Service Manager

Westfield Secondary School; Sheffield; On-site; GBP 59,000 - 72,000; Full time

Job summary

Aldine House Secure Children’s Home in Sheffield is seeking a Service Manager to provide strategic and operational leadership for a specialist children’s service with complex needs.

You will lead across care, education, health and psychology teams, drive occupancy, referrals, placement matching and safeguarding, and ensure services work as one integrated team around each child.

Qualifications

• Substantial leadership and management experience in children’s residential care, secure provision or a comparable regulated service.
• Experience of leading service improvement and organisational change while maintaining safe and stable services.
• Strong understanding of therapeutic, trauma-informed and relationship-based practice.
• Detailed knowledge of safeguarding, risk management, quality assurance and regulatory compliance.
• Strong partnership and influencing skills.
• Visible, compassionate and accountable leadership.
• Commitment to children’s rights, equality, diversity, inclusion and anti-discriminatory practice.

Responsibilities

• Establish a clear vision and strategic plan for Aldine House.
• Provide senior leadership and oversight of service performance, quality, safeguarding, workforce, occupancy and finance.
• Work closely with the leadership team while maintaining regulatory and operational accountability.
• Strengthen the therapeutic and trauma-informed culture across the service.
• Ensure care, education, health and psychology services operate as one integrated team around each child.
• Lead a sustainable plan to increase appropriate occupancy.
• Improve referral, assessment, matching and admissions arrangements.
• Ensure placement decisions are timely, well evidenced and centred on children’s safety and needs.
• Ensure workforce capacity, skills and deployment are aligned with children’s needs and planned occupancy.
• Maintain oversight of quality assurance, Regulation 44 and 45 activity, inspection readiness and improvement planning.
• Use performance and financial information to identify risks, evidence progress and support effective decision-making.
• Represent Aldine House confidently with senior leaders, elected members, regulators, commissioners and partner organisations.

Job description

Service Manager - Aldine House Secure Children's home

£65372 per annum plus secure unit allowance

Lead a specialist therapeutic service

We are looking for an experienced, ambitious and values-led Service Manager to provide dedicated strategic and operational leadership to Aldine House Secure Children’s Home, Dore, Sheffield 17.

This role is focused solely on Aldine House and provides a significant opportunity to shape the future of a specialist service for children and young people with complex needs.

Working as the Registered Service Manager, you will provide visible and accountable leadership across the home, bringing together care, education, health, psychology and support services around a clear and shared direction.

A central priority will be to increase appropriate occupancy and make the best use of Aldine House’s specialist capacity. You will lead a planned approach to referrals, placement matching, workforce readiness and partnership engagement, ensuring that growth is safe, sustainable and responsive to the needs of children already living at the home.

About Aldine House

Aldine House provides secure welfare placements for children and young people aged 10 to 17 who require a safe, nurturing and highly supportive environment.

The service provides a therapeutic and trauma-informed environment where children can feel safe, stabilise, develop trusting relationships and begin to make meaningful changes in their lives.

Care, education, health and psychology professionals work together to understand each child’s individual experiences, strengths and needs. Through consistent relationships, clear boundaries and individualized support, the service helps children develop resilience, improve their wellbeing and prepare for their next steps.

Children and young people are at the centre of everything we do. Our approach is grounded in strong corporate parenting, high expectations and the belief that every child should receive the same care, support and opportunities we would want for our own children.

About The Role

As Service Manager, you will hold overarching responsibility for the strategic and operational development of Aldine House.

You will:

• establish a clear vision and strategic plan for Aldine House;
• provide senior leadership and oversight of service performance, quality, safeguarding, workforce, occupancy and finance;
• work closely with the leadership team while maintaining clear regulatory and operational accountability;
• strengthen the therapeutic and trauma-informed culture across the service;
• ensure that care, education, health and psychology services operate as one integrated team around each child;
• lead a sustainable plan to increase appropriate occupancy;
• improve referral, assessment, matching and admissions arrangements;
• ensure that placement decisions are timely, well evidenced and centred on children’s safety and needs;
• ensure that workforce capacity, skills and deployment are aligned with children’s needs and planned occupancy;
• maintain oversight of quality assurance, Regulation 44 and 45 activity, inspection readiness and improvement planning;
• use performance and financial information to identify risks, evidence progress and support effective decision-making; and
• represent Aldine House confidently with senior leaders, elected members, regulators, commissioners and partner organisations.

About You

You will be an experienced senior leader who can combine strategic thinking with a strong understanding of operational delivery in a complex and regulated children’s service.

You will be able to demonstrate:

• substantial leadership and management experience in children’s residential care, secure provision or a comparable regulated service;
• experience of leading service improvement and organisational change while maintaining safe and stable services;
• a strong understanding of therapeutic, trauma-informed and relationship-based practice;
• detailed knowledge of safeguarding, risk management, quality assurance and regulatory compliance;
• strong partnership and influencing skills;
• visible, compassionate and accountable leadership;
• a commitment to children’s rights, equality, diversity, inclusion and anti-discriminatory practice.

Informal discussion

For an informal and confidential discussion about the role, please contact:

Simon Breeds, Assistant Director of Children and Families

Tel: [phone]

Email: [e-mail]

We are investing in our workforce and are promoting opportunities to our under-represented groups. We value equality, diversity and inclusion and are focused on increasing the diversity of our workforce, particularly the number of Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic, Disabled and LGBTQ+ people, so that our teams reflect the communities in the city we serve. We are also supporting staff with unpaid caring responsibilities to work flexibly.

Under the Guaranteed Interview scheme, applicants who are disabled, care leavers, or armed forces veterans will be guaranteed an interview if they meet the essential criteria and indicate their eligibility on the application form. Sometimes, if lots of people apply, we might not be able to interview everyone who qualifies for the Guarantee. In these cases, we’ll interview the candidates who best meet the essential criteria for the job.

Full-time employees work 37 hours for 52 weeks of the year and we offer a generous holiday entitlement. We are open to discussions about a wide range of flexible working opportunities which benefit you and the Council, including reduced hour contracts, working part time or as a job share.

If you are appointed to this role, your starting salary will be at the bottom of the grade. If you provide payslip evidence that your basic pay is greater than the bottom of the grade, we will consider starting you at the point of minimum advantage within the grade.

Equality of pay is extremely important to us. All roles at Sheffield City Council are going through an evaluation process which may result in changes to some pay arrangements from 2026. Find out more on our Sheff news page.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all individuals, ensuring a safe and supportive environment for everyone and where appropriate to the role the successful applicant will be required to undertake relevant safeguarding checks.