Operational Children's Services Manager

LLOYD'S REGISTER INTERNATIONAL; Coalville; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 51,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working options

Group pension scheme

Annual leave 26+ days

On-call support

Job summary

Barnardo's and Leicestershire County Council invite applications for the role of Operational Children's Services Manager in Coalville. The post leads residential services and ensures regulatory compliance while delivering high-quality care to children and young people in our care.

You will coordinate staffing, oversee registered manager duties, and drive training and quality assurance across multiple homes, ensuring safeguarding and outstanding service delivery.

Responsibilities

• Recruitment of staff and coordinating staffing cover.
• Response to critical incidents including debriefing and supportive follow-up.
• Coordination of training programmes for staff and managers.
• Covering registered manager responsibilities and OFSTED registration where vacancies arise.
• Support with quality assurance processes required by Barnardo's and regulators.

Job description

This is an exciting opportunity to be involved in offering crucial support through the homes run through a strategic partnership between Barnardo's and Leicestershire County Council.

The Operational children's services manager role is pivotal in providing responsive and where required direct support to the Leicestershire Residentials run on behalf of the local authority and as such you will be critical in ensuring the smooth delivery of our suite of services. You should be solution-focused, outgoing, authentic, inspiring and passionate about the work you and the services you support deliver to ensure that the children and young people in our care are offered stable homes built on love.

This role is dynamic and multi-faceted in that you will be required to support a variety of residential services based in different parts of Leicester delivering on different specialisms. The current establishment of operational homes operational include the following:

Contextual safeguarding home

Family assessment home

Emotional well-being homes

Assessment home

Overnight Short breaks home

Complex mental health needs home

The role will entail ensuring that the homes are operating in line with regulatory requirements and will therefore require close coordination with the Responsible Individuals for the homes. It will also involve coordinating staffing cover and project managing critical service delivery areas for the homes which included the following but not limited to:

Recruitment of staff

Responsive support following critical incidents including debriefing

Coordination of training

Covering registered manager responsibilities and registering with OFSTED wherever vacancies might arise

Support with completion of quality assurances processes required by both Barnardo's and the regulatory body

Operational demands will require the ability to maintain a presence in the homes to support the registered managers to deal with what the homes require to offer the best possible services to children and young people. Our aspiration is to run Outstanding homes and as such a strong leadership and management presence will be critical.

Due to the residential nature of the services, there may be a requirement on occasions to work outside of normal hours to support the services including providing on call cover.

When completing your application please refer to your skills knowledge and experience in relation to the Person Specification, Job Description and Additional Information document. This should be done with an understanding of the context of the service described.

If you require a more detailed discussion, please make contact with the Assistant Director Children's Services Residentials - Karen Ciantar on 07787417968.

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

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.

• Reference number:23474
• Job Title:Operational Children's Services Manager
• Location:Coalville
• Locality:Leicestershire
• Contract type:Permanent
• Hours:37
• Salary:£44,807 - £50,741
• Closing Date:1 November 2026