Head of Regulatory Services
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham
About this job
Barking and Dagenham's Community Safety & Regulatory Services Division has recently undergone a major reorganisation, creating an opportunity to further strengthen the leadership resilience and strategic direction of Regulatory Services.
We are looking for an experienced and confident Head of Regulatory Services to provide strategic, operational and professional leadership across a board and high-profile portfolio.
This role will lead key statutory and regulatory functions including Environmental Health and Licensing, Environmental Enforcement, Private Rented Sector Housing Enforcement, Trading Standards, Financial Investigations, Planning Enforcement and Markets.
This is a senior leadership role with responsibility for shaping how Regulatory Services operates, ensuring services are legally compliant, financially robust, well-led and focused on delivering high-quality outcomes for residents, businesses and the wider borough.
What you’ll lead:
- Strategic leadership of Regulatory Services — setting direction across a varied portfolio of statutory and enforcement functions.
- Operational delivery — ensuring services are effective, compliant and responsive to current and future demand.
- Regulatory and enforcement policy — making sure the Council has clear, up-to-date policies and procedures that support successful enforcement outcomes.
- Performance and financial management — overseeing resources, budgets, income generation and service performance across the regulatory service areas.
- Service development and improvement — identifying opportunities for innovation, efficiency and better ways of working.
- Partnership and senior stakeholder engagement — working with elected Members, senior officers, partner agencies, professional bodies and external organisations.
- People leadership — leading a large multi-disciplinary workforce, setting clear expectations and supporting high professional standards.
What you’ll deliver:
- Strong and visible leadership across a complex and varied regulatory services portfolio.
- Effective delivery of statutory regulatory functions, ensuring compliance with relevant legislation, Council policies and professional standards.
- A high-performance culture that supports improvement, accountability, innovation and excellent service delivery.
- Clear advice and guidance to senior managers, elected Members and partners on regulatory matters.
- Robust service planning, performance management and resource planning to support reliable and sustainable services.
- Strong governance across enforcement activity, contracts, projects, policies, procedures and protocols.
- Effective partnership working to support wider divisional, corporate and Community Safety Partnership priorities.
- Continued development of services that are fair, accessible and responsive to residents, businesses and communities.
Special requirements for this post
Enhanced DBS
About you
You will be an experienced senior leader with a strong background in regulatory, enforcement or environmental health services.
You will bring the professional credibility, technical knowledge and leadership confidence needed to operate as the Council’s subject matter expert for Regulatory Services.
You will have significant experience of leading complex services, managing performance, resources and risk, and providing clear advice to senior leaders and elected Members.
You will be confident working across a broad range of statutory functions and able to translate legislation, policy and operational priorities into effective service delivery.
You will be a strong communicator and relationship-builder, able to work collaboratively with internal teams, external partners, professional bodies and government agencies.
You will also be able to lead large teams through change, create a high-performance culture, and support staff to deliver high-quality, customer-focused services.
You will have a degree qualification, or equivalent, in Environmental Health and be registered with a relevant professional body.
About us
This is a borough with ambition, major regeneration, a young and diverse population, and a leadership team committed to improving outcomes for residents.
Regulatory Services plays a key role in supporting safer, cleaner, healthier and better-regulated communities, and this role offers the opportunity to shape a service with real borough-wide impact.
We have been on a journey over the past four years, through an ambitious transformation programme focused on delivering real change, with our community at the heart of that transformation.
This is an exciting time to be part of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. As an Investors in People Gold Award employer, we believe passionately in nurturing and developing our employees.
In addition to a positive approach to flexible working, we offer investment in your learning and career development, as well as a commitment to your wellbeing. Our borough is vibrant and diverse, and this is something we are proud of.
We value the diversity of people who visit, live and work in Barking and Dagenham, and it is our vision to create a place where people understand, respect and celebrate each other’s differences.