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Head of Highway Operations
Provide vision, strategic direction and visible leadership for the Highway Operations Service. Ensuring delivery against agreed service plan outcomes by providing a safe, innovative, efficient and effective service.
Overall accountability for the safety and wellbeing of employees, contractors and those that interface our service. Through a blend of direct employees (c200), local and national frameworks, this role will be developed and promote a mixed economy delivery model, ensuring that the council has a sustainable succession plan, whilst evidencing excellent value for money outcomes.
Key Responsibilities:
Lead the Highway Operations Service in the delivery of all construction, maintenance and related tasks on the highway network. Act as a figurehead for internal delivery teams (currently known as Highway Construction Services – HCS).
Where necessary, deputise for the Assistant Director Highways Delivery.
Develop, promote and maintain the reputation of the service internally and externally as a trusted operations service through an excellence right first time ethos. Value feedback from stakeholders and use it to drive improvement in the service.
Ensure that instructed projects, tasks and activities are delivered taking account of best practice, agreed specifications, standards whilst ensuring that available resources are used effectively.
Utilisation of the corporate risk management framework and industry best practice to proactively manage risk to the delivery of the service plan and programmes of work delivered by the service.
Deliver an adverse weather (including winter maintenance) and emergency works service, both in and outside normal working hours.
Overall accountability for the Health, Safety, Quality and Environmental performance of the service, ensuring that business plan outcomes are achieved and a continuous improvement culture is formed and maintained. Operation of a service which aspires to industry leading safety standards, and which always prioritises the safety of staff and other stakeholders.
Develop and implement a business model which is designed to ensure the long-term sustainability of internally delivered services. The model will be designed to maximise the value for money which the council achieves from maintaining and developing a skilled, internal workforce.
Create and manage a resourcing strategy which manages short and medium term workload. Accountable for succession planning and talent management to ensure that the service has resilience and skill sets for future are developed.
Provide technical leadership across a wide range of highway areas to support management and a delivery teams achieve desired outcomes.
Provide strategic leadership on the management of the construction supply chain. The post holder will be required to ensure that frameworks and other compliant contracting methods are in place which meet the needs of the current and future service. This will include the development, procurement and operation of a long-term partnering strategy which will be designed to complement the internal delivery service.
Creation and operation of a mature commercial function which controls overhead and operational costs. This will require leadership around estimating, cost control and contractual compliance. The new service will be required to operate under a commercial model and associated governance which works for the highways service and aligns with corporate requirements.
Where appropriate, make provision to support delivery on tasks for other services in the Place directorate, the wider council and local authority partners. For example, this may include the delivery of public transport infrastructure, countryside assets and infrastructure related tasks on district council land. Collaborate with these services with the objective of adding value to their delivery programmes.
Seek and develop opportunities to collaborate and share best practice with other council services and external partners to add value to the service. Value, challenge and use feedback from inside and outside the service area to continuously improve service provision.
Ensure that systems are in place to provide effective feedback to delivery functions on time, cost and quality metrics. Embed a culture within operations teams that ensures that risks and issues are proactively managed and/or escalated in a timely manner.
Implement and manage an effective programme of process audit and value for money assessments that are planned and carried out to meet reporting timelines, and improvement plans are agreed with teams where appropriate.
Maintaining a procurement pipeline with corporate procurement and ensuing that a compliant strategy is in place for each planned item.
Engage with staff to prepare an annual service delivery plan and Value for Money improvement plan, in order to ensure that the function aligns to the needs of the Highway service, the County Council’s strategic plans and becomes a core component in service improvement.
Work with unions to maintain positive industrial relations across the operations service.
Prepare and recommend budget proposals in collaboration with other head of service in formulating the Service’s annual budget submission.
Key Relationships:
Line managed by the Assistant Director – Highways Delivery
Leadership of the Highway Operations Service and line manager for other operational leadership roles.
Regular liaison with Assistant Directors and Director of Highways. Wider relationships with Place Directors and Leadership teams.
To develop excellent working relationships and practices with managers and colleagues in across the wider highways service. Particular emphasis on the relationships with Heads of Delivery Management and Professional Services.
Place service Business Partners (HSQE, communications, HR, finance etc.)
Form relationships with managers outside of the department to provide leadership where the highways service delivers operational support to other teams.
To develop collaborative relationships with supply chain leadership to create developmental opportunities and escalation routes where required.
Advise and liaise with elected members including Cabinet members.
Regular liaison and collaborations with external agencies and key partners such as Government Departments, neighbouring Unitary, District and Parish Councils, National highways, Network Rail, Environment Agency, Emergency Services, Communities, Residents and Service Users.
Develop good working relationships with Trade Unions.
About NRL
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