Northamptonshire County Association of Local Councils has a vacancy for a Senior Advisory Services Manager

Fulltime, 37 hours/week

Location: Work from home, with occasional travel within Northamptonshire

Contract: Permanent Benefits: Employer’s pension contributions at 8% of gross salary, plus 3% Individual CPD Fund

Application deadline: 1700 on Monday 26 January 2026

Interviews: Wednesday 11 February 2026

About Northants CALC Northants CALC is a not-for-profit membership body supporting, advising, and training parish and town councils across Northamptonshire. We are recognised locally as the voice of the first tier of local government, providing high-quality advisory services, training, and partnership working with principal councils.

The Role We are seeking a Senior Advisory Services Manager to lead our member advisory service, ensuring councils receive timely, expert guidance on governance, procedures, and operational matters. This is a senior professional post, responsible for service standards, enquiry management, and first-line enquiry handling, with opportunities to deliver training and contribute to sector improvement. This new role has been created as part of a strategic reorganisation to further strengthen our advisory services for member councils.

The Senior Advisory Services Manager will play a key part in ensuring our advice and guidance remain sector leading as Northants CALC evolves to meet the needs of our member councils. Training and Support Northants CALC recognises that this is a complex and senior role, and we are committed to supporting the successful candidate to develop and thrive.

The post holder will benefit from:

• A comprehensive induction programme covering our advisory services, systems, and member council landscape.

• Ongoing mentoring and support from the Chief Executive and experienced colleagues.

• Access to an individual Continuous Professional Development (CPD) fund for relevant specialist courses and sector conferences.

• Regular opportunities for shadowing, peer learning, and participation in working groups.

• Membership of professional networks and access to legal and sector experts for complex cases.

• A supportive, collaborative team culture that values continuous improvement and professional growth.

We encourage applications from candidates who meet most, but not necessarily all, of the essential criteria and are committed to always developing their skills in post.

Key Responsibilities

▪ Deliver a high-quality, responsive advisory service to member councils, handling governance, procedures, accountability, and operational queries.

▪ Own advisory service standards and SLAs: acknowledge enquiries within one working day and provide substantive responses within agreed timeframes.

▪ Act as first-line lead for Information Governance: manage FOI/SAR acknowledgements and statutory timelines; draft responses using approved templates; escalate complex/redaction-heavy cases to legal partner.

▪ Maintain a concise case register and produce monthly insights on enquiry trends, risks, and opportunities.

▪ Deliver training (up to 15% of role) aligned to member needs – e.g., governance essentials, Code of Conduct, FOI/SAR fundamentals, and best-practice workshops. ▪ Prepare practical templates, guidance notes, and checklists to improve consistency and speed of responses.

▪ Support the CEO in selected working groups or initiatives.

▪ Champion professional standards and ethical conduct; contribute to external communications to share learning with members.