Assistant Transformation Manager

We are looking for transformation professionals with experience and understanding of consultancy tools and techniques and stakeholder engagement, preferably within a Local Authority environment.

We have two Assistant Transformation Manager (Assistant Consultant) roles available which are offered as 1 x 12-month fixed-term contract or secondment and 1 x 7-month fixed-term contract or secondment. If you are hoping to take up either opportunity as a secondment please discuss with your Line Manager before submitting your application.

These roles will support our Additional Needs and Disabilities (AND) Transformation Programme across a range of projects, working with services to understand problems, identify root causes and design solutions.

These roles have a starting salary of 41,585 per annum, based on a 36-hour working week.

We support hybrid working with an expectation that at least two days per week will be spent in locations across Surrey. This includes one day a week with the team who are based in our Woking office, with another spent in Surrey dependent on business requirements.

Our Offer to You

• 26 days' holiday, rising to 28 days after 2 years' service and 31 days after 5 years' service
• A generous local government salary related pension
• Up to 5 days of carer's leave and 2 paid volunteering days per year
• Paternity, adoption and dependents leave
• An Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to support health and wellbeing
• Learning and development hub where you can access a wealth of resources
• Wellbeing and lifestyle discounts including gym, travel, and shopping
• A chance to make a real difference to the lives of our residents

About Us

Our guiding principle, 'No One Left Behind', is at the heart of everything we do in Surrey. It shapes our priority objectives and the way we deliver services. The Children, Families and Lifelong Learning (CFLL) Directorate is committed to investing in internal transformation teams. The Additional Needs and Disabilities (AND) Transformation team drive high-impact changes within the local authority and across the AND Partnership. We are dedicated to shaping, driving, and facilitating sustainable change and improvement for children in Surrey. By partnering with, challenging, and supporting our stakeholders, we strive to achieve better outcomes for children and young people, against a challenging financial context.

We work directly with service leads and operational teams both within Surrey County Council Education and Lifelong Learning but also across our partners including health commissioners and providers, education settings and the voluntary and community sector. The AND Transformation Programme works to deliver the full programme of improvements outlined in our AND Partnership Improvement Plan following our Ofsted inspection in 2023, and those objectives set out in our AND Partnership Strategy, as well as the conditions of our Safety Valve agreement.

About the Role

As an Assistant Transformation Manager your role will be supporting Transformation Managers who lead and deliver high profile transformation projects. This may involve supporting complex or large-scale pieces of work or owning discrete smaller scale projects. In both respects you will have oversight and guidance from the Transformation Manager and Senior Programme Managers to enable you to thrive in the role.
Our portfolio of projects currently covers a wide range of activity, including process mapping and service design, change management, data and analysis and stakeholder engagement. We draw on a range of methods including Lean to help us identify the root causes of problems within the service and working to form and implement solutions to these issues.

We are looking for candidates who have experience working in a similar transformation environment, preferable across Adult or Children's Social Care, Health or Education. This will enable you to hit the ground running and be familiar with the operational context in which we work.

Your Application

In order to be considered for shortlisting, your application will clearly evidence the following skills and experience and align with our behaviours:

• Experience of supporting key transformation or improvement projects that have improved outcomes and led to recognisable impacts to processes, business-as-usual operations and/or families/customers.
• Relevant project management qualification and/or able to evidence knowledge and understanding of project management.
• Strong research skills, able to use innovative ways to access data and information required, as well as experience of working with complex data to improve services.
• Numerical skills including but not limited to basic arithmetic and percentages, ratios and proportions and data interpretation.
• An ability to analyse and present complex data to individuals and groups in a way that makes it relatable and delivers the intended impact.
• Good interpersonal skills and communication with an ability to tailor your delivery depending on stakeholders.

To apply, we request that you submit a CV and respond to the following 4 questions:

• Please provide an example of a transformation project you were involved in. Please tell us what your role was, and detail the challenges you faced, any strategies you used, and the measurable outcomes achieved.
• Please tell us about a time when you used data to support a change to a service? Please include the changes you proposed, and the impact your changes had.
• Please tell us about a time you used your interpersonal skills to work with diverse stakeholders, tailoring your communication to meet their needs? What was the intended outcome, and did you achieve it?
• What do you think the current challenges are in SEND Transformation, working across the local authority landscape, health, education and other partners?

The job advert closes at 23:59 on 1st March with interviews due to be held in person at our Woking or Reigate offices on 17th and 18th March.

Local Government Reorganisation (LGR)

Surrey County Council is undergoing Local Government Reorganisation, moving from a two-tier system to two new unitary councils in April 2027. If you are employed by Surrey on 1st April 2027, your role will transfer with current terms and conditions to one of the new organisations, supporting local devolution and greater powers for our communities.

Join our dynamic team and shape the future of local government. Make a lasting impact with innovative solutions and improved services for our community. Help us build a brighter future for our residents!

Commitment Wording

We are a disability confident employer which means if you have shared a disability on your application form and have evidenced you meet the minimum criteria, we guarantee you an interview.

Your skills and experience truly matter to us. From application to your first day, we're committed to supporting you with any adjustments you need, we value inclusion and warmly welcome you to join and help build a workplace where everyone belongs.