Location
City of Westminster

Hours
Full Time - standard Civil Service working hours

Salary
£64,518 per annum

About the Role
This is a new and distinctive fixed term role focused on the top priorities for delivery in Children’s Social Care, working at the heart of the Department for Education (DfE). As a senior adviser on delivery, you will work closely with the Minister for Children and Families, senior officials, and teams across DfE and government to accelerate progress against the Minister’s agreed priorities. You will have the opportunity to drive tangible change across the Children’s Social Care portfolio and help improve the lives of children and families across the country.

The Delivery Unit, within the central Delivery Directorate, is dedicated to ensuring successful delivery of ministerial priorities. It works across DfE and government to strengthen plans, use data and frontline insight to interrogate performance, and solve problems to improve outcomes. This Senior Adviser role has a direct connection to the Minister for Children and Families and a line into the Delivery Unit, enabling you to draw upon skills, capabilities, data, and relationships across the department to drive progress.

As Senior Delivery Adviser, you will act as a trusted close adviser to the Minister on delivery of Children’s Social Care reform. You will provide independent challenge, scrutiny, and alternative perspectives on policy and delivery questions. Working closely with the minister, private office, Delivery Unit, senior officials, and teams across the department, you will translate ministerial ambitions into clear plans, rigorously track progress, identify problems early, and lead efforts to unblock delivery challenges across the ministerial portfolio.

Key responsibilities include:
- Agreeing and executing a focused work programme aligned with the Minister’s priorities across the Children’s Social Care portfolio
- Providing clear, evidence-led advice on delivery progress, risks, trade-offs, and opportunities
- Collaborating with Senior Responsible Owners (SROs) and policy teams early in policy development to shape proposals and implementation approaches
- Establishing and participating in strong delivery disciplines alongside the Delivery Unit and SROs, including ministerial stocktakes and official-level pre-briefs
- Diagnosing barriers and supporting recovery where delivery is off track
- Building trusted relationships with senior officials, delivery partners, local government, and sector leaders to drive collective action
- Gathering and interpreting qualitative and quantitative evidence to produce concise, compelling products for senior decision-makers
- Contributing to Delivery Unit planning, prioritisation, review, and learning routines
- Modelling the Directorate’s values: simplify, kind, direct, connected, and committed to high standards

Experience
- Knowledge and experience of children’s social care, including a strong understanding of policy, delivery, and sector context
- Proven track record of delivering complex projects in different settings and turning strategic ambition into measurable results
- Excellent judgement, political awareness, and credibility when advising senior leaders
- Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present complex material clearly and compellingly to senior leaders
- Proven ability to build trusted relationships, work collaboratively, and influence senior partners across and beyond government while maintaining objectivity
- Exceptional ability to use qualitative and quantitative evidence to answer complex questions at pace, identify core issues, and recommend practical actions

About you
- Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to work effectively with senior stakeholders
- Highly motivated to drive change and deliver results in a complex environment
- Politically astute and able to provide independent challenge and scrutiny
- Committed to the values of the Directorate and Department for Education

Qualifications
- No specific qualifications required; however, relevant experience in children’s social care, policy delivery, or related fields is essential

Desirable
- Experience of local government, frontline children’s services, sector improvement, or system reform is advantageous