Registered Manager

About the role

Achieving for Children (AfC) is recruiting two Ofsted Registered Managers to lead its residential children's homes in Windsor and Surbiton. In this pivotal leadership role, you will hold full legal and operational responsibility for the home, ensuring compliance with The Children's Homes Regulations and Quality Standards 2015 and delivering excellent outcomes for the children, young people, and families in your care.

You will hold legal responsibility for the home, ensuring that 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 include:

• Leading, managing and developing a dedicated residential team, ensuring all staff work effectively and cohesively with children, young people, families, internal colleagues and partner agency professionals.
• Carrying 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.
• Ensuring 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.
• Acting as the cornerstone for safety within the home, ensuring 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.

Shift pattern and working arrangements are not specified in the advert. Please contact AfC directly for further detail on rota and hours expectations.

To arrange an informal discussion about the role, contact Christine Flowers, Operations Manager Children's Homes: christine.flowers@achievingforchildren.org.uk. To apply, click Apply Now.

Please note: Due to the nature of working in children's homes, enhanced vetting is required, including a review of your full employment history from the point you left school. This role does not offer sponsorship.

About You

AfC is looking for an experienced leader who combines robust regulatory knowledge with a genuine commitment to the children and young people in residential care. You will bring the management skills to develop a cohesive team alongside the safeguarding expertise to ensure the home operates safely and effectively.

The ideal candidate will:

• Hold a Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Residential Childcare or equivalent qualification, or be currently enrolled onto it.
• Have significant knowledge and experience of Children's Homes Regulations and quality standards.
• Be able to demonstrate a previous Registered Manager role that achieved a Good or Outstanding Ofsted judgement.
• Have significant senior experience of working in a residential setting with children.
• Have working practice of monitoring provisions and participating in Ofsted inspection processes.
• Have experience of working with children with complex needs, an understanding of the causes of behaviour in children, and experience of undertaking risk assessments and risk management plans.
• Have working experience of engagement with health, education and therapeutic provision to promote children's welfare.
• Have a proven track record in leading a team, including line management, performance management and change management, as well as experience of leading the commissioning of services for children and families in the public sector.
• Have experience of building strong partnerships and co-producing solutions to challenges across a diverse set of stakeholders, including children, young people and their families, and of advocating the voices of those being worked with.
• Be able to keep and maintain records in accordance with local policy and produce accurate reports, presentations and written updates for a range of stakeholders, which may include families, children or young people.
• Have knowledge of statutory legislation (including the Children Act) and national policy drivers affecting children's services, including knowledge and understanding of the KS2 and KS3 national curriculum.

AfC is committed to making recruitment practices as inclusive as possible and welcomes applications from all sections of the community, particularly those currently underrepresented within its teams. AfC is proud to be a Disability Confident employer.

This post is exempt under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. Appointment is conditional upon receipt of a satisfactory enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, including a barred list check. Safer recruitment practices apply, including verification of work and education history and online searches. It is a criminal offence for a barred person to seek to work, or work in, activities from which they are barred. Candidates must have the right to work in the UK; this role does not offer visa sponsorship.

Achieving for Children's Offer to You

Achieving for Children is a Community Interest Company with a public sector ethos, combined with the freedom to innovate and do things differently. As a not-for-profit social enterprise owned by three local authorities (Windsor and Maidenhead, Kingston and Richmond), AfC offers the freedoms of a social enterprise alongside the employment benefits of local government.

AfC is focused on creating a positive, supportive environment, with access to a wide range of resources, a competitive salary and all the perks to enable hybrid working. Benefits include:

• 29 days annual leave, rising to 33 days after 2 years and 35 days after 4 years, with an additional day off in your birthday month.
• Local Government salary and pension scheme (Local Government Pension Scheme or Teachers' Pension).
• Flexible working options to support 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, and more.