Recruiting a Director of Children's Services

Leicester City Council

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The background
This post had arisen following the promotion of the previous Director of Children’s Services to Chief Executive within the authority. With Leicester being the most diverse city in Britain and having some of the most disadvantaged areas in England, the challenge for the new Director of Children’s Services was to develop a service that remained responsive to a varied and changing demographic profile. There are wide inequalities in the quality of life of different communities within Leicester, and between the city and elsewhere – particularly in the case of educational attainment. Therefore a key area of focus for the role is to develop and deliver strategies to overcome these inequalities, so that the planned improvements in educational achievement, health, personal safety and economic and social well-being are shared by all.

The challenge
Following a previously unsuccessful attempt by the local authority to recruit to the post, Navigate was commissioned to develop a robust and comprehensive recruitment strategy. Our brief was to raise the profile of this challenging and exciting opportunity and to attract a high quality field of suitably qualified and experienced candidates.

The solution
Navigate designed and implemented a creative press and online advertising campaign and carried out an intensive and targeted headhunting exercise.

The ‘search’ element of our service proved to be a significant feature of this assignment – using our extensive networks within children’s services and education to seek out potential candidates who might be a good match for the role. As with all search assignments it was important for us to be upfront about the challenges and opportunities presented by the role so that potential candidates could see how they could make their mark.

The result
Twelve applications were received and after conducting technical interviews, a shortlist of four candidates was taken forward leading to a successful appointment.