Company Overview
Lilian Davis Group is an Ofsted leading provider of high-quality care for children with emotional, behavioural, and learning needs. Wallington Children’s Home supports children aged 7–17 and is dedicated to creating a nurturing, safe, and structured environment where each child can thrive.
JOB PURPOSE
The Registered Manager has full responsibility for the strategic leadership, management, and continuous improvement of the children’s home, ensuring that children and young people experience exceptional, safe, nurturing, and therapeutic care.
The postholder will create a home where children feel safe, valued, listened to, and aspirational, and where outcomes consistently exceed expectations, meeting Good/Outstanding criteria under the Social Care Common Inspection Framework (SCCIF).
Key Responsibilities:
Leadership, Culture & Governance
- Provide inspirational, values-led, and emotionally intelligent leadership, promoting stability, warmth, high expectations, and ambition for every child.
- Maintain a highly visible leadership presence, spending regular time in the home to understand children lived experiences, routines, relationships, and emotional wellbeing.
-Create and sustain a strong, child-centred culture where children’s voices actively influence care, routines, and service development.
- Demonstrate professional curiosity, questioning assumptions and exploring the underlying causes of behaviour, risk, and emotional distress.
- Provide clear on-call and out-of-hours leadership, ensuring safeguarding, consistency, and decision-making at all times.
- Chair and lead regular team meetings, ensuring learning, safeguarding expectations, and practice standards are consistently reinforced.
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2. Quality of Care & Outcomes for Children
- Ensure care is highly individualised, trauma-informed, and rooted in a deep understanding of each child’s history, identity, and needs.
- Drive consistently outstanding outcomes in:
-Emotional wellbeing and resilience
-Education, trraining, and attendance
-Physical and mental health
-Identity, relationships, and independence skills
- Embed therapeutic and relational practice across the home so children experience relationships that repair trauma and promote trust.
- Promote placement stability through proactive planning, consistent care, and early intervention.
- Ensure transitions and endings are planned, child-centred, and emotionally supported, with learning captured and reviewed.
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3. Children’s Voice, Participation & Rights
-Ensure children are actively listened to, respected, and empowered in all aspects of their care.
- Create meaningful opportunities for children to influence:
- Care planning and risk management
- Daily routines and house decisions
- Recruitment and service development
- Proactively promote access to independent advocacy and ensure children feel confident to raise concerns.
- Welcome complaints, challenge, and feedback as opportunities for learning and improvement.
- Champion children’s rights in line with the Children Act 1989 and UNCRC principles.
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4. Safeguarding, Escalation & Regulation 40
- Act as the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL), with clear accountability for safeguarding standards and decision-making.
- Ensure all safeguarding concerns are identified, responded to, and escalated appropriately, including Regulation 40 notifications to Ofsted and relevant authorities without delay.
- Maintain a clear safeguarding escalation framework so staff understand when and how to escalate concerns.
- Manage allegations against staff in line with LADO procedures, ensuring transparency, timeliness, and reflective learning.
- Engage in regular DSL supervision to ensure safeguarding decisions are robust, reflective, and continuously improved.
- Foster a safeguarding culture rooted in professional curiosity, challenge, and prevention.
5. Risk Management & Weekly Risk Register Meetings
- Chair and oversee weekly risk register meetings, ensuring:
- Emerging and ongoing risks are clearly identified
- Risk assessments remain dynamic and responsive
- Children’s behaviour is understood within a trauma-informed framework
- Ensure risks are actively managed and reduced, not simply recorded.
- Maintain oversight of behaviour support plans and any use of restrictive practices, ensuring:
- They are lawful, proportionate, and reviewed
- There is a clear focus on reduction and learning
- Analyse incidents, missing episodes, and de-escalation practice to evidence learning and improved outcomes.
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6. Staff Supervision, Development & Workforce Excellence
- Recruit staff who demonstrate strong values, emotional warmth, and commitment to children.
- Ensure all staff receive:
- High-quality induction aligned to the Statement of Purposeo Regular, reflective supervision focused on safeguarding, children’s experiences, and practice quality
- Annual appraisals linked to development and service improvement
- Use supervision to:
- Support emotional resilience
- Challenge poor practice
- Strengthen accountability and safeguarding awareness
- Identify training needs and ensure continuous professional development.
- Maintain a stable, motivated, and skilled workforce with low staff turnover.
7. Quality Assurance, Reporting & Continuous Improvement
- Produce monthly Manager’s Reports analysing:
- Safeguarding and child protection
- Incidents, restraints, and missing episodes
- Complaints, compliments, and feedback
- Outcomes and emerging risks
- Ensure reports clearly evidence learning, challenge, and impact on children’s experiences.
- Complete monthly analysis on incidents, behaviours, allegations and complaints to identify and take appropriate action on emerging themes, risks, patterns and trends
- Lead effective Regulation 44 and Regulation 45 processes, ensuring measurable improvements.
- Maintain a clear Quality Improvement Plan informed by audits, feedback, and data.
- Ensure the home is inspection-ready at all times, with strong evidence of continuous self-evaluation rather than reactive preparation.
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8. Compliance, Records & Partnership Working
- Ensure full and exemplary compliance with:
o Children’s Homes Regulations 2015
o National Minimum Standards
o SCIF and Ofsted guidance
- Maintain clear, accurate, and child-focused records that evidence the impact of leadership decisions.
- Build strong partnerships with:
- Social workers and IROs
- Education and health professionals
- External safeguarding agencies
- Act as a confident ambassador for the home and its values.
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9. Equality, Identity & Inclusion
- Promote equality, diversity, and inclusion in all aspects of care and leadership.
- Ensure children’s cultural, religious, gender, and identity needs are understood, respected, and celebrated.
- Challenge discrimination and ensure inclusive, respectful practice across the home.
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PERSON SPECIFICATION
Essential Qualifications
- Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Residential Childcare (or working towards within regulatory timescales)
- Level 3 Diploma in Residential Childcare
- Enhanced DBS with Children’s Barred List
Essential Experience
- Significant leadership and management experience within children’s residential care
- Experience supporting children with complex needs, including trauma and attachment
- Proven experience of leading a service to Good or Outstanding Ofsted outcomes
- Experience managing safeguarding concerns and multi-agency working
Knowledge & Skills
- In-depth understanding of Children’s Homes Regulations, NMS, and SCIF
- Strong safeguarding, leadership, and analytical skills
- Ability to evidence impact through data, reflection, and outcomes
- Excellent communication and partnership-working skills
Personal Qualities
- Deeply child-centred and relational
- Reflective, resilient, and emotionally intelligent
- Aspirational for children and staff
- Calm, consistent, and ethically grounded
- Committed to continuous learning and improvement
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Document Control & Governance
Job Title: Registered Manager – Children’s Home
Reporting to: /Responsible Individual /Operations Manager/ Director
Responsible for:
- Children’s Home staff team
- Safeguarding leadership within the home
- Quality of care, compliance, and outcomes
Location: Palm House, Wallington
Hours: 40 hours per week including on-call expectations
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Regulatory Framework
This role is carried out in accordance with:
- Children’s Homes Regulations 2015
- National Minimum Standards for Children’s Homes
- Social Care Common Inspection Framework (SCIF)
- Children Act 1989
- Working Together to Safeguard Children
- Ofsted guidance and statutory notifications (including Regulation 40)
Safeguarding Commitment
The organisation is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people.
The postholder must share this commitment and will be subject to:
- Enhanced DBS check with Children’s Barred List
- Ongoing suitability checks
- Mandatory safeguarding training
Flexibility Clause
This job description is not exhaustive and may be amended to reflect:
- Regulatory changes
- Service development
- The evolving needs of children and the home
Any significant changes will be discussed and agreed.
Pay: £60,000.00-£65,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Additional leave
- Company pension
- Free parking
- Health & wellbeing programme
- On-site parking
- Sick pay
Application question(s):
- Do you have First Aid and Safeguarding training?
- Do you have an understanding of trauma-informed and therapeutic care?
- Do you have a Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Residential Childcare? (or working towards within regulatory timescales)
- Do you have a Level 3 Diploma in Residential Childcare?
- Do you have an Enhanced DBS with Children’s Barred List?
Work Location: In person
