• General Duties
• Have responsibility for the management of services, including staff management and supervision, care and placement planning, safeguarding, communications, report writing and monitoring quality and compliance.
• Ensure full implementation of statutory and organisational policies and procedures and provide feedback on the effectiveness of all policies and procedures.
• Compliance with legal and regulatory requirements such as provisions set out in the Children’s Homes Regulations and Quality Standards 2015, Childrens Act 1989, Data Protection Act 1998, Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 and Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018.
• To be responsible for developing constructive working relationships within the wider community to promote the overall outcomes for looked after children.
• Ensure that staff have the skills, experience and qualifications required to meet the needs of each child or young person placed in the home and provide continuity of care.
• To lead and manage the home in a way that is aspirational, inspiring both children and young people and the staff who work there.  
• Produce monitoring reports, statistical data and evaluation as required and in keeping with organisational policies and procedures and within agreed deadlines.
• To ensure that the principles of equality and diversity are embedded in the culture of the home.
• To ensure that each child or young person has individual care and care planning which is tailored to their specific needs and requirements as laid out in their relevant plans.
• To maintain professional relationships with the team around the child, multi-agency partnerships and where appropriate parents, families and other stakeholders.

• Specific Duties

Service Delivery:

• Ensure that the homes ethos is embedded in the service and that service users are fully involved in the day-to-day running of the service.
• Ensure that the service meets the needs of service users from a diverse range of backgrounds in line with legislation, policy and best practice standards.
• Take responsibility for the management of safeguarding children and young people, risk and service governance.
• Ensure that children and young people have access to services which meet their health, education, social, psychological and emotional needs and well-being.
• Ensure that the service and its programmes are planned and delivered to meet the needs of all children and young people.
• Monitor appropriate outcomes and progress for children and young people.
• Ensure that a social inclusion focus is embedded within services.
• Take part in on-call arrangements if required.

People Management:

• Responsible for the regular supervision of the staff team and others as required.  
• Ensuring that all staff have access to practice based consultation within their own area of service delivery as well as management supervision, reviewing and monitoring standards, caseloads and practice development.
• Responsible for recruitment of staff in line with organisational policy and procedure.
• Coach and support development of the staff team in line with their statutory training requirements and continuous professional development (CPD).
• Responsible for staffing structures and rotas in addition to planning and prioritising key areas of work.
• Responsible for providing short basic instruction/training sessions/briefings to the staff team in areas of best practice.
• Ensure staff are properly inducted and briefed on how to work with children and young people’s care planning systems and any programmes for care.
• Responsible for ensuring effective team building within and promoting a constructive spirit of co-operation within staff teams
• Pro-actively manage sickness absence in line with organisational policy and procedure.

Resource Management:

• Responsible for the maintenance of physical assets located at the home.
• Responsible for the health and safety of the premises and furnishing of the home.
• Responsible for budget management across the service, ensuring expenditure is contained within the income that is available within the financial year.
• Ensuring central ICT policies and procedures are adhered to by staff and children and young people.
• To co-ordinate and monitor the administrative functions of the home and evaluate standards of performance.

Business Development:

• Lead on contract management and placements with the relevant commissioners.
• Ensure that an Annual Development Plan is reflected within the service business plans.
• Take the lead in the delivery and development of services in accordance with any service agreement between external agencies and the organisation.
• Identifying and managing opportunities for growth.
• Responsible for expanding existing businesses and identifying and/or developing new business opportunities.

Quality and Service Development

• Ensure that Quality Monitoring and Health & Safety assessments are conducted and action plans implemented.
• Ensure effective risk assessment/personal safety procedures are in place to protect staff and service users in accordance with organisational policies and procedures and keep under regular review.
• Monitor ongoing quality of service provision including people and environmental risk management.
• Manage, record and coordinate responses to complaints in line with organisational policy and timescales.
• Effectively demonstrate service compliance with the Children’s Homes Regulations and Quality Standards 2015 and the Single Social Care Inspection Framework (SSCIF)
• Promote and maintain a culture of continuous service improvement.
• Maintain effective monitoring systems to ensure the home is ready for Ofsted Inspection and seek to develop good working relationships with the homes Ofsted Inspector.
• Ensure the Quality of Care Report (Regulation 45) is submitted to Ofsted twice yearly and that the monthly Regulation 44 visits are carried out by an Independent person.

Person Specification

Qualifications and Education

• Level 5 Diploma in Leadership for Health and Social Care and Children and Young People’s Services; or equivalent; or a preparedness to work towards the same.
• Demonstrate commitment to continuing professional development.

Experience

• 3 years’ experience working with children in the last 5 years and at least 1 year at senior level.
• Supervision or management experience.
• Working with children, young people and their families.
• Work in a residential setting.
• Inter-agency work.

Knowledge and Understanding

• Children’s Home Regulations and Quality Standards 2015, Single Social Care Inspection Framework (SSCIF), Children Act 1989, Children and Families Act 2014, Care Standards Act 2000, Children Act 2004, Working Together to Safeguard Children 2015, Health and Safety at work and associated guidance and regulation.

• Policies and procedures pertaining to running a residential children’s home.
• Child protection, safeguarding children, impact of abuse and neglect, education and health needs of looked after children, equality and diversity and children’s rights.
• Care and placement planning, risk and review processes.
• Understanding of the education, health, social, emotional and psychological needs of looked after children and young people and how to ensure these needs are met.

   Skill and Abilities

• Ability to lead and inspire a staff team, take responsibility for staff team training and development, supervision, rosters ensuring continuity of care for each child or young person.
• Able to manage stress and difficult dynamics and demonstrate emotional resilience.
• Capable of performing a wide variety of administrative tasks consistent with the day-to-day management of a children’s home.
• Prioritise and organise workload in a manner that maintains and promotes quality, evaluating the quality of own and others’ work and raises any quality issues and related risks to the relevant person.
• To be ‘fit’ to manage a children’s home as outlined in the requirements for registration as a manger.
• Ability to sustain and work through placement issues to prevent placement breakdowns.
• Ability to monitor the service for quality of care and in line with the requirements of Ofsted inspection.
• Ability to develop constructive working relationships with the wider community and multi-agency teams.

Equality and Diversity

• Promote equality and value diversity by interpreting equality, diversity and rights in accordance with legislation, policies and procedures and relevant standards.
• Identify patterns of discrimination and take actions to overcome this and enable others to promote quality and diversity and a non-discriminatory culture that supports people in exercising their rights.