Role Responsibility Kent County Council’s Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking (UAS) Children’s Service provides accommodation and support to newly arrived UAS children in Kent. The Service is developing as a centre of excellence for social work practice nationally and we are seeking passionate individuals to join our service. This is an exciting opportunity to join the Service’s Reception Centre team. The Reception and Safe Care Services are Kent County Council owned, Ofsted regulated, children’s homes and supported accommodation, collectively termed Reception Centres. The Reception Centres, and the services they provide to children, are run by a diverse team of managers and workers, who are all committed to ensuring children are protected and supported to take the first steps in their journey to a more permanent home elsewhere in the UK. This role is for Aspen Lodge. Aspen Lodge is based in Deal, Dover and is a children’s home for UAS children aged under 16-years-old, with a capacity of up to 22 children. Located in a rural setting in the village of Sholden, the centre offers views of green fields and a peaceful atmosphere. Aspen Lodge is already forming links with local services and organisations in the community for young people to access a variety of activities. This Reception Centre is subject to Ofsted regulations for Children’s Homes 2015. We are seeking an experienced Registered Children’s Home Manager who are familiar with Ofsted regulation and setting high standards within a children’s home. Applicants need to be adept at running a home and managing a group of staff to enable them to meet the care needs of UAS children. Successful applicants will be passionate and skilled in quality assuring practice whilst able to motivate and inspire staff to provide the best care to UAS children at the start of their resettlement journey. You’ll be a champion of social care values, delivering and improving services for children and young people. Your day-to-day support and high-quality supervision will ensure your team can meet complex and changing demands of the service, as well as enable their ongoing development. You should be confident in your ability to lead and develop a team. With an in-depth understanding of safeguarding procedures, legislative frameworks and social work theories relating to child services, you’ll have the expertise needed to contribute to practice and policy development. This role requires Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Residential Childcare (England) or equivalent. If you have the skills to oversee and coordinate a high standard of care afforded to UAS children, this is the role for you - please apply. KCC’s employment offer for this role includes: Full induction Training and development opportunities Basic salary of between £50,239 and £58,491 Annual leave allowance of 27 to 29 days Excellent local government pension scheme Opportunities to develop in your career The opportunity to expand and develop your knowledge and skills of working with children seeking asylum Please note that shortlisting decisions will be based on the whole application, including the ‘Reason for Application’ section. Within this section, please demonstrate how you meet the criteria within the person specification attached to the Job Description and why you would like to work with UAS children. Please Read: This post is subject to an Enhanced Disclosure application to the Disclosure and Barring service. This role is subject to holding a Full UK Driving Licence – The Council is committed to making reasonable adjustments so whilst this job requires the jobholder to drive your application will still be considered if you are unable to drive due to a disability. This post is considered by KCC to be a customer-facing position. The Council therefore has a statutory duty under Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016) to ensure that post holders have a command of spoken English/Welsh sufficient for the effective performance of the job requirements. The appropriate standards are set out in the Job Description/Person Specification.