About Inner West Council

Inner West Council is among Sydney’s larger local government agencies looking after a vibrant community of 201,000 people living in some of the inner city’s most vibrant, creative, liveable and diverse suburbs.

As we continue to deliver quality, innovative and inclusive programs and services, we would love it if you can join in our journey towards becoming the best council for our community.

We are committed to the principles of Equal Employment Opportunity, WHS, sustainability, continuous improvement and business excellence. The community is at the heart of the organisation and Council puts its values of Integrity, Respect, Innovation, Compassion and Collaboration at the centre of everything that we do. We are here to be of service to the community and make Inner West a great place to be. We expect commitment to these values from all employees in performing their respective roles.

We offer flexible career life balance with hours that allow you to relax and recharge. We offer a variety of flexible work arrangement options (e.g. flexible hours and working from home) where appropriate giving you even greater quality of work life balance.

Permanent employees benefit from our great value gym membership from $15.50/week giving access to a vast network of gyms in Sydney.

About Children's Services

Inner West Council is one of the largest local government providers of early learning and middle childhood services in NSW. We provide:

• Centre-based long day care x 11
• Pre-school x 1
• Out of hours school care x 2
• Family Day Care Scheme x 1
• Occasional Care x 1
• Mobile playgroup x 1

Across all our children’s services our educators provide early learning, education and care to more than 1600 children every week. We value quality in our pedagogy and practice, and actively work with our diverse community to ensure that everyone feels welcome, respected and included. All of our services Meet the National Quality Standards and more than half have been rated as Exceeding. Our educators work in a play-based learning environment and are fully committed to all elements of the Early Years Learning Framework and My Time Our Place.

We value the child and family centred approach to early learning and child development and work with a range of stakeholders and organisations across our Local Government Area including the regulator, the NSW Department of Education, the Local Health District and allied health professionals and not for profit and community groups who provide ancillary services to children and families who may be vulnerable, have particular learning needs or who live with disability.

Our children’s services are financially sustainable and access Childcare Subsidy and other government funding programs such as Sure Start and the Inclusion Support Program to maximise affordability for families. We take a “not-for-profit” approach whilst ensuring we are financially viable for our community into the future.

The Senior Manager Children’s Services leads and oversees all these services and functions for Inner West Council with the support of a strong and experienced head office operational team, including operations managers, a dedicated professional development professional as well as administrative and financial support staff.

About the role

This senior leadership position reports directly to the Director Community and is responsible for strong, values-based leadership of the Children’s Services team, including the development and management of plans, budgets, operations and systems. The role is responsible for ensuring that all staff within the Children’s Services function work collaboratively towards meeting/exceeding all regulatory requirements and Council’s commitments in its strategic plan, operational plans and budgets.

The Senior Manager leads, manages and provides direction and expected to provide a consistent high-quality approach to early learning services and other project delivery. They will be involved in divisional planning and implementation of divisional directions and systems.

As member of the Leadership Team, this role has a collegiate responsibility to facilitate Council-wide outcomes that lead to improved services for the community. Inner West Council is known as a thought leader and quality provider in children’s services and the Senior Manager, working alongside the Director Community and Children's Services Operations Managers, has a significant role in ensuring that pedagogy and practice reflect current best practice for children and families, and that the regulatory requirements and quality standards are central to our work. The role also provides a significant opportunity to lead projects with other organisations and inter-agencies to celebrate the diversity of the Inner West community and to continually improve our service delivery and evidence-based practice.

Please read the Position Description to familiarise yourself with all the requirements and conditions of the role.

Remuneration

An annual Total Remuneration Package (TRP) range of $174,849 to $193,881 per annum in recognition of:

• Market relativity
• Additional hours worked required to meet position requirements and performance expectations
• Access to IWC motor vehicle lease back scheme for private use

The TRP includes the following components:

• Base salary and superannuation (SCG) contribution (currently 11%), and may include:
  • market premium
  • cost of non-cash benefits
  • cost of fringe benefits tax (FBT)

Some of the required skills, experience and qualifications

• University Degree in Early Education, Education or other relevant field.
• Demonstrated ability to manage an operational budget, work collaboratively with finance team and meet KPI’s and reporting requirements in relation to staffing, operational budgets, access to government subsidies and grants.
• Demonstrated extensive experience in undertaking innovative service delivery in education and care for children and understanding of the NSW and national regulatory environment for children’s services.
• High level experience in leading a team involved in service delivery to the community, strategic and business planning, and ability to lead continuous improvement initiatives.
• Experience in working with managers, staff and internal and external stakeholders (e.g. people and culture, Dept of Communities and Justice, Dept of Education) to resolve high priority, and often sensitive and complex matters involving children and families.

Enquiries

Ruth Callaghan, Director Community on 9392 5485

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How to Apply

We recommend you read the Position Description for the role to make sure your application addresses the requirements of the position. Council is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes all applicants. Please advise us within the application if you need support, reasonable adjustments to participate successfully in the recruitment process.

All new workers must be and remain fully vaccinated against COVID-19 prior to beginning their work or hold a valid medical contraindication.

Click "Apply Now" to submit an application.

Eligibility for employment / Pre employment Checks

Successful applicants must be eligible to work in Australia and agree to provide information for pre-employment checks as required for the position. This may include police records checks, certified copies of relevant qualifications, Driver’s Licence and proof of work rights in Australia (please refer to the Position Description for the specific qualifications/requirements for the role). Copies of any sighted documents will be kept by IWC for its records as proof of verification.

For more information about work rights in Australia please visit the Department of Home Affairs website.

Inner West Council is a Diversity employer. We encourage applications from all candidates.

Council is committed to reconciliation and strongly encourages Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people, people with disability, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and mature aged workers to apply.