School Place Planning Manager

School Place Planning Manager

Permanent, Full Time

£59,952 to £70,531 per annum

Location: Countywide

Working Style: Anywhere worker

The School Place Planning Manager will lead and develop the Council’s school place planning team as it fulfils its critical role in planning for school place sufficiency across Essex.

You will be responsible for ensuring high quality data and forecasts are available to the School Organisation & Place Planning service as well as updating a suite of publicly available documents that are central to quantifying and communicating anticipated demand for school places. This includes statutory returns to the Department for Education which underpin our forecasts and capital grants.

You will have responsibility for developing and defining education infrastructure requirements, including land and developer contributions required to support new housing across Essex in a sustainable way, ensuring the Council is able to meet its statutory obligation to provide sufficient school places.

To read more about our business area, please visit: Policy, Economy, Investment and Property

Service/Functional Accountabilities

• Lead on defining mainstream education infrastructure requirements across the county, to influence and support planning and investment decisions, supporting corporate aims.
• Acts as the Service’s member on appropriate boards and groups pertaining to the delivery of education infrastructure in response to housing growth.
• Responsible for judging the impact of new housing plans on mainstream schools and, in partnership with the relevant planning authority and colleagues, securing appropriate land for new schools and financial contributions from developers (s106 agreements). Support other education functions in this work, particularly SEND ensuring that education requirements are strategic and aligned.
• Review the use of s106 monies within the Schools’ Capital Programme to ensure the efficient use of financial resources in line with the legal obligations on ECC.
• Build collaborative working relationships with the Education service, housing authorities and government departments, to provide expert advice with respect to education infrastructure requirements, pupil place planning and Local Plans.
• Deliver detailed evidence as an expert witness on education policy and practice issues at Public Inquiries, Examinations in Public and other formal hearings. Liaising with planning colleagues, solicitors and Counsel.
• Responsible for scoping, developing, commissioning, processing and management of key intelligence, data and forecasts to ensure the provision of a robust evidence base for school organisation and place planning decisions, and to inform strategic decisions across a range of education services.
• Responsible for developing and managing the statutory Department for Education school capacity (SCAP) return cycle which informs the annual grant of ‘Basic Need’ capital funding to ECC.
• Manage the School Place Planning Team to deliver complex data products using Geographical Information Systems; Relational Databases and other analysis tools.
• Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework.

Organisational Accountabilities

• Operational planning and performance review to maintain exceptional service delivery and ensures the political objectives and priorities of the council are met.
• Working collaboratively across the council and thinking commercially, to support the delivery of best possible outcomes for our customers on a financially sustainable basis.
• Maintaining and nurturing collaborative relationships for the function with external organisations, that support the delivery of annual plans.
• Implementing changes and continually evaluating service to improve the area of work, while maintaining the highest possible levels of service quality are continually delivered.
• Managing complex issues and resources to meet the needs of customers and deliver the best possible outcomes.
• Effective utilisation of digital technologies and innovation across the function.
• Using professional expertise to translate goals and plans into ways of working that comply with relevant legislation and statutory requirements and manages a level of appropriate risk.
• Deliver exemplar customer interactions to individuals and communities which support strong relationships and a reputation for achieving outcomes and resolving issues.

The Experience You Will Bring

• Educated to RQF level 6 (Bachelor’s degree) or equivalent experience on planning or statistical analysis.
• Evidence of continuing professional development and expert knowledge in relevant professional area.
• Significant experience of forecasting, infrastructure planning and data analysis within the public sector, making comparisons against other local authorities and effective interpretation and evaluation.
• Understanding of District Council Local Plans and housing trajectories to inform responses to consultations in relation to educational requirements.
• Knowledge and understanding of school accommodation to inform net capacity information and site analysis for education requirements.
• A knowledge and understanding of education provision, admissions legislation and school organisation.
• Ability to develop strong working relationships with colleagues and stakeholders to ensure a quality service is provided.
• Understanding of systems analysis techniques and analytical tools used in forecasting and data management.

Please note that the job role requires you to be mobile throughout an operational area. Therefore, the post holder will need to have a driving licence and access to a vehicle, or the ability to meet the mobility requirements of the role through other means.

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 March 2026, the Government announced that councils in Greater Essex will be reorganised into five new unitary authorities from April 2028. In addition to this, Greater Essex has been accepted on to the devolution priority programme, where we will work towards establishing a Mayoral Combined County Authority. You can read more about these changes, and what this may mean for this role, 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.

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.

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

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