Description
The Director of Schools Analysis, System and Strategy is a high-profile senior leadership role at the heart of the school system.
The postholder will provide strategic leadership across the government's agenda for schools, ensuring that strategy, policy and delivery are coherent, evidence-based and realise the government's ambitions across the schools agenda.
The directorate sits in Schools Group and deliberately brings together the central schools strategy division alongside expert policy teams on accountability, regulation and quality and two of the Group's three analytical divisions.
Together it shapes and enables delivery of the government's overall strategy for schools, underpinned by effective accountability that enables school improvement and collaboration, and ensures high-quality evidence and evaluation inform policy development across the piece.
It sits at the heart of department - the post holder will work broadly across Schools Group, and with every other Group given the shared interests in the school system.
It also works closely with key partners, particularly Ofsted and the EEF.
The role is highly visible externally, with the opportunity to develop trusted relationships with stakeholders to inform high-quality policy and shape reform.
Responsibilities:
- Lead the development and delivery of the government's schools strategy, seizing the opportunities of devolution, joined up with our SEND reforms to drive inclusion more broadly, and ensuring an effective response to the independent review on NEETs.
- Develop and deliver effective policy on disadvantage, including through the department's relationship with the EEF, and the allocation of ~£3bn/year on pupil premium.
- Drive effective prioritisation across funding and resourcing to ensure the overall programme is impactful and deliverable.
- Drive implementation across the schools portfolio: strengthening governance and monitoring, ensuring risks, dependencies and challenges are identified early and actively managed, and securing progress on outcomes.
- Develop effective accountability policy for the school system, working closely with Ofsted on the approach to school inspection, shaping school performance measures, delivering new digital public profiles, and the manifesto commitment to develop and roll out new trust-level inspection.
- Oversee effective regulation policy including on RISE and intervention, both at school and trust level, including introducing a new digital sector service to support a self-improving system.
Requirements:
- Strategic leadership across a complex system
- Policy development and reform delivery
- Delivery, governance and risk management
- Decision making and influencing senior decision makers
- Leadership and stakeholder engagement
Benefits:
- Salary of £105,000 per year
- Contribution of £30,418 towards being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme
- 25 days leave, increasing by 1 day every year to a maximum of 30 days after five years' service
- King's Birthday privilege holiday and 8 days' bank and public holidays
- Flexible working arrangements