Be Amazing!

Welcome from Adele and Jason

Video transcripts

We are delighted that you are considering joining our team at North Northamptonshire Council.

The Director of Law and Governance is a key role for us. It is instrumental in ensuring that we set the highest standards in terms of governance and decision-making, whilst at the same time, helping make rapid and accelerating progress in the delivery of our ambitions for both the council and North Northamptonshire.

The successful candidate will work alongside a Corporate Leadership Team who are highly driven and ambitious for our council, our residents, and our place. Our Corporate Leadership Team joined our council because they recognised the once in a career opportunity to do something truly different, lead change and be part of building a modern council that we can be proud of.

As part of the team, the Director of Law and Governance will play a vital role in the developing the delivering a bold and prosperous future for North Northamptonshire and making a real difference to the lives of our residents.

North Northamptonshire Council is a large unitary authority which serves a population of over 360,000 residents and the area that we cover is growing at an exponential rate. That means demand for our services is also increasing at pace.

This doesn’t faze us! We have very high aspirations and plans for North Northamptonshire, and since the council’s creation in April 2021, have been fully committed to delivering the ambitions as set out in our Corporate Plan.

The council recently received the outcome of its first LGA Corporate Peer Challenge. The report acknowledges the significant progress that the council has made since it become a unitary council in April 2021. In particular, the peer review team described the council’s staff as 'amazing'. We have worked hard on cultural development and are striving to be the employer of choice.

Of course, we know that there is much more we need to do. As well as continuing to deliver our corporate agenda, we need to develop our role as community leader and place shaper. We understand that by working alongside others as equal partners to deliver a shared future vision, the whole will be greater than the sum of its parts. North Northamptonshire’s emerging bold vision for 2050, known as BIG50, has got us off to a great start. We want to continue this work and harness the amazing energy of our local communities to achieve great things in the future, both near and far.

We know that to achieve our future ambitions and respond to the challenges we face - we are going to have to be bolder and do things differently. We need to focus on radically reimagining services which are fit for the future and will ensure financial sustainability. The challenges and opportunities for these roles are significant, however, both North Northamptonshire, the area and council, are in good shape. The building blocks are in place, and a bold, broader vision for the area is emerging.

The successful candidate will be a fully participating member of the council’s senior leadership team, driving strategy and performance; and championing the delivery of the council’s vision and strategy with councillors, partners, community representatives, and colleagues. Engaging with senior political and managerial leaders to ensure ethics, standards and decision making and act as Senior Responsible Officer for corporate projects when required will be a key part of the role too. They will also drive transformational change, fostering and leading a culture of continuous improvement that reflects the values of the council and encourages creativity and commercial acumen within a public service ethos.

This a chance to join an incredibly collaborative senior team and be involved in cutting edge thinking across our varied and complex portfolios. We want to provide an environment for all our staff to be amazing in what they do and how they work and feel. We feel there could not be a better time to join us!

If you feel you have what it takes to be our Director of Law and Governance, then we would very much like to hear from you and welcome your application.Jason Smithers - Leader of North Northamptonshire Council and Adele Wylie - Chief Executive

Last updated 08 January 2025