About us

🌊 Lead the next chapter for Adur & Worthing

A Chief Executive to help us deliver, connect and lead with care

🧭 Why we need you

We’re proud of the work we’ve already done. Adur & Worthing Councils have reshaped how local government works — with bold ideas, close community connections and a clear vision for the future. But the next chapter is all about delivery.

We have:

A clear three-year vision focused on fairness, sustainability and local action
A strong track record of forward-thinking work with communities
A leaner organisation, shaped by major change and built for collaboration

Now we need someone who can:

Keep us focused on delivery — and help us show what’s working
Lead from the ground up — listening to staff, partners and communities
Work alongside political leaders to bring our shared vision to life
Guide our people and the organisation through the next phase of change — including local government reorganisation

We’re not looking for someone to come in and turn everything upside down. We’re looking for someone who understands where we’re headed — and can help us get there.

🔄 About the role: What kind of leadership do we need now?

You’ll be stepping into a role that requires both vision and grip.

You’ll lead on:

Implementing the councils’ three-year plan with pace and clarity
Strengthening our leadership culture and internal collaboration
Championing our work to residents, Government and partners
Preparing the councils for transition to a new unitary authority model
Navigating big shifts while supporting staff and communities through uncertainty

We’re not looking for disruption. We’re looking for impact — built on care, connection and credibility.

👀 About you

We’re looking for someone who brings the right mindset, not just the right CV.

You’ll need to be:

Strategic and grounded — able to see the big picture, but with attention to the details that matter on the frontline
A visible leader — present and accessible to staff, councillors, partners and residents
Politically astute — trusted to navigate change and work with elected members with respect and clarity
Delivery-focused — ready to turn plans into action and ideas into impact
Communications-savvy — a confident communicator who can bring people with them, inside and outside the organisation
Collaborative by default — believing in teamwork, not top-down control

You’ll understand that our leaders are here to lead politically — and your role is to coordinate delivery of their vision, across a brilliant team of officers and partners.

🏞 What makes Adur and Worthing unique?

We’re lucky to live and work somewhere that brings together coast and countryside, town and village, creativity and community.

From the beach to the Downs, from Worthing to Lancing, Shoreham to Fishersgate — this is a place with real heart. There’s something different about the pace here. You can take a beach walk before work, grab a coffee at a neighbourhood café, or spend your lunch break in a green space five minutes from the town centre.

You’ll find allotment growers, skateboarders, climate campaigners, community advocates and champions and digital freelancers all sharing the same streets — each bringing something unique to the life of this place.

Adur and Worthing is a place where people take action together. From food clubs and warm spaces to green business hubs and neighbourhood events, there’s a growing culture of community-led change.
We’re close to (but not) Brighton, connected to London — and part of something bigger. The next Chief Executive will help us go further, faster, and together.

🌍 Why Adur & Worthing Councils — and why now?

This is a unique opportunity to lead a values-led council through a time of major change and growing national interest in local government reform.

We’re:

Proud places with deep roots — coastal, creative and community-driven
Lean, focused and ambitious — with four clear missions and a practical plan for how to deliver them
Part of a wider story — shaping the next phase of local government across Sussex

We need someone who can help us move quickly but thoughtfully, think innovatively, focus on our people, and build strong partnerships across sectors and geographies. You’ll be guiding us through transition — while still delivering excellent day-to-day services and building trust in our work.

Across Adur and Worthing, we’re changing the way we work. We all want clean town centres, welcoming green spaces and less pollution in our seas and rivers. We all want fair access to housing, safe neighbourhoods and a strong local economy. But the way councils have worked in the past can’t meet the scale of today’s challenges — rising demand, stretched budgets and the urgency of climate action.

That’s why we’re building a new partnership between councils and communities. We’re moving away from doing to or for people, and focusing on doing with them.

We’re supporting neighbourhood action, simplifying systems, and creating fairer, greener places where people can thrive — and we’re looking for a Chief Executive who can lead that work with purpose, clarity and care.

As councils, we’re proud to support that energy — not by leading from the front, but by working side by side. Now we’re looking for a Chief Executive who shares that belief in people, in place, and in what’s possible when we act together.

🛠️ The change that’s already happening — fairer, greener, more local

We’re not starting from scratch. The shift is already underway.

🌍 Fairer – making sure no one is left behind

We’re making that real:

Over 4,000 households are saving money on their water bills, thanks to early support and local partnership with Southern Water.
20+ community-led cost-of-living projects are up and running through our Kitchen Table programme — supporting food clubs, warm hubs, childcare and peer support.
New digital tools are improving how residents get help — and freeing up staff time where it’s needed most.

🍃 Greener – protecting and restoring what makes this place special

We’re taking action to support our cherished environment:

Rewilding and climate action projects are in progress including our work as part of a flagship landscape scale recovery project on the Adur River, major rewilding plans at Cissbury Fields in Worthing and the ambitious Sussex Bay seascape recovery programme.
Our fleet is going greener, with electric vehicles, HVO fuel and EV infrastructure already underway.
Nine Green Flag parks have been retained, and public spaces like Homefield Park are being upgraded through community-led design.

🏘️ More local – led by people who live here, work here and care here

This is what we mean by being councils for the community:

The Worthing Festival is now led by the community itself, showing our commitment to local creativity and civic pride.
Residents are shaping the future of our councils, through conversations online, in markets and festivals, supported by local community facilitators — amplifying voices often left out.
We’re revitalising public spaces — like Montague Gardens and Lancing village centre — by working alongside the people who use and love them.

📍How we work as a council: Doing things differently

We’re not the kind of council that’s waiting for change to happen — we’re making it happen.

We’ve reorganised ourselves around four missions: Thriving People, Thriving Places & Environment, Thriving Economy & Regeneration, and Thriving Organisation. These missions are how we focus our time, money and energy on what matters most to our communities. They are how we make sure we’re working in an adaptive, participative and resilient way.

🔄 Adaptive: we’re evolving how we work, based on what we learn

Our Mission Control system is helping us track, unblock and accelerate projects. It gives teams real-time data to make decisions and deliver change faster.
We’ve used learning from stalled or delayed work to redesign how we manage risk, review approvals and align people and resources.
New digital platforms — from food waste apps to council tax automation — are improving service access and freeing up staff time, helping us respond quickly to what residents need.

🧩 Participative: we lead alongside our communities

Our Thriving Together programme is shaping the future of local government here. 19 trained community facilitators are leading neighbourhood conversations on what matters most. We’re co-creating a new model of civic life.
Through the Kitchen Table programme, we’re backing 20 grassroots projects started by local people — from shared meals to peer support networks.
We’ve handed over the Worthing Festival to the community, showing what’s possible when we support cultural leadership from the ground up.

🛠 Resilient: we support frontline services through change

Our Major Programmes Board prioritises our most important programmes and makes sure they get the right support. It’s helped reduce complaint backlogs, unlock housing projects, and improve safeguarding systems.
We’ve designed a new employability pathway for people furthest from the labour market and built partnerships with NHS and care services to better support those in crisis.

We know the demands are growing, but so is our confidence in how we respond. Our leaders are trusted to act, our teams are supported to deliver, and our communities are part of the journey.