Residential Childrens Homes Manager

Children and Families is recognised as a service in which social work can develop and prosper, with a culture of collaboration, integrity, and compassion; promoting the development and wellbeing of children, young people, and their families; protecting them from neglect and abuse. Essex County Council is investing in and expanding its portfolio of internal children's residential homes. We are excited to announce the opening of a new children's homes in Chelmsford, anticipated to open in 2027.

It will be a 2-bedded children's home. This role will manage the home and be responsible for recruiting the residential staff teams and supporting them through their training. This home will serve as safe havens, offering stable, short-term, and supportive placements for children aged 11 - 17 years who, for the time being, are unable to live with their birth families. The Registered Children's Home Manager is a pivotal role within the Children and Families service.

This role involves managing a short-term children's home and working closely with children, young people, their families, and partner agencies. The goal is to meet the needs of the children and young people, protecting them from neglect and abuse, and enabling a brighter future. This role requires an experienced manager with expertise in residential care for children and young people. The manager must build strong relationships with partners to ensure the best possible outcomes for the children and young people under their care.

This is a challenging yet rewarding role that truly makes a difference in the lives of children and young people. The Home Manager is the person appointed by Essex County Council to manage the regulated activity on our behalf. As a registered person, the Home Manager has legal responsibilities in relation to that position as laid out by OFSTED. The Registered Manager is the leader of that service; they set the tone and standards and inspire the staff team.

This role is also the designated safeguard lead within the Children's Home. The Registered Manager will pass the Fit Persons Interview. Accountabilities Manage a Short-Term Children's Home; deal with complex issues and challenging behaviours and make decisions 24/7, on an on-call basis along with other Managers within the home. Lead a skilled staff team to create a safe living and working environment within the home; balance opportunity and risk within a therapeutic, progressive culture and deliver a high-quality service to children and young people.

Be accountable for compliance with legislative frameworks, policies, and regulations, utilise quality assurance tools and methodologies to support practice and ensure robust processes are in place to monitor risk, and meet required outcomes. Work collaboratively with internal partners e.g. placement services, out of hours service, in-house and therapeutic fostering teams to ensure individual care packages meet needs and deliver the wider vision of the service.

Build strong partnerships e.g. with Divisional Based Intervention team (DBit) and Youth Offending Team, to explore interventions which create change within families. Support family reunification when safe and possible. Where this is not possible, support children with longer term care plans into fostering, full time educational settings or longer-term residential care. Act as a subject matter expert and apply professional knowledge of care within a residential setting, to ensure effective management and delivery of services to children, young people, and their families.

Develop and strengthen relationships with the local community and identify opportunities for children and young people living in the residential environment to become part of their community. Line manage and supervise the deputy manager and three specialist roles; a social worker, teacher, and psychotherapist. Attend strategy meetings, work alongside the Risk in the Community (RIC) team and understand and implement the responsibilit