Place Planning Manager

Job Introduction

Job Overview: 

The School Place Planning Manager will work closely with schools and with BCP Council colleagues to plan, develop, and implement changes to the provision of places for children aged 0-25. Your efforts will help create the right conditions for the effective operation and organisation of schools, ensuring access to sufficient local quality school places to meet the needs of our communities.  

Key Responsibilities: 

• Utilise key data and information to communicate changes, influence decision-making, and formulate plans for school organisation changes.
• Develop and implement the Council’s Place Planning Strategies to secure sufficient early years, mainstream, and specialist school places.
• Communicate changes in data and trends to local and regional partners.
• Plan and commission new specialist school places for children with complex needs.
• Build and nurture positive working relationships with stakeholders, including senior managers, early years providers, schools, diocese, academy trusts, elected members, and communities.
• Support headteachers in developing strategic plans to mitigate the impact of falling pupil numbers on school budgets.
• Provide professional support and advice to encourage school partnerships and collaborative models to support school improvement, promote sustainable schools, strengthen continuity and progression for children and families.
• Co-produce and develop major change programs for school organisation proposals.
• Lead delivery of service objectives through applied project management.
• Commission new schools through competition and support their delivery from initial planning to readiness to open.

Qualifications and Experience: 

• Relevant Degree (or equivalent experience).
• Advanced relevant professional qualification, preferably a teaching qualification or equivalent experience.
• Senior Leadership Qualification or experience (e.g., NPQH) is desirable.
• Experience as a senior leader in whole school organisation, strategy, and development.
• In-depth knowledge of schools and how teaching, learning, curriculum, leadership, management, and governance contribute to their overall effectiveness and sustainability, and use this to establish a whole school approach to school place planning. 
• Significant experience in developing and implementing strategic plans and evaluating their impact, seeking continuous improvement. 
• In depth experience and knowledge of school funding, budgeting, and managing school resources to support change, deliver value for money and high quality services. 
• Manage and use allocated budget and resource effectively and flexibly to ensure delivery of service objectives within budget and suggest any opportunities to generate income.
• Experience in initiating and managing change and improvement in the pursuit of strategic objectives.
• Knowledge of project and performance management and a track record of delivering resource constrained projects using data informed decision making.
• Substantial managerial experience organising and coordinating business support services to secure outcomes. 
• Experience of building and maintaining high quality relationships at all levels and supporting teams and individuals to maximise their potential and achieve objectives.  

Personal Qualities and Attributes: 

• Ability to demonstrate effective involvement of stakeholders in service development and delivery, harnessing the benefits of partnership working. 
• Strategic and lateral thinking to develop creative solutions to complex problems, working with multiple teams.
• Strong program/project management skills.
• Strong leadership and management skills with well-developed negotiating and influencing skills.
• Excellent communication skills, both oral and written with a confident presentation style.
• Ability to build and maintain high-quality relationships at all levels.
• Strong organisational and time management skills.
• Strong analytical skills and ability to interpret and utilise data.
• Awareness of local, regional, and national educational issues and legislation, including wider local government issues and the political context in which it operates.
• Commitment to fairness and equity in policy development.
• Understanding of political sensitivities and confidence in working with elected members, regulators and field forces.
• Knowledge of the Council’s constitution, processes and procedures 
• Able to deal with confidential and highly sensitive issues  
• Effective ICT skills 

Job Requirements 

• Must be able to travel using public or other forms of transport or hold a valid UK driving license with access to own or pool car.

If you are interested in this role and have some questions, please do not hesitate to contact Tanya Smith, Head of Inclusion, Places and Captial - tanya.smith@bcpcouncil.gov.uk. Interviews will be held on either 1 or 2 May 2025.   

This job description is not exhaustive and reflects the type and range of tasks, responsibilities and outcomes associated with this post.    

About BCP Council

BCP Council provides services to a diverse community of 400,000 residents and employs more than 5,000 people. Our area includes over 15 miles of beautiful world-renowned coastline. We can offer career defining roles to transform and improve services. By working with us, you can help deliver a vision of a thriving, word-class, prosperous and inclusive place for generations to come.

Our Benefits

We offer an excellent benefits package to colleagues. Find out more on our website

As a result of the creation of BCP Council in 2019, we are working on simplifying our terms and conditions of service and will be creating a single pay structure which is to be applicable for all employees. It is important to us that we offer benefits that our colleagues value as part of their total employment package and we are reviewing these to make sure we have it right. We have been in a process of collective bargaining since 2019 and have positively worked forward to reach an agreed position with the unions for the new contractual offer. This has taken longer than we hoped and therefore we are having to consider all alternative avenues available to enable us to remove inequality in the organisation as a result of bringing together 3 councils. 

We are in the process of establishing a timescale for implementation, and all colleagues joining us will be included in these changes. We want to reassure everyone that whichever route is taken to reach the new terms and conditions, we can honour continuous service and there will not be any job reduction as a result of the implementation of Pay and Reward.  If you have any questions at all about this process, please feel free to raise this with the hiring manager.