Registered Manager - Children's Home

About the role

This is a pivotal leadership role where your safeguarding expertise, regulatory knowledge and passion for child-centered care will directly shape the future of the children and young people in our care.

You will hold legal responsibility for the home, ensuring that our services are compliant. By creating a nurturing, stable and high-achieving environment, you will empower your team to deliver care that genuinely transforms lives and improves outcomes for young people and their families. Key responsibilities will include:

• Lead, manage and develop a dedicated residential team. You will ensure all staff work effectively and cohesively with children, young people, families, internal colleagues and partner agency professionals.
• Carry out all statutory duties as determined principally by relevant childcare legislation, ensuring the home operates in strict accordance with The Children’s Homes Regulations and Quality Standards 2015 and wider Ofsted frameworks.
• Ensure that all residential services are planned, reviewed and delivered in a way that maximises participation, actively championing children's rights and embedding their voices into the daily life of the home.
• Act as the cornerstone for safety within the home. You will be responsible for ensuring that all child protection policies are rigorously adhered to, and that any safeguarding concerns are raised swiftly and correctly in accordance with local and national policies.

If you wish to have an informal discussion about the role please contact Christine Flowers, Operations Manager Children's Homes on christine.flowers@achievingforchildren.org.uk

About you

• Must have diploma level 5 or equivalent qualification or be enrolled onto the qualification. 
• Significant knowledge and experience of Children’s Homes Regulations and quality standards.
• Previous significant experience of holding a Registered Manager role delivering a good or outstanding judgment from Ofsted.
• Previous significant experience of working in a residential setting with children in a senior capacity.
• Working practice of monitoring provisions and participating in Ofsted Inspection processes.
• Experience of working with children with complex needs. Understanding of causes of behaviour in children and behaviour management techniques. Significant  experience of undertaking risk assessments and risk management plans
• Working experience of engagement with health, education and therapeutic  provision to promote children’s welfare.
• Experience in leading a team, undertaking line management, performance management and change management. As well as a proven track record as a successful strategic leader within the public sector, with direct experience of leading the commissioning of services for children and families.
• Experience of building strong partnerships, maintaining relationships and co-producing solutions to challenges across a diverse set of stakeholders, including children, young people and their families. Advocating the voices of those we are working with. 
• Experience of keeping and maintaining records (in accordance with local policy) and producing accurate reports, presentations, and written updates to a range of stakeholders (which may include families, children or young people).  
• Knowledge of statutory legislation (for example Children’s Act) and national policy drivers that will affect children’s services and your role (in this role it will include knowledge of and understanding of the KS2 and KS3 national curriculum)

About our benefits

We are focused on creating a positive supportive environment, where you will have access to a really wide range of resources, as well as a competitive salary and all the perks to enable hybrid working. In AfC you will also have access to:

• 29 days annual leave, increasing to 33 days after 2 years and 35 days after 4 years with an additional day off in your birthday month (Or for term-time workers, your leave entitlement consists of the non-working periods in your contract)
• Tailored induction sessions commencing on the date you start working for AfC
• Local Government salary and pension scheme (LGPS or Teachers Pension)
• Flexible working options - helping to keep a good work life balance
• A comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme
• A range of staff benefits and discounts
• An excellent learning and development offer to support your career pathway

To find out about all of the breadth of benefits of working for Achieving for Children click here. For our social work offer click here. For our Recruitment Journey, click here.

Important Information

Start dates: Achieving for Children have set start dates meaning successful candidates join on a set date in each month. Candidates are advised to prepare for this should a job offer be accepted to ensure eligible continuous service is not affected.

Right to work: The UK has introduced a new points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance.

Equality: We particularly welcome applications from sections of the community who are currently underrepresented within our teams. Achieving for Children are committed to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone. We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and developing a culture that values differences, recognising that employees from a variety of backgrounds bring important and positive contributions and can improve the way we deliver services. We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer.

Safeguarding: We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. We expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. This post is exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to this post will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received. Therefore, it is strongly advised that you complete and return your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.