Deputy Director, Social Care Policy and Reform

Job summary

Reporting to the National Director, Regulation and Social Care, the Deputy Director, Social Care Policy and Reform is central to our plans for improving the quality of children's social care in England. The post holder is responsible for the development of Ofsted's social care regulatory policy and inspection frameworks, including thematic inspections. Working closely with the National Director, Regulation and Social Care, and the Regulation and Social Care Deputy Directors, the postholder will ensure that our regulatory and inspection policies and frameworks promote and support improvement, informed by professional practice, the experiences of children and young people, and current or developing national policy.

The Deputy Director, Social Care Policy and Reform will lead a team of highly skilled national lead inspectors and policy officials. Central to the role is ensuring that regulation and inspection are closely informed by learning, analysis, and dialogue with the sector and government. The post holder will be an ambassador for and a highly visible representative of Ofsted.

The Deputy Director, Social Care Policy and Reform will be part of the wider national team, led by Regional Directors, and will collaborate with colleagues across other remits to understand what really drives improvement. The post holder will share groundbreaking best practice to help local authorities across the country improve rapidly.

As well as being a senior strategic leader of social care inspection and improvement work, the post holder will take on a full corporate leadership role.

Job description

Please refer to the job specification for further information.

Person specification

Please refer to the job specification for further information.

Qualifications

Social work degree or an equivalent professional social work qualification – for example, a CQSW or DIPSW.

Memberships

Current registration with Social Work England.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Leadership
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £108,574, Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills contributes £31,453 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Full details of the benefits available can be found in our Ofsted Offer brochure.

Ofsted is devoted to equality, diversity and inclusion. Within our Ofsted Strategy 2023-2027 we have stated that we will improve the representation of under-represented groups across the organisation and publish our progress on this annually. We are always looking to expand on our diverse workforce by recruiting candidates from varied backgrounds and differing experiences. We are proud to be a Disability Confident – Leader, we continually engage with our 5 staff networks for protected characteristics, and highlight the work of our Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Group. We ensure all candidates are treated with fair and open competition, with all appointments being made on merit and we use our Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) to provide assurance to all candidates of this.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

The selection panel will assess your application against the essential and, where applicable, the desirable criteria outlined in the person specification.

As part of your application, we will ask you to write a supporting statement (maximum 1,250 words) addressing the following question:

How has your career led you to apply for this role?

Provide concrete examples of your achievements and the impact of your actions. The panel will assess your statement against the following essential criteria:

• Substantial knowledge and experience of working within social care policy development and its operational delivery.
• Experience of developing complex external relationships and encouraging a culture of imaginative thinking that genuinely listens to ideas from employees and stakeholders.
• Experience of working as part of a corporate senior leadership team, collaborating to achieve organisational objectives.
• Highly developed analytical skills, able to identify issues and create effective plans, systems and procedures to manage change, respond promptly to critical events and monitor success.

We will also ask you to provide details of your employment history. This is equivalent to the information you would include in a CV outlining your career history. The panel will assess your employment history against the criteria indicated in the person specification as being tested at the application stage.

The most suitable candidates will be invited to attend an assessment and interview at 10 South Colonnade, London on Monday 29 June 2026.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Resourcing Team
• Email : scsrecruitment@ofsted.gov.uk
• Telephone : 03000 131 487

Recruitment team

• Email : scsrecruitment@ofsted.gov.uk

Further information

We recruit on the basis of merit through fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles.

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with these principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should email Ofsted’s Resourcing team at scsrecruitment@ofsted.gov.uk in the first instance.

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from Ofsted, you may refer your complaint to the Civil Service Commission.

For more information, please visit:

https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/recruitment-principle….

Attachments

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