Commissioning Officer

How You'll Make a Difference

As a Commissioning Officer, you will join the Partnerships and Commissioning Service as part of the Personalised Commissioning Team, responsible for brokering services to meet individuals' care and support needs, with a focus on achieving positive outcomes for people. A key focus of this role will be supporting the integration of Direct Payments into the Personalised Commissioning Team; an area not previously managed within the team's commissioning responsibilities. Working alongside colleagues across commissioning, social care and partner organisations, you will help develop and embed new approaches to service delivery.

In addition, you will contribute to service development through research, project work and stakeholder engagement. Through effective commissioning and partnership working, you will help shape and improve health, care and support services across South Gloucestershire.

What You Will Be Doing

• A key part of this role will involve supporting the development of Personalised Commissioning's approach to Direct Payments. As this is a new area of responsibility for the team, you will help research, develop and embed this approach.
• You will contribute to project work and meetings relevant to this area of responsibility.
• Line managing a small team, you will provide supervision, support and development to Assistant Commissioning Officers, while overseeing more complex cases to ensure the most appropriate services are identified.
• As part of the operational delivery of the service, you will support day-to-day activities, including acting as a point of escalation for complex duty-related queries and helping to ensure timely and effective decision-making.
• You will work closely with social work teams across the council, as well as care providers, individuals and their families, making strong communication and relationship-building skills essential.
• Working collaboratively with other Commissioning Officers, you will help manage the flow of work into the team and ensure the effective allocation of cases.

What We Need From You

• It is essential that you have relevant experience of working within an organisation responsible for commissioning social care or similar services.
• As the service continues to develop, you will be proactive in seeking out information and sharing knowledge with colleagues across the team.
• Given the nature of the role, you will be collaborative, with excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to manage challenging conversations.
• When assessing complex situations, you will demonstrate clear, logical and analytical problem-solving skills.
• You will be well organised, with excellent time management skills and the ability to effectively manage competing priorities.
• Knowledge of Direct Payments would be advantageous.

What You Need To Know

• This role is hybrid, with a mixture of working at our office in Yate 2 days per week and working from home.
• You will be expected to act as Duty Commissioning Officer for approximately two days per week, between 8.30am and 5.00pm.

Interviews are likely to take place week commencing 9th November.

How a Career At South Gloucestershire Council Is Different

• As part of our benefits package, you will receive generous annual leave (pro rata), employee wellbeing support and you will have access to a range of staff discounts, including eye tests, travel, shopping and leisure activities.
• We recognise that our diverse team of skilled and dedicated people make us a great place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and ensure that individuals are selected, promoted and developed on the basis of their merits and abilities.
• We know our team work best when they have balance in their lives, and we offer genuine flexibility to help them achieve that work/life balance.
• We value our staff as individuals, investing in their careers and we are recognised for the quality, breadth and depth of our training and development offer, which helps make the greatest long-term difference in work.
• We trust our team to work in the way which allows them to make the biggest difference, and we continue to invest in technology to help staff do their jobs to the best of their ability and celebrate innovation.

Our teams at South Gloucestershire Council are making a real difference to the lives of people who live, work and learn here.

• We’re providing essential services across our internal network to ensure we can fully support our community.
• We’re positive and forward thinking, always looking for new and innovative ways of working work and we’re ambitious about the future.

We've achieved a great deal, but we need talented and dedicated people to ensure we continue to make a difference.

We’re making a difference, be part of it!

To view the full job description, please click this link: Commissioining Officer - Job Description