Assistant Director Children's Services - Residential and Supported Accommodation

Barnardos; Whitmore; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

Flexible hours

UK pension plan

Annual leave 26–30 days

Job summary

Barnardo's in the South East is seeking an experienced senior leader to oversee a portfolio of residential childrens homes and supported accommodation services, ensuring exceptional care and regulatory compliance.

Reporting to the Head of Operations, you will provide strategic and operational leadership, act as Responsible Individual and Nominated Individual where required, and drive quality, performance, service development and growth.

Qualifications

• Significant senior leadership experience within children's residential care.
• Experience as Responsible Individual (RI) or Nominated Individual (NI) or equivalent.
• Strong knowledge of Ofsted and childrens social care regulations.
• Proven track record of delivering high-quality, compliant services.
• Exceptional leadership and stakeholder engagement skills.

Responsibilities

• Oversee a portfolio of residential childrens homes and supported accommodation services.
• Provide strategic and operational leadership with regulatory compliance.
• Drive quality, performance, service development and growth.
• Act as RI and NI where required and ensure safeguarding and governance standards.

Skills

Senior leadership experience

RI/NI experience

Ofsted/regulations knowledge

Proven compliance track record

Stakeholder engagement

Job description

Join Barnardo's at an exciting time of growth within our residential and supported accommodation services across the South East.

We're looking for an experienced senior leader to oversee a portfolio of residential children's homes and supported accommodation services, ensuring exceptional care, regulatory compliance and positive outcomes for children and young people.

Reporting to the Head of Operations, you'll provide strategic and operational leadership, act as Responsible Individual and Nominated Individual where required, and play a key role in driving quality, performance, service development and growth.

About You

You'll bring:

• Significant senior leadership experience within children's residential care.
• Experience as a Responsible Individual, Nominated Individual or equivalent.
• Strong knowledge of Ofsted and children's social care regulations.
• A proven track record of delivering high-quality, compliant services.
• Exceptional leadership, stakeholder engagement and relationship-building skills.
• A passion for improving outcomes for children and young people.

Why Join Barnardo's?

• Shape and influence services that change lives.
• Lead a growing and ambitious portfolio.
• Work alongside experienced national leaders.
• Drive innovation, quality and continuous improvement.
• Be part of one of the UK's most respected children's charities.

Ready to Make a Difference?

This is a unique opportunity for an ambitious leader who wants to combine strategic influence with meaningful impact for children and young people.

We are committed to welcoming people from diverse backgrounds, cultures and experiences.

At Barnardo's, we believe in creating equality of opportunity and fostering an inclusive workplace. We also recognise the importance of maintaining a healthy work-life balance and are therefore open to discussing flexible working arrangements.

Pay & Reward Framework

We appreciate our colleagues' dedication and their commitment to delivering excellence in the vital work we do, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo'svalues. We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.

We are committed to a rounded colleague experience with an approach to both pay and rewards that are fair, attractive, and progressive. This is in support of our strategic ambition to ensure Barnardo's is a place everyone can belong, grow and thrive.

The salary range advertised is in line with our pay principles, for consistency and fairness while recognising the skills and experience applicants bring to the role. Appointing salaries can be discussed further at appointment stage; we do seek to appoint within this range always exercising responsible stewardship.

Benefits

Workplace Offer: What it means for you

Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, in the community, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or depending on the role any combination of these. Please read through the advert carefully to understand the remits of hybrid working that will be specific to the role.

Barnardo's require colleagues to be UK residents, based in the UK and to complete their roles from within the UK (with the exception of colleagues providing Barnardo's services in Jersey and colleagues who live in the Republic of Ireland providing services in Northern Ireland)

• Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
• Annual Leave entitlement for full-time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo's service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo's service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo's service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata
• The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our Buy Your Leave scheme
• A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
• Service related sick pay from day 1
• Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
• Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
• Cycle2work scheme
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
• 20% discount at Barnardo's stores
• Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
• Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
• Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer

T&C's apply based on contract

About Barnardo's

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minoritised Ethnic and/or disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce. For disabled applicants, we offer reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.