Pupil Place Planning and Capital Commissioning Manager

About the Borough

The London Borough of Sutton is situated less than 30 minutes by train from Central London, with direct connections to London Victoria and London Bridge. Found in zone 5 with good transport links in and out of London, Sutton boasts award winning parks and open spaces, low crime rates, affordable housing and great schools. As well as high levels of resident engagement and satisfaction, providing quality services and success in addressing our financial challenges, whilst involving residents in key issues and high street changes.

Sutton is continuously investing in the health, wellbeing and education of our residents and the future generation, as set out in the “Ambitious for Sutton” corporate plan. We are home to the Royal Marsden Hospital and the Institute of Cancer Research. Together with the development of the London Cancer Hub, Sutton will be the world’s leading life-science district, specialising in cancer research and treatment. Our vision will create around 13,000 jobs while contributing £1.2bn to the UK economy each year, a vibrant community of scientists, doctors and innovative companies intended to deliver real benefits for cancer patients and drive economic growth. With the regeneration of the local areas with new homes and schools, Sutton is passionate about working closely with our residents and vulnerable groups to help them maintain their independence and create a balance between support and independent living.

The Council is seen as a driving force within the South London Partnership of five outer south west London boroughs focused on strategic growth, regeneration and investment. As we strive to improve our services and spaces for our residents as set out in the ‘Ambitious for Sutton’ corporate plan, Sutton aims to shape the future of the borough and adapt to the needs of its residents to make our Borough a great place to live, work and raise a family.

About the Service and Team

In Sutton, the Pupil-Based Commissioning Service plays a crucial role in ensuring that children and young people, particularly those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) or who are otherwise vulnerable, receive the appropriate support to access education. This team is involved in strategically planning, procuring, and managing services that aim to improve outcomes for these pupils.

You will be joining a small team of commissioning managers responsible for the commissioning of mainstream, specialist and alternative education provision and places across the Early Years education phase all the way through to post-16 and post-19 specialist provision, working closely with partners in other education services in Sutton, school and other education providers, and colleagues in Health and Social Care.

This collaborative approach ensures that tailored interventions and alternative provisions are in place where needed, aiming to support children in mainstream education where possible and to facilitate successful transitions, and prepare them for adulthood.

The service is supported by data and finance support colleagues, and sits alongside provision of admissions and SEND services, delivered within Cognus Education Services, and our Children's and Adults social care, assisted transport and therapy services commissioning colleagues.

About the Role and Our Ideal Candidate

Working to the Head of Pupil Based Commissioning the Pupil Place Planning Officer is a critical strategic role responsible for ensuring that every child within the local authority has access to a high-quality school place. You will balance the supply and demand of school places by analyzing demographic data, housing developments, and migration patterns to forecast future needs and commission new school builds or expansions.

The postholder will be expected to manage at least one team member, and will also be expected to ‘matrix manage’ across other areas including the admissions service within Cognus - the Council’s wholly owned Local Authority Trading Company where the majority of school support services are currently provided.

The post holder will have a particular focus on developing, and implementing the Sutton Primary and Secondary School Organisation Plans to ensure that the Council ensures a sufficiency of high-quality school school places in the Borough.

Role Duties:

• Apply professional judgement to interpret and apply policies and procedures to meet specific local or service needs.
• Provide day to day management and professional supervision to staff to ensure operational plans and activities are delivered effectively.
• Analyse customer needs and the provider market in order to provide data and evidence to inform commissioning and service design decisions for specific services.
• Plan, design and procure specific services to ensure they deliver their intended outcomes for customers.
• Work with specific organisations to deliver intended outcomes through collaborative working.
• Lead small projects and implement changes and improvements within agreed cost, time and quality standards.
• Where relevant, manage service level budgets and resources in order to support the delivery of intended outcomes and demonstrate value for money.

Budgetary accountabilities

• Responsibility for coordinating Education Capital budgets. The balance within these budgets currently sits at approximately £10M and is part of the Council’s overall education capital budgets overseen by the Head of Pupil Based Commissioning (HoPBC).
• Responsibility for monitoring capital maintenance, devolved formula, basic need and special provision capital funding budgets.

Specific accountabilities

1. Strategic Pupil Forecasting & Demand Management

• Projection Modeling: Develop and maintain sophisticated pupil forecasting models for Early Years, Primary, Secondary, and SEND (Special Educational Needs) sectors.
• Trend Analysis: Monitor and interpret birth data from the NHS, migration patterns, and internal school census data to predict future pressure points.
• Sufficiency Reporting: Lead the production of the annual School Capacity (SCAP) statutory return for the Department for Education (DfE).
• Housing Growth Assessment: Analyze local planning applications and the Local Plan to calculate the impact of new housing on school infrastructure.
• Developing Managing Falling Rolls in Primary and Secondary Plans, including development of primary enhanced SEND provisions, and commissioned secondary inclusion bases.
• Responsible for developing and maintaining the local school organisation plan and local estates management strategy.
• Managing the ‘Managing falling rolls in primary school in Sutton programme board which is chaired by the Head of Pupil based commissioning’. This will include analysing admissions, place planning, housing development, and capacity data, and producing reports for the board to consider.
• Developing a governance process, and developing reports for a future managing falling rolls in Secondary programme.
• Identifying opportunities across the LA maintained, and academy estate, for repurposing accommodation as necessary to provide more SEND spaces/ other council priority uses.
• Recommissioning provision to meet needs of Sutton population

2. Capital Programme Financial Oversight

• Budget Monitoring: Maintain rigorous oversight of the Education Capital Programme budget (e.g., Basic Need Grant, School Condition Allocation, and High Needs Capital).
• Financial Reporting: Provide monthly budget variance reports to Senior Leadership, identifying potential overspends or opportunities for re-allocation.
• S106 & CIL Administration: Track and trigger the receipt of developer contributions (Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy), ensuring funds are spent within legal timeframes and on the correct projects.
• Grant Bidding: Identify funding gaps and lead the preparation of external funding bids to central government for new school builds or major refurbishments.

3. School Organisation & Commissioning

• Project Commissioning: Develop "Business Cases" for school expansions, closures, or new school competitions, ensuring they represent the best value for money.
• Statutory Processes: Lead on the legal requirements for school organization changes, including the management of public consultations and statutory notices.
• Academy Conversions: Advise on the capital implications and land transfer issues associated with schools converting to Academy status.

4. Risk Management & Compliance

• Feasibility Oversight: Work with Property Services to ensure capital projects are technically feasible and align with Department for Education (DfE) building bulletins and specifications.
• Contractor Liaison: Monitor the delivery of capital works to ensure they are completed on time for the start of the academic year, mitigating the risk of children being without a school place.
• Audit Compliance: Maintain a clear "audit trail" for all capital expenditure to satisfy internal and external auditors.

Our Offer to You

As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across however big or small; will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.

Employees have access to a wide range of benefits to enable staff to achieve a work life balance, some of which include:

• A generous annual leave entitlement of 26-32 days plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply) depending on service and grade
• Enhanced Maternity, paternity, shared parental, adoption and dependents leave
• Two volunteering days per year
• Flexible Working - Smarter Working Scheme (dependent on the role)
• Adjustable and agile working arrangements using Google Chromebooks
• Learning and development portal offering a range of courses
• Discounts on a range of local shops, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
• Electric vehicle leasing scheme
• Confidential health & wellbeing and counselling support

Application Process

Apply online outlining what skills, abilities and experience you can bring which makes you an ideal candidate for this role. Please refer to the requirements outlined in the job profile when completing your application and check your CV details have been uploaded correctly in the relevant sections.

We understand and recognise the benefits of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the workplace and are embracing AI where appropriate, to boost our productivity and streamline how we deliver our Council services efficiently; to provide the best possible outcomes for our residents and communities.
However, we reserve the right to reject applications where it is apparent that AI-generated content has been used in isolation and without personalised responses. At Sutton we value authenticity and are looking for individuals who can clearly demonstrate their own skills, experience and motivation for the role that they are applying for and embrace and demonstrate our PRIDE values.
Here at Sutton we have core values of Transparency and this is to be demonstrated during the application process and completion of the supporting statement and will be further tested at interview and selection stage for those who progress forward.

The closing date is given as a guide. We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received, it is strongly advised that you complete and submit your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

As part of our award winning Diversity Programme we anonymise all applications received to reduce conscious and unconscious bias enabling every application to be reviewed on the knowledge, skills and experience shown in your application. We encourage our interview panels to be as diverse as possible (age, cultural, neurodiverse etc.) to reduce bias where possible. We are fully committed to removing barriers and enhancing the diversity of our workforce.

Additional Information

We are proud to be a diverse and welcoming Borough and we strive to create a workforce which reflects the community we serve, and instil a sense of belonging in our staff. We celebrate and respect differences and appreciate the value of having a diverse workforce, therefore we welcome applications from under represented groups.

To support our workers and their families we offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums and inclusive staff networks who help drive our diversity agenda.

We are also proud to be a disability confident employer and guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum essential criteria for a role. As an accredited London Living Wage Employer all our employees are guaranteed the London Living Wage regardless of their length or type of contract.

The UK has a points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance. Sponsorship availability varies and is subject to eligibility requirements and budget limitations. As a result, we cannot guarantee sponsorship for all roles and will evaluate sponsorship requests on a case-by-case basis.