Service Manager for Children in Care

Nottingham City Council; Nottingham; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Nottingham City Council is seeking an experienced Service Manager for Children in Care to lead and shape services for children in care across Nottingham. The role focuses on safety, stability, permanency and helping children achieve their full potential.

Reporting to the Head of Service, you will provide strategic leadership to social work teams, oversee delivery, QA and workforce development, and partner with fostering, residential, leaving care, education and health to improve outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic and operational leadership to social work teams delivering services for children in care.
• Oversee service delivery, quality assurance and workforce development to ensure timely, effective support.
• Champion Nottingham's role as corporate parent and keep children's voices central to decisions.
• Lead on practice improvement, culture development and high-performing team leadership.

Job description

As Service Manager for Children in Care, you will play a key role in leading and shaping services that support children in care across Nottingham, ensuring they experience safety, stability, permanence and the opportunity to achieve their full potential.

Reporting to the Head of Service, you will provide strategic and operational leadership to a number of social work teams, creating the conditions for high-quality practice, strong performance and continuous improvement. You will oversee service delivery, quality assurance and workforce development, ensuring children receive timely, effective support and ambitious care planning that improves outcomes.

Working closely with colleagues across fostering, residential, leaving care, education, health and partner agencies, you will champion Nottingham's role as a corporate parent and ensure children's voices remain at the heart of decision-making. You will support a relationship-based approach that promotes stability, belonging and positive futures for children in care.

We are seeking an experienced and inspirational social work leader with a strong track record of leading high-performing teams and delivering service improvement. You will be passionate about developing others, creating a positive culture and supporting practitioners to deliver excellent social work practice.

Through your leadership, you will help embed Nottingham's vision for children in care, ensuring children and young people experience consistent support, strong professional relationships and the very best opportunities to thrive.