Position: Responsible Individual (Children’s Home)
Reporting to: Company Directors
Salary: £65,000 to £80,000 (plus KPI bonus)
Location: Southeast London & Essex
Purpose
To act as the Ofsted-registered Responsible Individual for the designated children’s home and ensure compliance with all relevant statutory and regulatory requirements. The role requires providing operational support and leadership to maintain high standards of care and service, safeguarding children, and exceeding regulatory expectations.
Main Responsibilities and Key result areas
* Develop and establish provision for care, accommodation and support through working with existing partners and building links with other partners and agencies as appropriate.
* A strong commitment to the safeguarding, including Health & Safety, for all young people and staff in the services.
* Liaise with the Referrals and Admissions team to ensure the effective management of resource allocation within the context of placement matching, and placement stability, and to support corporate parenting.
* Provide a comprehensive placement service through managing admissions to residential establishments in partnership with all Local Authorities and other agencies.
* To monitor care plans and placement plans, activities and community involvement, and provide oversight of individual care planning for all young people looked after all Homes designated to you.
* Implement quality assurance practices to monitor and evaluate standards of the individual and of the team performance, to support the company to achieve its objective to continuously improve upon quality.
* Be responsible for reporting regularly on each designated residential Home to ensure that it fulfils its Statement of Purpose and function and is run in accordance with statute and Green Harvest policies, guidelines and instructions.
* Ensure compliance with the Children's Homes Regulations 2015 including the monitoring of Regulation 44 inspections and Regulation 45.
* Ensure the Children's Homes are fully prepared and ready for regular Ofsted inspections.
* To provide regular formal and informal supervision and management of managers, encouraging professional development, completing and Identifying training and staff development needs to ensure objectives are met.
* To provide effective leadership, management support and guidance to operational Registered Managers in the development of the Children's Homes.
* Manage and prioritise resources in the Children’s Homes, including approval of rotas and hours used; authorisation of overtime, provision of relief and agency cover and other establishment costs; staffing, financial management, administrative matters, standards of accommodation, fire precautions and staff Learning and Development and training.
* Ensure young people in the Children’s Homes are effectively safeguarded.
* Promote a high standard of professional practice through personal example; encouraging appropriate professional training & development by managing a comprehensive programme of Performance Management and formulating specific Learning and Development Plans for each Registered Manager.
* Provide support to existing Home Managers in day-to-day operations ensuring that the service meets the organisational requirements for quality management, health and safety, legal and regulatory requirements, environmental policies and general duty of care.
* Ensure that electronic and paper administration systems are current and appropriate, that recorded information is accurate, and that timely data is provided by Registered Managers.
* Promote and maintain a healthy and safe environment for all residential staff.
* Appoint/assist in appointing staff, ensuring the proper application of Green Harvest recruitment and selection procedures and manage and oversee the Induction, Discipline, Capability and Grievance procedures.
* Contribute to, and/or participate in, projects and initiatives associated with the functions of both their own area of service delivery and others as required.
* To ensure that young people’s needs are met through a strong emphasis on communication and participation.
* Ensure that all young people’s documentation and records are maintained to a high standard in a timely manner, and that education and a programme of meaningful activities is available to all young people. Implement appropriate systems to ensure compliance with requirements.
* Rapid improvement of quality within assigned homes with sustainability planning for long term.
* Prepare detailed reports for Statutory and Case Reviews to a consistently high standard.
* To participate in meetings and training events as required by line managers and Directors.
The role description is intended to provide a broad outline of the main duties and responsibilities only. The post holder will need to be flexible in developing the role in conjunction with the line manager. The post holder may be asked to carry out any other delegated duty or task that is in line with their post.
Knowledge / Education / Skills
* A sound working knowledge of the statutory requirements associated with the residential care of young people. This will include Children’s’ Homes Regulations, Health and Safety legislation etc.
* A management qualification of at least or equivalent to Level 5 Diploma in Health and Social care for Children and Young people. The role holder must have completed the full registration process and declared fit by Ofsted for each assignment to a home.
* Proven people management skills within a residential setting, including motivating, directing, delegating.
* Proven organisational and financial management skills.
Experience
* Well established stakeholder relationships with a proven track record of running successful children’s residential care services and influencing change.
* A strong background of successful residential children’s home management is essential, preferably with knowledge of Ofsted requirements, working in challenging environments and leading excellence in care.
* Turnaround experience in children’s homes and a successful problem solver.
* Achieved Good or Outstanding judgements in previous settings under their leadership.