Service Manager - Children's Payment Assurance & Non-Placement Brokerage

Full Job Description

Service Manager –  Children's Payment Assurance & Non-Placement Brokerage 

PO9: £69,258 pa rising in annual increments to £73,818 pa LW

Hybrid Working / 3 days a week in office 

Permanent / Full time 

About Lambeth Children Services:
Lambeth is a borough of huge diversity, strength, and possibility. Lambeth is home to approximately 63,000 children aged 0-18, representing nearly 20% of our borough’s population. Our Lambeth partnerships have the highest ambitions for our children and want them to grow up to be happy, safe and thriving in supportive communities. We have a rich network of good and outstanding schools, a passionate voluntary community sector and an exciting youth and play offer. Children growing up in Lambeth are surrounded by beautiful green spaces and a borough with a rich history, arts, and music scene.

Despite this, our children also face challenges and adversity. There are several health and wellbeing indicators that are higher in Lambeth than other boroughs, including children in need due to parent disability, first time entrants to youth justice system, and children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. We have significant demand for mental health and emotional wellbeing provision and have critical challenges regarding placement sufficiency for our Children Looked After. Lambeth is the fifth most densely populated borough in the UK with sharp contrasts between wealth and poverty. It is estimated that 27% of our children and young people are living in poverty, rising to 43% when housing costs are factored in; we know Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated challenges for many families in Lambeth and created a new set of problems for others.

It’s an incredibly exciting time to come and work in Lambeth. There’s plenty to get your teeth into – be it leading the implementation of our strategy for youth services, overseeing the transformation of our emotional health and wellbeing provision, or presiding over the development of a new team delivering efficient brokerage for our teams.

We’re passionate about integration of services and teams across education, health and social care to ensure our population can access services that are joined-up and seamless. All of these roles play very important roles in partnership development with internal and external stakeholders.

About You:
You will provide both operational strategic leadership to Payment Assurance and Non-Placement Brokerage Teams.  A key aspect of the role is to ensure that our service providers are paid on time and accurately. You will also oversee Non-Placement Brokerage arrangements for children looked after aged 0-18 as well as families with children with Disabilities and Special Needs.

You must have an in-depth understanding and extensive experience in Financial Application Platforms such us Oracle and Mosaic Financials. You will be required to ensure that budgets and other resources are used in accordance with Lambeth priorities and financial regulations, and that expenditure is accurately monitored and within budget. 

You must have the skills and qualities of a service leader, a problem solver and ability to maintain calmness when having difficult conversations about payment issues with providers. You must have what it takes to bring positive energy, enthusiasm, and passion to the role. You must have the tenacity to lead, shape and develop a team, bringing creativity and innovation to the way we commission and pay for services for children and young people. You must have a clear focus on achieving positive outcomes for the children and the young people.

A message from The Assistant Director
Successful applicant must have a drive to get things done and be able to promote and facilitate innovation, creativity, and continuous improvement of Payment Assurance and Non-Placement Brokerage team. We anticipate that you’ve had experience in complaint handling and managing change. You will also have knowledge of financial systems and controls, and standard Microsoft products (Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint). You will be able to oversee the effective and efficient delivery of non-brokerage activities to identify effective support arrangements for children and young people. 

Successful applicant must have demonstrable skills and track record of cost negotiation, maintaining robust oversight of financial arrangements for care and support packages which enables quality and value, utilising frameworks and cost-effective contractual mechanisms as far as possible.

The successful applicant shall build and lead effective working relationships with key suppliers and the wider market, working with Commissioning Managers to shape and develop the market for care and support arrangements. Similarly, they will need to keep key stakeholders informed and enabled to make decisions on care and support arrangements, including providing relevant information, analysis and reports on activity, performance and the market.

Why Lambeth:-

• Fantastic, modern working environment in the award-winning Lambeth Town Hall and Civic Centre buildings
• Competitive Salaries
• Up to 35 days annual leave, dependent upon continuous service
• 5 Minutes from London Underground and excellent transport links into the centre of London
• Hybrid/Flexible working
• Cycle to Work Scheme (including City Bike Hire scheme)
• Attractive Local Government Pension Scheme

We are a Stonewall diversity champion; a Living Wage Employer and we guarantee to interview all disabled candidates who meet the minimum criteria of the role. Please click here  for a full list of our accreditations.

If you have any queries in relation to this job vacancy, please contact the Assistant Director: Andrews Osei,

Successful candidates will be asked to apply for an Enhanced Certificate from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). Further information about the DBS can be found at

You will also be required to undertake a Cifas check.  Further information about Cifas can be found here Cifas

Please note we operate an anonymised application process. If you are uploading your CV or a personal statement, please remove your personal details and replace these with your unique candidate application number.

Interested, click on the apply button and complete an on-line application, explicitly evidencing in the supporting statement field how you meet the shortlist criteria marked with an ‘A’, along with uploading your CV.

Job Description and Specification

Closing Date: 10th March 2024 at midnight

Lambeth aims for quality services and equal opportunities for all and is committed to safer recruitment