Service Manager - Emergency Duty Service

Staffordshire County Council; Stone; Sur place; GBP 60 000 - 80 000; Plein temps

Résumé du poste

Staffordshire County Council is seeking an experienced Service Manager to lead the countywide Emergency Duty Service, guiding out-of-hours responses across safeguarding, crisis and emergency situations.

You will work with health services, police and AMHPs to ensure timely, lawful and quality decisions, supported by robust performance and continuous improvement across Children's Services and Adults Social Care. Fixed Term 12 Month Contract; flexible working considered.

Qualifications

• A recognised social work qualification and current professional registration.
• Significant post-qualification experience within children's services, adult social care or safeguarding environments.
• Extensive experience leading emergency, crisis response or safeguarding teams, including quality assurance and performance oversight.
• Strong knowledge of safeguarding legislation and statutory frameworks across children, adults and mental health services.
• Proven ability to lead service development, change management and continuous improvement using data and learning reviews.
• Proven ability to make sound professional judgments and manage high-risk situations under pressure.
• Excellent leadership, communication and partnership-working skills across organisations.

Responsabilités

• Lead and develop the Emergency Duty Service, ensuring high-quality out-of-hours responses to safeguarding, crisis and emergency situations.
• Provide leadership and support to managers and practitioners, promoting confident decision-making and a positive learning culture.
• Build strong partnerships with health services, police, AMHPs and other key agencies for coordinated crisis responses.
• Oversee service performance, quality assurance activities and demand management to improve delivery.
• Lead service development and improvement initiatives, strengthening QA, safeguarding pathways and multi-agency arrangements.
• Ensure robust management of risk, emergency placements, Mental Health Act responses and smooth transitions between out-of-hours and daytime services.

Connaissances

Leadership

Communication

Partnership working

Decision making under pressure

Formation

Social work qualification

Description du poste

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Service Manager - Emergency Duty Service

Job Reference staffscc/TP/54766/4881

Number of Positions:

1

Contract Type:

Fixed Term Full Time

Working Hours:

37

Location:

Closing Date:

23/11/2026

Job Category:

Senior Management

Directorate:

Children and Families

Business Unit:

Children's Services

Job Introduction

Are you an experienced social work leader who thrives in a fast-paced environment where effective decision-making can make a real difference?

This is a unique opportunity to lead a countywide Emergency Duty Service, providing strategic and operational leadership across children's services, adult social care and mental health crisis response, ensuring people receive timely support and protection when they need it most.

Fixed Term 12 Month Contract

Main Responsibilities

You will provide leadership for an out-of-hours emergency response service, ensuring safe, effective and legally compliant decision-making across a range of complex safeguarding situations. Working with internal teams and external partners, you will drive high standards of practice, service improvement and multi-agency collaboration to achieve the best possible outcomes for children, adults and families.

You will:

• Lead and develop the Emergency Duty Service, ensuring high-quality out-of-hours responses to safeguarding, crisis and emergency situations.
• Provide leadership and support to managers and practitioners, promoting confident decision-making, professional accountability and a positive learning culture.
• Build strong partnerships with health services, police, Approved Mental Health Professionals (AMHPs) and other key agencies to ensure coordinated and effective crisis responses.
• Oversee service performance, quality assurance activities and demand management, using insight and learning to continuously improve service delivery.
• Lead service development and improvement initiatives, strengthening quality assurance arrangements, out-of-hours safeguarding pathways and multi-agency emergency response arrangements.
• Ensure robust management of risk, emergency placements, safeguarding interventions, Mental Health Act responses and seamless transitions between out-of-hours and daytime services.

The Ideal Candidate

• A recognised social work qualification and current professional registration.
• Significant post-qualification experience within children's services, adult social care, mental health services or safeguarding environments.
• Extensive experience leading and managing emergency, crisis response or safeguarding teams, including experience of service improvement, quality assurance and performance oversight.
• Strong knowledge of safeguarding legislation and statutory frameworks, including responsibilities relating to children, adults and mental health services.
• Proven ability to lead service development, change management and continuous improvement, using performance data, quality assurance and learning reviews to improve services.
• Proven ability to make sound professional judgements and manage high-risk situations under pressure.
• Excellent leadership, communication and partnership-working skills, with the ability to influence, motivate and build effective relationships across organisations and professional disciplines.

“We’re happy to talk flexible working”

This post will be subject to an enhanced DBS check and Police vetting.

Interviews dates to be confirmed

Our Recruitment Process: We anonymise applications during shortlisting to ensure only relevant information is considered. Please complete your application fully, including education and employment history and the supporting statement, to highlight what you’ll bring to the role.

For information, please note that there is currently an ongoing review within Children and Families to realign individual teams and the wider team’s ways of working. As a result, this role may be affected by the review. For further information, please speak to the hiring manager.

Please note: The minimum criteria in the ideal candidate section detailed above will be used if you are applying under one of our Interview Guarantee Schemes detailed below.

About Staffordshire County Council

We are no ordinary county council:

Our Values:

The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively.

Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy:

We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future.

We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too.

We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance.

As an Authority we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Staffordshire County Council is an equal opportunities organisation and Disability Confident employer. We encourage applications from all background and communities

As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a Gold Award Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as yourapplication meets the minimum criteria for the post.

As you’ll know safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our children and young people/vulnerable adults is important to us and that’s why this position is subject to a criminal record check from the Disclosure and Barring Service. If applicable you should disclose details of unspent and unfiltered spent reprimands, formal warnings, cautions and convictions in your application form.