Description
The salary range for this position is £79,260 - £87,153 per annum based on a 36-hour working week.
This role has the flexibility to be based in Reigate or Woking as the contractual base, however travel around the county as needed is a requirement.
This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for a creative and entrepreneurial system's leader to rise to the challenge of developing our existing portfolio of 12 registered children's homes and leading on our expansion program which will see our portfolio double in the next 3 years.
Surrey County Council is currently the 7th largest Local Authority (LA) provider of in-house children's homes but we're not stopping there! We are set to become the largest LA residential provider of homes based on our ambitious additional £30 million capital investment.
We have a lot to be proud of…
1. A political and strategic commitment to provide Surrey Homes for Surrey children based on assessed need
2. Homes of the highest quality in key locations
3. Homes consistently rated Good and Outstanding by Ofsted
4. Permanent and experienced Responsible Individuals, Registered Managers and Deputies who understands the needs of Surrey Children
5. A £2.4m in increasing management capacity and upskilling our workforce
6. A workforce development strategy that has increased our permanent qualified residential worker workforce.
Rewards and Benefits
7. 26 days' holiday rising to 28 days after 2 years' service and 30 days after 5 years' service
8. Option to buy up to 10 days of additional annual leave
9. An extensive Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to support health and wellbeing
10. Up to 5 days of carer's leave per year
11. Paternity, adoption and dependants leave
12. A generous local government salary related pension
13. Lifestyle discounts including gym, travel, shopping and many more
14. 2 paid volunteering days plus 1 team volunteering day per year
15. Learning and development hub where you can access a wealth of resources
16. Up to £8,000 to ease your move to Surrey if relocating.
About Us
In Surrey we take our Corporate Parenting responsibilities seriously and placement sufficiency across our residential provision is a key part of that. Our commitment is to provide the right care in the right place at the right time, to help children in our care achieve the best outcomes. Wherever possible we want our children looked after to live in Surrey in line with our Surrey Homes for Surrey Children ambition.
To support this, we are developing and expanding our portfolio of Ofsted registered children's homes, to enable children looked after to remain rooted in their communities and supported by the local specialist services they need. To help us realise our ambitions we are looking for a Head of Service for Children's Residential.
About the Role
As our new Children's Residential Head of Service, you will support Joanne Rabbitte, our Assistant Director, in realising our ambition to expand the residential estate ensuring that we meet the diverse needs of our looked after children keeping children with the highest needs in Surrey.
You will understand the stakeholder network that is required to support a large residential homes estate ensuring that we meet the regulatory requirements and consistently maintain Ofsted ratings of Good and Outstanding.
Working in partnership with colleagues and external partners you will support the council's capital development program for children's homes as agreed by cabinet.
The remit of this role includes:
17. Lead on the residential workforce development workstream under the auspices of CFFL Recruitment, Retention and Culture Board
18. Implement a quality assurance and reporting framework linked to the SCIF
19. Ensure effective management of resources so that children have the right placement at the right time
20. Ensure services are delivered within our equalities framework, capturing the individual voices of the children and young people in our care ensuring we are child focused.
21. Maximising opportunities for our children and young people to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives, supporting them through trauma informed practice.
As a leader your approach will be strength based, individualised and proactive. You will provide critical systems leadership, helping us to deliver against our priorities across a complex environment, which includes key stakeholders such as health, education, commissioning and operational teams. Building trust and credibility with teams and beyond will be key to this role. We do this through a culture of high support and high expectations to ensure a relentless focus on delivering safe and effective services for the children in our care.
When you identify areas of poor performance you will be proactive in rectifying them.
Shortlisting Criteria
To be considered for shortlisting for this position, your application will clearly evidence the following:
22. A relevant professional social care qualification and registration with Social Work England
23. Comprehensive understanding of the relevant legislation and practice standards and the implications that changes to legislation may have, including Inspection Regulations and what it means to be Inspection ready
24. A good understanding of effective models of practice used within children's residential care.
25. A proven ability to engage with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders and understand their perspective and priorities
26. Ability to prioritise and effectively lead a range of services in line with strategic ambitions
27. An ability to provide high quality written reports to be used in a wide variety of senior forums- you will present to members and boards – Corporate Parenting Board (CPB) and Cabinet as required.
28. Ability to build and maintain positive relationships built on trust in sometimes challenging situations
Contact Us
Please contact us for any questions relating to the role. This could be to discuss flexible working requests, transferable skills or any barriers to employment.
The job advert closes at 23:59 on Sunday the 14th of July with shortlisting planned for the W/C 15th of July.
Interviews are planned to take place across the W/C 22nd and 29th July 2024.
We look forward to receiving your application,