Quality and Contracts Manager

Overview

Are you passionate about driving quality improvement and ensuring vulnerable people receive outstanding care and support services? Do you thrive in a role where you can influence providers, lead high-performing teams and make a real impact across the health and social care sector?

We are seeking an experienced Quality and Contracts Manager to lead our quality assurance and contract management function within Adult Social Care. This is an exciting opportunity to shape service quality across a diverse provider market while leading a team dedicated to improving outcomes for residents and delivering value for money.

About us

The Children’s Social Care Commissioning Team is responsible for ensuring that Buckinghamshire has safe, high-quality, and sustainable services for children and young people through both operational and strategic commissioning. The team commissions and oversees a range of external placements, including residential children’s homes, fostering, supported accommodation, domiciliary care, secure welfare placements, parent and child assessment units, and SEND residential schools. Operational responsibilities include quality assurance and risk-based assessments, fee negotiations and governance, cost benchmarking using CareCubed, contract and provider performance management, and due diligence for new providers. Strategically, the team leads framework and regional commissioning activity to shape, strengthen, and diversify the provider market, increase local sufficiency, and ensure services meet the current and future needs of children and young people.

About the role

As Quality and Contracts Manager, you will play a pivotal role in ensuring commissioned care and support services consistently deliver high-quality, safe and effective support. Leading a team of Quality Officers, you will oversee contract management, quality monitoring and provider improvement activities, helping providers achieve expected standards while supporting continuous improvement across the market.

Working closely with care providers, commissioning colleagues, health and social care professionals, and organisations such as OFSTED you will identify risks, monitor performance and drive positive change. You will support providers through both routine quality assurance processes and more complex situations involving service concerns, performance issues or escalating risks

This role offers a unique opportunity to influence the wider care market through strategic quality improvement initiatives, data-driven decision-making and collaborative partnership working. You'll have the chance to shape best practice, contribute to service development and help ensure residents receive the highest standards of care and support.

Key responsibilities include:

• Leading and developing a team of Quality and Contracts Officers to deliver effective contract management and quality assurance activities.
• Monitoring provider performance against contractual expectations and agreed quality frameworks.
• Supporting and leading complex provider reviews, investigations and improvement plans where quality concerns or risks have been identified.
• Building strong relationships with providers, commissioners and health and social care partners to promote continuous improvement.
• Analysing performance, quality and market intelligence data to identify trends, risks and opportunities.
• Contributing to quality surveillance and partnership meetings to support collaborative approaches to quality improvement.
• Producing robust reports and records to support effective contract management and performance oversight.
• Supporting the development of commercial and commissioning practices that deliver quality services and value for money.
• Leading quality assurance processes, audits and reviews to ensure consistency and continuous improvement.

For a full list of responsibilities and accountabilities, please refer to the Job Description

Any-Desk:

As an ‘any-desk’ worker, you’ll need to be connected to our network to access digital folders and resources, but this can either be from home or an office location when required. You will be required to work from the office a couple of times a week, depending on your role and team requirements.

About you

We are looking for a confident, collaborative and highly motivated professional with significant experience in contract management, quality assurance, commissioning, or the wider health and social care sector. You will be passionate about improving outcomes for vulnerable people and have the leadership skills to inspire and support a team working in a fast-paced and often complex environment.

The successful candidate will be comfortable navigating challenging situations, managing competing priorities and building effective relationships with a wide range of stakeholders. You will have excellent analytical skills, a strong understanding of risk management and the ability to use data and intelligence to inform decision-making and drive service improvements.

You will bring excellent communication and influencing skills, enabling you to work effectively with providers, partners and colleagues to address performance concerns, implement improvement plans and achieve positive outcomes. Above all, you will share our commitment to delivering high-quality care services that make a meaningful difference to people's lives.

We're looking for someone with:

• Significant experience in a senior commissioning, contract management, quality assurance, health or social care role.
• Experience of managing and developing teams, including performance management and staff development.
• Strong knowledge of the health and social care sector, including relevant legislation, regulations and quality standards.
• Experience of supplier relationship management and working with care providers to improve performance and quality.
• Proven ability to identify, assess and manage risk in complex environments.
• Excellent analytical, reporting and problem-solving skills.
• Strong stakeholder management and partnership working experience.
• Excellent organisational skills and the ability to prioritise effectively in a fast-paced environment.
• Good IT skills, including Microsoft Office applications and data analysis tools.
• Degree-level education or equivalent experience.
• Evidence of continuing professional development.

Please refer to the Job Description for full details of the essential and desirable criteria.

We understand that candidates may use AI tools to assist with their applications. While we welcome innovation, we expect all submissions to reflect your own experience, skills, and achievements accurately. Please ensure your application is truthful and demonstrates your personal capabilities, as this will be assessed during the selection process.

Why Join Us?

This is an opportunity to make a genuine difference by helping to shape high-quality care services and improve outcomes for residents across our communities. You'll work alongside dedicated professionals, influence service improvement across the provider market and contribute to a culture of excellence, collaboration and continuous improvement.

 

Other information

For more information about the role, please contact Jessica Hunter on email at [email protected] for an informal discussion.

Closing date: 11th September 2026

Interview Date: 25^th September 2026

We reserve the right to close the vacancy once we have received sufficient applications, so please be advised to submit your application as early as possible.

Buckinghamshire Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults at risk.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare:

• All unspent convictions and conditional cautions
• All spent convictions and adult cautions that are not protected (i.e. that are not filtered out) as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2020 and 2023).

For further information on filtering please refer to Nacro guidance and the guidance published by the Ministry of Justice (see, in particular, the section titled ‘Exceptions Order’).

Our values and culture

We have a set of values, which our employees have chosen, that represent what we are – Proud, Ambitious, Collaborative and Trustworthy.

By joining us, you can expect:

• a fair and inclusive culture
• the chance to really make a difference to those around you
• health and well-being initiatives including an Employee Assistance Programme, Mental Health First Aiders and mindfulness workshops
• a unified voice through our Employee Representative Group
• ongoing support, and the opportunity to develop and progress in your career with us
• opportunities to take part in fun activities such as fundraising and social events

We know that our biggest strength comes from the people that work for us, and that’s why we’re working hard to ensure we continue to be an accessible and inclusive organisation.

From dedicated staff networks overseen by our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group, to proudly standing as a Disability Confident employer, it’s important to us that all our colleagues feel engaged, listened to, and valued. Our offer of flexible working empowers a productive and happy workforce and allows employees to combine work with other responsibilities and commitments.

We believe our workforce should reflect the diverse communities we service in Buckinghamshire, and are looking for like-minded individuals to join us in promoting equality, fairness, and inclusion for everyone.

We recognise and reward you

Hard work and success deserves recognition. That’s why we pride ourselves on the benefits we give our people. We actively encourage a good work-life balance and promote flexible and agile working arrangements. We provide discounts on various Cafés, restaurants, shops and auto enrolment onto our generous Pension Scheme. In addition to the opportunity to gain membership to Costco, we have discounted gym memberships, travel discounts with Arriva and much more.

https://jobs.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/working-buckinghamshire-council/