Join us

Capita SCS is one of the fastest growing providers of strategic management support to Local Authority Children’s Services departments.  Our success is built on the quality of the managers in our team.  In the last five years we have provided interim management support and consultancy to over 50 Local Authorities and we have undertaken a number of projects for the DfES. Our services are in constant and growing demand and the range of services we are able to offer is steadily expanding.

We have a large team of permanent staff, including former Directors and Deputy Directors of Children’s Services, Social Services and Education Departments as well as staff specialising in children’s social care, Children’s Centres and early years, school improvement, Building Schools for the Future, SEN and inclusion.  We also support LAs in preparing for JARs and APAs.  We are able to cover the full range of Local Authority Children’s Services’ functions at a senior level. 

We are also responsible for managing Capita’s National Strategies’ contract and play a significant role in providing interim management and consultancy support to the National Strategies.

Joining SCS

We are now seeking to recruit high quality Directors and Assistant Directors, or senior managers with similar recent experience, who have a record of success within a Children’s Services Department and now want to build on and share this experience in new management settings.  We need staff that are looking for further challenges, who want to continue to provide excellent services in the public sector and want to work in partnership with Local Authorities and the DfES. You must be willing to work flexibly in different locations and you must be totally committed to high quality and to always putting children first.

We are also looking to recruit Primary School Improvement Specialists who have a successful track record of working in both schools and a local authority or who have acted as consultant to a number of Primary schools. 

We are seeking colleagues who can demonstrate a proven track record of successfully supporting and challenging primary schools and making an impact on pupils standards. Children's social care specialists who have considreable experience as operational and strategic managers in children's social care.

We are seeking colleagues with a proven track record in areas such as assessment and review, developing commissioning frameworks for placement provision for looked after children and reviews of inter-agency safeguarding.

We can offer you an attractive remuneration package, challenge and variety in different settings, support from a dedicated team of professionals and opportunities to develop your career.  A number of our team have moved on from successful work with SCS to promotion within Local Authorities, including four as Directors of Children’s Services.  Others have joined us as accomplished Local Authority staff and are now establishing a track record and national reputation as outstanding interim managers or as leading experts in their field.

When staff join us, we then have the task of seeking to place them on assignments.  This will sometimes be a placement as an interim manager or consultant, either alone or as part of an SCS team, or you could be given two or more part-time assignments on different projects.  You could be involved in long-term assignments over several months or short-term ones over a few weeks.  We take account of your preferences, expertise and experience.  At all times we aim to meet the needs of our clients and to deliver the highest quality of services.

As a team member you will need to be flexible about the location of your work, which could mean having to live away from home during the week. This is less likely to be the case if you live in or near to London, as we have been particularly successful in winning contracts in the London area. We cover all travel and accommodation expenses if/when you have to stay away from home.  If there are any limitations on the location of assignments that you would be able to undertake we would be grateful if you could make that clear in your application.

In addition to expanding our team of permanent staff, we are also seeking to recruit high quality individuals to join our team of Associates Consultants to work with us on a flexible basis.

Information we require from applicants

We are keen to ensure that applicants are given the best possible opportunity to promote their skills and experience to us.  In order to assist you with this we have set out below some key headings we would like you to cover in your CV and supporting statement:

• Personal details, including ethnicity (in line with our equal opportunities policy)
• Education/training and qualifications
• Work history including dates, job titles and brief details of roles and responsibilities
• Principal areas of expertise
• Evidence of key skills: leadership, management, report writing, project management and performance management
• Examples of successful service delivery
• Aspirations
• What you could contribute to SCS
• Availability (full-time or part-time) and any geographical limitations
• Names of two referees (including your most recent employer)
• Your email address and telephone number(s)

If you wish to submit your CV, please email as a word document to: sofia.clark@capita.co.uk. 
If you wish to discuss further with one of our senior managers, please contact Sofia in the first instance.