Regional Manager

This is a full time, ongoing VPS 6 position reporting to the Director, Operations. The South Eastern Victoria Region is made up of two sub-regional Areas: the Southern Metropolitan Area and the Gippsland Area, each with their own Area Manager, managed by the Regional Manager. The Southern Metropolitan Area team office is based in Dandenong and the Gippsland Area team office is based in Moe. The Regional Manager will be based in both offices and will also work across metropolitan and regional areas of the State, which will require frequent travel and occasional overnight stays.
About the Department The role of the Department of Education is to support Victorians to build prosperous, socially engaged, happy and healthy lives. It does this by supporting lifelong learning and healthy development, strengthening families and helping to equip people with the skills and knowledge for a 21st century economy and society. The department supports a culture of leadership, learning and renewal in all workplaces with opportunities for career development and advancement.
About the Division
The Department of Education is the Victorian Regulatory Authority for early childhood education and care (ECEC) services under delegation from the Secretary. The Quality Assessment and Regulation Division (QARD) in the department regulates and quality assesses Victorian ECEC services. It drives the delivery of high-quality services and ensures the safety, health and wellbeing of Victorian children attending those services. QARD regulates approximately 4,900 services including family day care, outside school hours care, long day care and kindergarten services, as required by the Education and Care Services National Law (National Law).
QARD also regulates around 180 services operating under the Victorian Children's Services Act 1996 (Children's Services Act); these include occasional care and limited hours services. QARD is responsible for:

- approving providers and services as required by the National Law and Children's Services Act
- monitoring service compliance and conducting investigations in response to notifications and complaints
- assessment and rating of family day care, outside school hours care, long day care and kindergarten services against the National Quality Standard (NQS) for Early Childhood Education and Care
- supporting legislative policy development.QARD is also the integrated sector regulator of the Child Safe Standards for all early childhood services in Victoria.

About the Role
An exciting opportunity exists for a highly skilled senior leader who will be responsible for the strategic overview and managerial oversight of the supervision of the two Area teams within the South Eastern Victoria Region in QARD. This large regional team comprises Area Managers, authorised officers and support staff who assess and rate services against the NQS, conduct inspections to monitor compliance with regulatory requirements of the National Law, Children's Services Act and the Child Safe Standards, and investigate alleged non-compliances.
**The Regional Manager will undertake the following functions**:

- lead and support regional regulatory work based on priorities identified in conjunction with the Area Managers and Director Operations* provide high quality leadership, support, mentoring, and coaching to Area Managers and Authorised Officers within the regional team, in relation to the regulatory functions including monitoring and compliance visits, investigations and assessment and rating
- supervise Area Managers to support Authorised Officers in the Southern Metropolitan and Gippsland Area teams to ensure assessment and rating, compliance and enforcement procedures are applied in accordance with the National Law, Victorian Law and relevant regulations and government policy
- contribute to and implement strategic work across the region and collaborate with colleagues across the state
- lead and engage with key early childhood education and care services and stakeholders to achieve regulatory outcomes including the development and provision of educative and capacity building activities* lead and engage with departmental regional colleagues to support the early childhood reform platforms and emergency management.

Attributes
**To be successful in this role, you will have**:

- demonstrated leadership and people management skills to support and create the conditions for a high functioning, productive and engaged team
- high level organisational skills and a proven ability to manage systems, processes and resources to deliver outcomes
- highly developed critical thinking and problem solving skills with the ability to identify practical solutions to complex problems
- highly developed interpersonal skills, including the ability to influence, negotiate effectively at all levels and with a range of stakeholders
- strong written and verbal communications to engage a range of audiences on regulation, policy and implementation topics
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