Quality Improvement Officer

Interview Date: Monday 27^th of April 2026

To read more about our business area, please visit: Adult Social Care

Do you have experience working with or supporting regulated care providers? If so, we want to hear from you!

Join our Quality Improvement Team and play a key role in supporting the delivery of good and outstanding care across Essex. This is your opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of people in our communities.

The Role:

ECC Adult Social Care, through effective practice, is moving towards a transformational shift from a focus on long-term care support, to a model with four key principles: - prevention; early intervention; enablement and safeguarding. This will enable people, their families, and carers to be able to access information and tools to live healthily and independently. Providing an opportunity to respond pro-actively to growing service demand in a sustainable way, within the financial constraints of the Council.

The role of a Quality Improvement Officer centres on development and implementation of the council’s strategy for enhancing the quality of the Adult Social Care market in Essex. It ensures that the adult social care market adheres to regulatory and contractual requirements and provides a consultancy service to the care market to ensure contract management and quality improvement can be delivered.

Providing early identification and intervention to manage risk effectively is key to ensure working systems function effectively and regular auditing of suppliers to ensure a good standard of quality is being met and monitoring improvement work.

Key Responsibilities:

• Responsible for providing consultancy services to the Social Care market on how to improve the quality of their services to ensure able to improve customer outcomes and experiences.
• Working collaboratively partners and stakeholders to ensure maximise potential opportunities for quality improvement through the development of innovative approaches to service delivery in order to deliver greater service user choice.
• Responsible for identifying and challenging care delivery which falls below standards set, providing to ensure support given to improve the quality of service provision.
• Provide expert advice and support to providers during periods of Safeguarding activity.
• to ensure able to provide reports on expected standards of delivery across Essex to inform and support ECC’s safeguarding responsibilities and duty of care.
• Ensure providers are compliant with all external regulation and contractual requirements in order to achieve required standards and ensure where there are any issues these are addressed in a timely, effective manner.
• Utilise opportunities to identify best practice opportunities to learn lessons from others and build professional knowledge and expertise to ensure maximise the value of relevant networks and influence service improvements through acquired learning.
• Provide support and guidance to the Quality Improvement Assistants to ensure the successful delivery of day to day activities and develop skills within the quality function.
• Identify patterns and trends in care delivery and share intelligence with People Commissioning to ensure inform and shape and influence future thinking and commissioning intent.
• Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework. 

Experience and Qualifications:

• Educated to A Level equivalent or equivalent experience with evidence of continuing professional development.
• Experience within a social care setting with evidence of ensuring quality of outputs in delivering service.
• Good communication skills and an ability to develop a rapport and engage with diverse groups of individuals.
• Evidence of a good understanding of quality standards, analysis, organisational development, and demonstrable practical application of these.
• Ability to develop good business relationships and influence others in presenting compelling arguments for change or improvement. 

If you would like further information or an informal discussion about this role, please contact Sophie Tansley at: Sophie.Tansley@essex.gov.uk

Why Essex?

As one of the largest and most dynamic UK local authorities, Essex offers a stimulating public service environment. Covering over 1,420 square miles and serving 1.8 million residents, we’re committed to transformational change and delivering better quality at lower cost. Recognised in the top three of the latest IMPOWER index for productivity, we ensure everyone matters in Everyone's Essex. With flexible working options and a focus on innovation, whether you are looking to develop your career or contribute to the local community, Essex is the ideal place for you.

In February 2025, Greater Essex was accepted onto the Government’s devolution priority programme, which will see local authorities in Essex work towards establishing a Mayoral Combined County Authority by May 2026. You can read more about devolution and local government reorganisation (LGR) on our careers site.

Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process. We’re also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.

Once you’ve secured your role within Essex County Council you will receive many great employee benefits, including support for unpaid carers and flexible working arrangements to accommodate their needs.

At Essex County Council, we value integrity and ethical behaviour. We kindly ask that you embrace our code of conduct and the Nolan principles, including throughout the recruitment process. Your commitment to these standards helps us maintain a positive and respectful workplace for everyone.

The role requires you to be mobile throughout a wider operational area including travelling around the county of Essex and beyond, transporting service users and their belongings and to be able to do so in an emergency. Driving licence and car or the ability to meet the mobility requirements of the role through other means is essential.

As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

If you would like to be kept up to date on other relevant opportunities, blogs, news, events and industry related news at Essex County Council, please join The Essex Talent Community

If you have queries on this role or require anything further, please email daniel.warner@essex.gov.uk

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