What's involved with this role: Role: Service Manager for Adult Social Care Ref: Gateshead 3426/2603 Location: Gateshead, NE8 1HH Pay Rate: £27.37 per hour PAYE We are seeking an experienced and dynamic Service Manager to oversee staff, budgets, and operations within Social Care. The ideal candidate will be a qualified social worker with a management qualification or significant leadership experience and current registration with Social Work England. They must have extensive experience in social care, a strong understanding of adult social care legislation, safeguarding, and regulatory frameworks, and a proven ability to lead teams, manage budgets, drive service improvements, and work collaboratively with multi-agency partners. This role requires a strategic thinker with excellent communication skills, financial acumen, and a commitment to achieving positive outcomes for adults in need of care and support. Key Accountabilities: Act as the budget holder for designated assessment services, ensuring efficient and effective financial management. Implement legislative, statutory, and regulatory requirements while managing the quality assurance framework to maintain a safe and effective service. Lead preparation for peer challenges and other relevant inspection regimes within the assessment service. Develop annual service and improvement plans focused on achieving outcomes for adults, aligned with performance indicators. Contribute to strategic planning as a senior member of the Adults’ management team, shaping policies and initiatives for improved user and carer outcomes. Foster strong collaborative working practices across the workforce and multi-agency partners Champion the Council’s commitment to service users and carers by ensuring responsive and effective service planning and delivery. Conduct capability and disciplinary investigations where required and handle service user complaints, acting as an adjudicating officer when necessary to drive continuous improvement. Participate in the out-of-hours senior management rota, providing oversight, advice, and making immediate safeguarding decisions when necessary. Qualifications: Social Work qualification or equivalent (e.g., MA/BA in Social Work, DipSW, CQSW, CSS). Management qualification and/or significant management experience. Current registration with Social Work England. Knowledge: Leadership within complex organisational environments. Health and social care systems. Adults’ legislation, practice, and procedures. Safeguarding and regulatory frameworks. Experience: Significant experience as a Team Manager or equivalent within the relevant assessment function. Managing, motivating, and leading frontline managers and teams in a complex setting. Meeting deadlines and achieving performance targets. Change and performance management. Budget management and financial competence. Partnership working with statutory and voluntary agencies. Performance review and strategic planning. Please quote the Job Title & Vacancy Reference No. in your application, or we will be unable to match your CV to the role being applied for. Unless the DBS requirement stated above is for a Basic Disclosure, your DBS must be either through us or be accompanied by a subscription to the DBS updating service. Qualification details and any other experience/skills relevant to the role to help support your application should be clearly shown in your CV. Due to the number of CVs being sent to us unfortunately we cannot respond to all applications. If you have not heard from us within 3 working days please assume that you have not been shortlisted on this occasion. Am Please note that clients invariably ask us to strip out contact details from CVs before we submit them for consideration. This is always quicker and easier to do if you send your CV to us in Word format, rather than as a PDF please.