Interim Service Manager Targeted Disability Service & Children in Care/Care Leavers Service
North West
£350 a day
Inside IR35
Initial 6 months
Full-time
Start date ASAP
Hybrid working (2 days a week in office)
Job role/responsibilities:
- You will lead the delivery of children’s social care as a Service Manager in our Targeted Disability Service and Children in Care/Care Leavers service.
- Provide strategic leadership to support the implementation of the delivery of the Deal and Signs of Safety with children’s social care, ensuring the high quality consistent delivered in daily practice with children, young people and families.
- You will have specific responsibility within service improvement plan to ensure the delivery of high quality effective social care practice that is built upon relationships.
- You will have specific responsibility within the directorates transformation plan, lead innovation, attract external investment, the delivery of significant savings and reduce demand within statutory service, whilst not compromising on quality and safety of services.
- Ensure all children have quality assessments, safe and effective intervention in order to meet need.
- Being accountable and to support the contribution to the delivery of the directorates governance structures such as corporate parenting board, safeguarding board, legal gateway, permanency panel etc.
- Support the council’s objectives through continuous review of all commissioned placements to support the vision of all children being looked after in Wigan within a family-based setting. Job specification.
- Developing and embedding robust mechanism for effective interventions, ensuring children and young people receive the right help and support at the right time, reducing demand within statutory services, contributing to the corporate objectives within your service area.
- Ensure accountable decision making in line with the scheme of delegation and financial scheme of delegation.
- Develop highly effective partnerships in order to deliver effective, collaborative and co-ordinated care and support, through robust care planning mechanisms throughout the child’s journey.
- Develop and sustain effective multi agency, partnership working that support working within a culture of shared approach to risk and care planning that results high quality, holistic plans in accordance with the statutory framework, that result with improved outcomes for children and young people.
- Working with the Service Lead you will be responsible for developing and implementing strategies across the directorate and partnership e.g. Neglect, Permeance, Practice Standards, Care Leavers.
- Embedding a culture of learning and reflective practice to assist with the development of services, informed by evidence based, best practice and disseminating learning from local and serious case reviews.
- Be accountable for the effective implementation of a performance management framework within your specific service area. You will be accountable for the performance and the raising of standards of practice.
- Support, embed and utilise the quality assurance framework for Children’s Social Care to continually drive service improvement.
- Provide line management to Team / Practice Managers within your service area, ensuring managers know the children in the team and they are providing high quality supervision, driving practice standards within individual teams.
- Contribute to the wider management of Children and Families, through a focus on excellent practice and outcomes and robust financial management, ensuring realisation of efficiency targets whilst maximising delivery outcomes.
- Provide leadership, guidance and management to staff across the Children and Young People’s Resources portfolio.
- Ensure that Strategic plans are reflected in operational service delivery.
- Support the Practice Lead in Developing the service’s business plan and contribute to the wider annual planning process in line with key performance objectives, priorities and quality assurance principles.
- Support the Practice Lead to lead and Ensure stakeholders and providers are consulted on strategic priorities and mutual benefits are recognised and where relevant, realised.
- Provide strong leadership to support and challenge the effective commissioning of placements and services to meet the needs of children and young people in need of help, protection and of being looked after.
- Effectively work towards ‘Good’ standards and beyond, ensuring evidence-based practice is embedded.
- Deputising on behalf of the Service Lead as required.
- Representing other Service Managers for the department in their absence.
- Reporting to and providing assurance to the senior leadership team and elected members.
- To deputise as chair in the absence of Service Leads in a range of multi-agency complex meetings and panels to ensure effective challenge is in place to promote high quality targeted support and care is afforded to children and families.
Selection criteria questions:
- Significant experience of being a senior leader, safeguarding lead and working with Children with disabilities and their families
- Right to work in the UK
- Social Work England Registration
- Available to start ASAP
Reasonable Adjustments:
If you consider yourself to have a disability or require any reasonable adjustment during the recruitment process or within the workplace, please highlight this at the earliest opportunity. With this information, we will provide appropriate support to you throughout the process and into your work placement.