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Head of Programme Management Office

Grade 15 | 37 hours per week | Permanent | Closing date: 25 May 2026

This is the senior leadership role, reporting to the Service Director, Quality & Improvement of Children’s Services. You’ll be accountable for the governance, assurance, and benefits realisation of a Cabinet-approved programme backed by recurring revenue investment rising to £5.41 million per annum by Year 3 and a residential capital programme of £1.8 million. Full implementation is forecast to deliver £22.61 million of gross savings and cost avoidance by Year 3.

The programme spans three delivery pillars and includes children in care placement reform, fostering development, residential capital build, commissioning change, and SEND sufficiency infrastructure. Barnsley is also working to draw down High Needs Stability Grant funding, which is conditional on demonstrating credible delivery against its local SEND reform plan. Maintaining that evidence base is part of what this role does, and it matters.

A significant part of this role operates through influence rather than direct authority. Finance, Legal, Procurement, HR, and Assets are all corporate dependencies for this programme, and none of them report to you. Getting the right resource, at the right time, from functions with their own competing pressures requires credibility, strong relationship management and the ability to make the case for prioritisation. If you’ve only ever led programmes where your team owns every workstream, this will be a different experience. If you’ve navigated matrix environments in a large, complex organisation and know how to make cross-functional delivery work without formal authority, that’s exactly what Barnsley needs here.

You’ll lead a small team, represent the PMO at governance forums, and provide the assurance infrastructure that Cabinet, Senior Management Team and the Director of Children’s Services require. The Executive Director’s intention is that the PMO function grows over time to centralise project management resource across Children’s Services, so you’ll be shaping something with a longer-term purpose.

You’ll need extensive experience leading a PMO or complex programme in a local authority or comparable public sector organisation, with direct accountability for governance and assurance at a senior level. Experience in or alongside children’s social care, SEND or commissioning is expected. A programme or project management qualification is desirable. What’s essential is that you have the judgement, credibility and organisational standing to lead at this level.

Senior Programme Officer (SME) – Children in care sufficiency

Grade 10 | 37 hours per week | Permanent | Closing date: 25 May 2026

Children in care sufficiency is at the heart of this programme. Barnsley is investing in a strengthened kinship offer, foster care service, the Mockingbird constellation model, and its own internal residential provision. This role holds the thread across all of it.

You’ll bring subject matter expertise in looked after children, placement sufficiency or children in care commissioning. You’ll know the system from the inside, whether through social work practice, commissioning, data or programme delivery, and you’ll understand what the pressures facing children in care teams actually look like day to day.

Strong analytical skills are essential. You’ll be working with complex demand and cost data, interpreting trends, and translating that analysis into clear programme intelligence for senior governance. Excellent written communication matters too: the reports and briefings you produce will inform gateway decisions and go to senior leadership. Accuracy and clarity are not optional.

Reporting to the Head of Programme Management Office, you’ll work closely with social work teams, commissioners and the Head of PMO to keep the Children in Care workstream on track against milestones, and you’ll be expected to spot drift and escalate risks before they become problems. This is a role for someone who takes both their subject matter and the quality of their outputs seriously.

Senior Programme Officer (SME) – SEND and alternative provision sufficiency

Grade 10 | 37 hours per week | Permanent | Closing date: 25 May 2026

SEND sufficiency is one of the most complex and consequential areas of children’s services right now, and Barnsley is investing seriously in getting it right. The programme includes a significant capital build for new SEND provision and work to secure High Needs Stability Grant funding. That grant is conditional on demonstrating credible delivery against the Council’s local SEND reform plan, which means the evidence base this role maintains is not an administrative exercise. It’s what makes the funding possible.

Reporting to the Head of Programme Management Office, you’ll bring subject matter expertise in SEND, alternative provision or high needs sufficiency planning. You’ll understand the statutory framework, know how to read EHCP and demand data, and be able to translate that into the sufficiency assessments and evidence base the programme depends on.

Like the Children in Care SPO role, strong analytical and report writing skills are essential. You’ll be producing analysis that informs gateway decisions and supports capital business cases. This is detailed, consequential work that requires someone who is thorough, precise and committed to getting it right.

If you have a background in SEND strategy, specialist commissioning or high needs planning in a local authority context, and you want to apply that expertise in a programme that is genuinely funded and moving, this is a strong opportunity.

Project Manager

Grade 10 | 37 hours per week | Permanent | Closing date: 25 May 2026

The programme runs across three pillars with multiple interdependent workstreams, each with its own milestones, risks and delivery partners. The Project Manager’s job is to make sure the delivery infrastructure holds.

You’ll report to the Head of Programme Management Office, but the expectation is that you will lead project management across assigned workstreams, coordinate resources, maintain risk and issues logs, monitor budgets and produce reports and presentations for senior audiences. You’ll work within the programme’s gateway framework, making sure that milestone evidence is in place before authority to proceed is granted at each stage.

You’ll have significant experience managing complex change projects in a large organisation, strong knowledge of programme and project management frameworks, and the ability to advise at all levels of seniority. Experience in a children’s services, health or social care context is an advantage. Analytical skills and excellent written communication are as important in this role as the mechanics of project planning.

This is a hands-on delivery role. Organised, methodical, and comfortable working at pace across multiple priorities simultaneously. You’ll be a key part of a small, close-knit team where everyone’s contribution is visible and valued.

Project Officer

Grade 7 | 18.5 hours per week (0.5 FTE) | Permanent | Closing date: 25 May 2026

Every programme depends on people who make sure the detail is right. The Project Officer supports delivery across the PMO, maintaining project documentation, coordinating governance administration, supporting data collation and analysis, and keeping the programme’s information architecture in good order.

Reporting to the Head of Programme Management Office, you’ll be comfortable working in a formal programme management environment, confident handling data and producing written materials, and organised enough to manage competing priorities without things slipping. Experience in a children’s services or public sector setting is useful. What matters most is that you’re reliable, precise and take the quality of your work seriously.

This is a part-time role at 18.5 hours per week. We’re open to how those hours are arranged across the week.