Education Commissioning Opportunity
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Our Vision
We have a bold and radical vision to change Newham for the better and to build our future together. Newham is a diverse, and aspirational borough with huge potential. By putting people at the heart of everything we do, we aim to enable all our residents to reach their potential and thrive within Newham, where people of all backgrounds come together as active and engaged citizens.
Newham is changing rapidly. Our part of East London is booming, with significant investment creating new jobs, new homes and new opportunities. But it is also a time of great uncertainty for many of our residents. London is one of the richest cities in the world, but too many of Newham’s residents have to survive on low incomes. We are on the frontline of London’s housing crisis, with the highest number of families in temporary accommodation in the country.
We want to make Newham a place where everyone can achieve their potential, and where everyone feels involved in their community. That means working hard to remove barriers, encourage aspiration, promote social integration and speak up for our community. We must work differently by involving, engaging and listening to our local community; opening up our processes to scrutiny; and being open to change and improvement. We will work with our residents, and genuinely involve them in decisions. We will also work in partnership to build on the strengths we already have in our community – adopting a community wealth building approach that seeks to invest locally and support the growth of our local economy and voluntary sector.
Newham has been disproportionately affected by Covid-19 – with a devastating death toll, additional people on benefits, long-term Government funding cuts, and increasing costs and demand for essential services.
Consequently, in November 2020, Cabinet approved the ‘Towards a Better Newham’ strategy which sets out the Council’s ambitious plan to support our residents, communities and businesses to recover from the unprecedented impact of COVID-19 and to begin work to reorient to create an inclusive economy for Newham for the future.
Centred around five broad priority themes and driven by eight “pillars” of action, ‘Towards a Better Newham’ builds on the council’s Community Wealth Building and inclusive economy strategies to protect residents during the pandemic, and outlines measures to help people to lead healthier and happier lives; make Newham the best place for children and young people to grow and thrive; tackle racism and inequality; put people at the heart of decision making, and ensure local communities benefit from long-term inclusive prosperity:
- Pillar 1: Our measures of success will be the health, happiness and wellbeing of our residents, rather than growth, productivity and land value
- Pillar 2: The Council will ensure every resident under 25 is safe, happy and cared for, with positive activity to secure their long-term wellbeing
- Pillar 3: The Council will take action to ensure all residents are supported and enabled to access work and other opportunities in the new economy
- Pillar 4: The Council will make sure our residents are healthy, happy, safe and cared for, to enable them to thrive during times of recession and in the new economy
- Pillar 5: The Council will enable every resident to live in an accessible and inclusive
- neighbourhood which will provide all of their social, civic and economic essentials
- Pillar 6: We will become London’s greenest local economy
- Pillar 7: The Council will deliver genuinely high-quality and affordable homes for Newham
- Pillar 8: The Council will only welcome investment that secures a Fair Deal and Good Growth for Newham
Each Pillar has a set of strategic objectives, alongside key actions the council will take to deliver them. As a key part of agreeing our new strategy, and our continuous commitment of maintaining the highest levels transparency and democratic accountability, we shall be monitoring and reporting on progress in relation to the delivery of Towards a Better Newham and the Corporate Delivery Plan. It follows through on the commitment made by Cabinet to provide progress updates on a regular basis to residents, communities and businesses on how we are delivering for them as an organisation.
Key documents
Newham – the Place
Newham is a young, diverse, vibrant and ambitious borough with a huge amount to offer to people who are innovative and creative in their thinking. It is a place that is being transformed and putting people at the heart of everything it does. Our residents deserve those who are prepared to embrace change, seize opportunities and disrupt what is normal.
Newham is a relatively new borough, formed in 1965 by merging the former area of the Essex county borough East Ham with the county borough of West Ham, to become part of the newly formed Greater London. North Woolwich also became part of the borough along with a small area west of the River Roding which had previously been part of the Municipal Borough of Barking.
The borough of Newham includes and extends from Stratford, Forest Gate and Manor Park in the north to Canning Town, Royal Docks and Beckton in the south. Heavily built-up and developing areas are balanced by extensive parks and some 80 hectares of Metropolitan Green Belt. In the last five years only Hackney and the City of London have seen a higher rate of employment growth. In the same period, Newham’s business base has increased at double the rate of London as a whole. We have seen significant growth in population, with c.7,500 people moving to the borough in 2019 alone.
Despite this investment and growth, many of Newham’s neighbourhoods remain amongst the poorest in the country, with 40% being in the bottom 20% nationally. Also, the borough is in the bottom six of London boroughs for economic activity and residents on average earn £5,000 less than the London average. Despite new investment and employment creation, the proportion of higher value, knowledge economy jobs in the borough is half that of London.
Newham has the most diverse population of any London borough, but this population is highly transient – 15% of residents have lived in the borough for less than a year. This has contributed to weaker social foundations, evidenced by, for example, the lowest level of community and voluntary activity in London.
Linked to this, levels of wellbeing and happiness are amongst the lowest in London. The imbalance between the top line performance metrics and the lived experience of living in the borough is a significant driver of the community wealth building approach. If Newham’s residents are not included in the borough’s economic ‘success’, are we actually succeeding? Newham is very well connected both locally, regionally and internationally and is set to be further enhanced when the borough’s five Elizabeth line stations open.
The Council is also the largest landowner in the borough and one of the largest landowners in London.
Community wealth building is an exciting combination of creating the right conditions for residents and businesses to flourish: a stable home, a better neighbourhood, affordable workspace and the skills and access to opportunities to ensure that residents and businesses can make the most of the huge changes that are happening in the borough.
It provides the opportunity to harness the right skills and experience amongst our residents and unleash Newham’s potential to create a fairer, greener and more prosperous borough for everyone. In the current economic climate, Community Wealth Building and the leadership role of the Council becomes even more critical.
We are the future of the capital - our population is the youngest in the country and this is reflected in the vibrancy and confidence you will find throughout the borough. For many decades Newham has had a large Indian community and the ethnic group to increase the most in number since 1991 is the Bangladeshi community. While Newham has one of the lowest White British populations in the country (2011 Census) people of White British ancestry nevertheless remain the largest single ethnic group in the borough. The largest non-White British ethnic groups are Indian (14%), African (12%), Bangladeshi (12%) and Pakistani (10%).
The borough is the education authority for the district providing education in a mix of Foundation, community and voluntary aided schools. The borough also owns and operates Debden House, a residential adult education college in Loughton, Essex, and is home to the Rosetta Art Centre, a dedicated visual art organisation which delivers courses at its base in Stratford and produces participatory art projects, programmes and initiatives. The Essex Primary School in Sheridan Road with over 900 pupils is one of the biggest primary schools in London.
The University of East London (UEL) has two campuses in Newham: the Stratford Campus, at Stratford and the Docklands Campus, next to the regenerated Royal Albert Dock. Birkbeck Stratford is a collaboration between Birkbeck, University of London and UEL to increase participation in adult learning. This is currently based on the UEL Stratford campus but is planned to move to its own facilities.
Newham is only three miles from the City but offers plenty of reasons to visit. For a taste of the real London, look no further than Green Street - dubbed 'the Bond Street of the East End'. A refreshing break from the chain stores of most high streets, it has over 400 independent shops representing cultures from around the world, selling food, jewellery, designer saris and a myriad of cafes and restaurants serving authentic international cuisine. Nearly ten per cent of the borough is green space, and visitors can take advantage of a range of sports, leisure and activities.
The centre of Newham’s regeneration is The Olympic Park. The park is open 24 hours a day and is free for all Newham residents: its first full summer in 2013 saw an amazing three million visitors. With extensive parklands, a superb play area, a climbing wall, water features as well as lots of places to relax, eat and take pictures at the iconic venues or the Olympic Rings, it’s a great magnet for attracting visitors to the borough. All the venues (except for the stadium) are open to the public, and prices are similar to those of a typical leisure centre; incredibly, it’s affordable to swim in the Olympic competition pool, ride a bike on the velodrome or play a game of badminton in the Copper Box.
We have a strong and innovative local economy, served by some of the best transport links in the country and focused on modern low carbon industries including high quality retail and leisure. Transport in Newham is developing at speed. The Docklands Light Railway and Jubilee Line Extension provide links with the rest of London. The Docklands Light Railway was extended to serve London City Airport. Stratford International station links directly to St. Pancras Station.
According to the 2011 census, In March 2011, 23% of all residents aged 16-74 travelled to work by underground, metro, light rail, or tram. 7.6% drove a car or van to work, a further 7.6% travelled by bus, minibus or coach, 7.2% took the train, 7.2% went on foot, 4.1% worked mainly at or from home, and 1.4% commuted by bicycle.
Sport is very important in Newham. We were one of six host boroughs for the 2012 Summer Olympics, and our area houses most of the Olympic Park. We also have a lively football scene. Premier league club West Ham United FC plays its home matches at the London Stadium, and non-league players are well catered for via Clapton FC, which plays at Forest Gate, and Newham FC, which plays in Plaistow.
Our athletics club, The Newham and Essex Beagles, is headquartered at the Terence McMillan Stadium, which is part of Newham Leisure Centre in Plaistow. The area also boasts Newham (NASSA) Neptune’s, a successful basketball team which plays in the English basketball League. Thomas Mac Curtain’s women’s GAA team trains every week at the East London Rugby Club.
Some of our key physical projects
Canning Town and Custom House
- 10,000 new homes, of which 3,500 are already completed or on site
- New town centre, leisure, health and community facilities
- Plans for the regeneration of estates being co-designed with residents and businesses
- DLR and Jubilee lines provide easy access, with the Elizabeth line to come
- Ongoing development of a strategic riverside walkway
Carpenters Estate, Stratford
- A new resident-led masterplan
- Potential for significant numbers of new and refurbished homes
- A new entrance to Stratford station
- Improved provision for education and commercial spaces.
- High quality public and community spaces.
Royal Docks
- Partnership between Newham and the GLA Over £300m of GLA funding already secured.
- London’s only Enterprise Zone
- 13 miles of river and dock frontage, creating unparalleled prospects for waterfront development.
- Stratford
- One of the fastest growing parts of the UK, Stratford is home to a vibrant town centre, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Westfield Stratford City collectively offering a unique mix of culture, shopping, working, living and leisure opportunities.
- We have implemented high quality public realm improvements and an award-winning transformation of the streetscape.
- Fast connections to the rest of the capital, the wider UK and Europe
- We are using our land holdings and a newly commissioned masterplan to bring about positive change.
There are also several other important town centres across the borough. These includes Green Street - dubbed 'the Bond Street of the East End'. A refreshing break from the chain stores of most high streets, it has over 400 independent shops representing cultures from around the world, selling food, jewellery, designer saris and a myriad of cafes and restaurants serving authentic international cuisine. The Council has been awarded Good Growth funding by the GLA to enhance the vibrant markets in the area.
Education Access & Infrastructure
The Education Access & Infrastructure Service is part of Newham’s Education, Inclusion & Achievement directorate. The services in the directorate portfolio are:
- Education Outcomes and Partnerships
- Education Access & Infrastructure
- School Improvement
- 0-25 SEND
- Virtual School
- Youth Empowerment
Our relentless focus is to ensure that Newham is a place where every child and young person has a great chance to succeed and where children and families are safe, healthy and thrive.
The Education Access & Infrastructure Service ensures that a range of services are in place to enable schools to function effectively for children, including ensuring a sufficient supply of high quality school places. We provide a range of services including pupil place planning (mainstream and specialist), admissions, attendance management, children missing education and non statutory offers including our Eat for Free scheme.
Latest jobs
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How to apply
We want to make the process of applying as straight forward as possible. To this end, we ask that your application consists of the following:
- A covering letter, no more than two pages in length, which addresses and provides evidence against the criteria, set out in the Person Specification. The covering letter provides you with the opportunity to explain your motivation for applying, as well as highlighting how your experience and achievements fit with the requirements of the role. As such, it is an important part of the application process.
- A copy of your most recent and up to date curriculum vitae.
- Please also provide details on two employer referees, which should include your current or most recent employer. Please note that references will not be taken without your permission.
Once you have completed your application, please click on the Apply link to upload your Curriculum Vitae and Covering Letter.
All applications will be acknowledged.
For an informal conversation about Newham, please contact Marcia Williams of Hays on 07515 482954 email marcia.williams@hays.com
Address
Newham Dockside 1000 Dockside Road London E16 2QU
