Strategic Commissioning Lead

Overview

Are you a strategic thinker with a passion for improving lives through high-quality health and social care services? Do you enjoy building strong partnerships, shaping services for the future, and leading transformational change?

We're looking for a Strategic Commissioning Lead to play a pivotal role in shaping, developing and delivering commissioning strategies that improve outcomes for people across our communities. This is an exciting opportunity to influence services at a system-wide level, work alongside a broad range of stakeholders, and drive innovation in a fast-paced and rewarding environment.

About us

Buckinghamshire Council is a relatively new organisation that combines the strengths and expertise of the previous five councils in the county to create positive change for local people, communities, and businesses. We are firmly focused on the future and have made a clear commitment to serve residents better and to provide stronger representation for Buckinghamshire, both locally and nationally. 

About the role

As our Strategic Commissioning Lead, you'll provide leadership across a diverse commissioning portfolio, ensuring services are planned, commissioned and developed in line with current and future needs. Working closely with colleagues across health, social care and partner organisations, you'll use evidence, insight and engagement to shape services that deliver positive outcomes and value for money.

This is a highly influential role where you'll lead a team of commissioning professionals, develop strategic plans, oversee market development activities, and work collaboratively with providers and stakeholders to ensure services remain innovative, sustainable and responsive. You'll have the opportunity to shape long-term strategies, influence key decision-making, and contribute to transformational programmes that make a genuine difference to people's lives.

Key responsibilities include:

• Leading the development and delivery of commissioning strategies and service plans.
• Building strong relationships with partners, providers and stakeholders across the health and care system.
• Driving service improvement, transformation and market development initiatives.
• Managing resources and budgets to ensure quality, value for money and positive outcomes.

For further information on the responsibilities of the role, please refer to the Job Description.

Any-Desk:

As an ‘any-desk’ worker, you’ll need a desk, screen a keyboard to get your job done. 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 required to work from the office a couple of times a week, depending on your role and team requirements.

About you

We're looking for an experienced and collaborative leader who can combine strategic vision with a practical approach to delivery. You'll be someone who enjoys working with a wide range of stakeholders, can confidently influence at all levels, and has a track record of delivering meaningful change within complex organisations. You'll be comfortable navigating competing priorities, using evidence and insight to make informed decisions, and bringing people together to achieve shared goals.

To be successful in this role, you'll bring substantial commissioning experience within health, social care or a related environment, alongside strong leadership, financial management and partnership-working skills. You'll have experience of developing and implementing strategies, leading service improvement and transformation programmes, and managing organisational change. A degree-level qualification (or equivalent experience) is essential, and relevant professional qualifications in commissioning, procurement, programme management or related disciplines would be advantageous.

You'll also have:

• Strong knowledge of health and social care legislation, policy and commissioning best practice.
• Excellent relationship-building, negotiation and influencing skills.
• Experience of leading teams and delivering results through others.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving and project management capabilities. For full details of the essential and desirable criteria, please refer to the Job Description.

Why Join Us?

This is an opportunity to make a real impact on the services that support people across our communities. You'll join a supportive and forward-thinking team where innovation, collaboration and continuous improvement are encouraged, and where your expertise will directly influence future service delivery and outcomes.

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.

Other information

For more information about this role, please contact Matilda Moss at [email protected] for an informal discussion.

Internal Closing date: Sunday 1st November 2026

Interview Date: w/c 2nd November 2026

This is a fixed term - 18 month contract

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

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

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

By joining Buckinghamshire Council, 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

At Buckinghamshire Council, 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.

About the Service Area

The Strategic Commissioning and Procurement Service brings together strategic commissioning, Quality and Placements, alongside procurement colleagues. By combining our skills, experience and lessons learned, we ensure the most effective approach to supporting all stages of the commissioning cycle, complementing other Council teams to maximise both outcomes and value for money for our residents.

Within this broader service, 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.

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/