supportive team with a track record of forging partnerships and delivering high impact within SEND and Inclusion.

We are seeking an experienced Improvement Manager to lead delivery of various projects and programmes within the SEND Reform Plan. This is a senior role within the Improvement and Transformation Service and is expected to work at a high level with stakeholders across the SEND Local Area Partnership, providing leadership to project staff within the service.

You’ll work closely with the SEND Reform Plan Strategic Programme Lead, Project Managers and SEND partnership stakeholders to keep delivery on track, prepare high quality updates, support delivery boards, and maintain excellent communication with the wider SEND partnership.

This role is ideal for someone who thrives in complex, fast moving environments, and enjoys problem solving. If you’re motivated by meaningful change and want to help shape the future of local services that support children and young people, we’d love to hear from you.

• Lead and deliver complex service redesign and change programmes within the SEND Reform Plan, applying a range of business improvement methodologies alongside structured programme and project management approaches.
• Establish and maintain robust programme infrastructure, including governance, reporting, risk, issue and assurance frameworks to support effective end‑to‑end delivery.
• Accountable for programme and project delivery, ensuring outcomes are achieved to agreed quality standards, timescales and budgets, with clear oversight of risks, dependencies and critical paths.
• Lead process mapping activities to support effective service design, ensuring current and future state processes are clearly defined, optimised, and aligned to organisational objectives.
• Drive benefits realisation, including identification, tracking and delivery of financial and non‑financial benefits, ensuring alignment to SEND improvement and reform outcomes.
• Work with Programme Sponsors and stakeholders to define scope, outcomes, success measures, resource requirements and governance arrangements.
• Provide line and matrix management to Project Managers and Project Officers, enabling good practice of project management and supporting professional development.
• Performance management of projects and programmes, using data to inform decision‑making, challenge progress and drive continuous improvement.
• Develop and maintain strong partnerships across the local authority, NHS, schools, settings, parent carer forums and wider stakeholders to enable delivery and system‑wide change.
• Lead stakeholder engagement and communications strategies, ensuring clear, consistent and effective communication across all levels of the system.
• Champi…