Specification
Service: Young UK Today – Willow House / Olive House
Responsible to: Deputy Manager / Registered Manager
Liaison With: Deputy Managers, Registered Manager, Residential Support Workers, Clinical Team, External Professionals
Terms and Conditions
Hours: 40 hours per week
Holidays: 28 days including Bank Holidays
Employment Statues: Permanent
Probation: Six months
Notice Period: One month after probation
Disclosure: Enhanced DBS with Children's Barred List check
SERVICE DESCRIPTION
Young UK Today operates two children’s homes in South Croydon, providing therapeutic, relational, and child-centred care for children with complex needs.
Willow House provides structured and nurturing care for children with learning disabilities, neurodevelopmental needs, and complex presentations. The home operates within a calm and predictable environment, with a focus on communication-led practice, sensory-informed approaches, and Positive Behaviour Support.
Olive House is a specialist home supporting children subject to Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). The home provides therapeutic and structured care within a framework of safeguarding, risk management, and least restrictive practice.
Both homes operate under a shared ethos while maintaining distinct approaches aligned to the individual needs, risks, and presentations of the children placed.
The service is supported by a multi-disciplinary clinical team, whose input informs care planning, behaviour support strategies, and individual interventions.
JOB PURPOSE
To provide confident, visible and values-led operational leadership during each shift, ensuring the delivery of safe, nurturing, therapeutic and child-centred care across Willow House and Olive House.
The Senior Team Leader is responsible for leading Residential Support Workers and maintaining day-to-day operational oversight of the home, ensuring that every child experiences high-quality, relationship-based care which reflects their individual needs, strengths, identity, culture, wishes, aspirations and agreed outcomes. The post holder is accountable for ensuring that children's plans remain active, meaningful and consistently translated into everyday practice.
The Senior Team Leader will create an environment in which children feel safe, valued, respected and listened to; where staff are supported, developed and held accountable; and where the home consistently reflects the warmth, stability and routines of a family home whilst maintaining the high standards expected within a regulated children's home.
The Senior Team Leader will promote a culture of safeguarding, professional curiosity, reflective practice, equality, diversity, inclusion and continuous improvement, ensuring that the voices of children, staff and partner professionals are actively sought, valued and used to inform decision-making and improve outcomes.
The post holder will ensure the home remains safe, organised, well-led and inspection-ready by maintaining operational oversight of safeguarding, care delivery, recording, medication, delegated responsibilities and the quality of practice throughout each shift. They will lead by example, champion excellent practice, develop others through coaching and support, and promote a positive, aspirational culture where every child is encouraged to achieve their full potential.
The Senior Team Leader will additionally support the Deputy Manager and Registered Manager in maintaining the safe, effective and compliant operation of the home. The post holder will provide operational leadership across the service, coach and support Team Leaders and Residential Support Workers, and act as the senior operational lead in the absence of the Deputy Manager and/or Registered Manager, exercising delegated authority appropriate to the role.
The Senior Team Leader will carry out their responsibilities in accordance with:
· The Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015
· The Guide to the Quality Standards
· The Social Care Common Inspection Framework (SCCIF)
· Working Together to Safeguard Children
· Young UK Today's policies, procedures and values
GENERAL DUTIES
The Senior Team Leader will:
- Provide confident, visible and approachable leadership throughout each shift, promoting a positive, professional and child-centred culture across the home.
- Lead by example, modelling the behaviours, values and standards expected of all staff, whilst creating an environment where children and colleagues feel safe, respected, valued and heard.
- Create and maintain a warm, welcoming and nurturing home environment that reflects the stability, routines and positive relationships of a family home whilst maintaining appropriate professional boundaries and regulatory standards.
- Champion therapeutic, relational and trauma-informed practice, ensuring children are consistently supported in a way that promotes safety, trust, resilience, independence and positive outcomes.
- Promote high aspirations for every child, ensuring staff recognise and build upon each child's strengths, interests, talents and potential whilst maintaining an unwavering belief in their ability to achieve positive outcomes.
- Foster a culture of safeguarding by ensuring concerns are recognised, shared, responded to and managed appropriately, whilst creating an environment where children and staff feel confident to speak up and know they will be listened to.
- Promote equality, diversity, inclusion and anti-discriminatory practice, ensuring every child, member of staff and visitor is treated with dignity, fairness and respect. Ensure children's identity, culture, ethnicity, language, religion, beliefs, sexuality, gender, disability and lived experiences are recognised, respected and actively supported, including facilitating attendance at places of worship, religious observance, cultural events and celebrations where these form part of the child's wishes, care plan or assessed needs.
- Encourage a culture of openness, accountability and professional curiosity where learning, reflection, constructive challenge and continuous improvement form part of everyday practice.
- Promote positive working relationships between children, staff, families and partner agencies, recognising that collaborative working leads to better outcomes for children.
- Ensure children are meaningfully involved in decisions affecting their lives by supporting staff to use individualised and creative approaches that enable every child to express their views, wishes and feelings, regardless of their communication needs or abilities.
- Maintain a visible presence within the home, remaining actively engaged with children, supporting staff practice and maintaining oversight of the day-to-day operation of the service.
- Promote organisational values, policies and procedures, ensuring they are consistently understood and applied throughout the staff team.
- Promote a culture in which excellent practice is recognised, celebrated and shared, while poor practice is addressed promptly, fairly and constructively to support continuous improvement.
- Support children to participate fully in community life by accompanying them to education, employment, appointments, recreational activities, shopping, faith groups, cultural events, family time and other opportunities that promote inclusion, independence and positive life experiences.
- Demonstrate flexibility by undertaking all reasonable duties necessary to meet children's assessed needs and support the safe and effective operation of the home, provided they are within the post holder's competence, training and delegated authority.
- Undertake any other duties commensurate with the role, as reasonably requested by the Registered Manager or Deputy Manager.
CARE PLANNING & DAILY PRACTICE
The Senior Team Leader will:
- Lead the day-to-day implementation of each child's care plan, placement plan, risk assessments, behaviour support strategies, health plans, education plans and any other agreed support plans, ensuring they remain active, meaningful and consistently reflected in everyday practice.
- Ensure Residential Support Workers understand each child's individual needs, strengths, identity, culture, wishes, aspirations, communication needs, assessed risks and agreed outcomes, providing direction and guidance to ensure care is delivered consistently and to a high standard.
- Ensure staff consistently support each child's individual identity, culture, language, religion, beliefs and personal preferences as identified within their care plans and agreed support arrangements, promoting dignity, inclusion, equality and a genuine sense of belonging.
- Ensure children are supported to participate in all aspects of daily living identified within their care plans, including meal preparation, cooking, shopping, budgeting, laundry, personal care (where required), household responsibilities and the development of practical life skills appropriate to their age, abilities and individual needs.
- Ensure staff support children to access education, health appointments, therapeutic interventions, family time, religious observance, cultural activities, community activities and leisure opportunities, including accompanying children on foot, by public transport or by organisational vehicle where appropriate and in accordance with assessed risks and agreed plans.
SAFEGUARDING
The Senior Team Leader will:
· Maintain immediate operational oversight of safeguarding throughout each shift, ensuring the welfare and safety of every child remains central to all decisions and actions.
· Create and reinforce a culture in which safeguarding is understood as everyone's responsibility and where children and staff feel safe to raise concerns, ask questions and challenge practice.
· Ensure safeguarding concerns, disclosures, allegations, complaints and signs of harm are recognised promptly, responded to appropriately, recorded accurately and escalated without delay in line with organisational procedures.
· Take immediate action to protect children where concerns arise, including securing support, preserving relevant information and evidence, and ensuring appropriate management advice is sought.
· Ensure staff understand current safeguarding risks, individual protocols, missing-from-care procedures, restrictions, levels of observation and any child-specific protective measures before assuming responsibility for their care.
· Lead staff responses to safeguarding incidents during the shift, allocating responsibilities clearly, maintaining oversight of the child's welfare and ensuring actions are proportionate, lawful and completed.
· Promote professional curiosity and encourage staff to look beyond presenting behaviour, identify patterns, question inconsistencies and consider whether changes in presentation may indicate unmet need, exploitation, abuse or increased risk.
· Ensure children's views, wishes and feelings are heard and taken seriously when they raise concerns, making suitable communication adjustments where needed and ensuring they understand what will happen next.
· Ensure staff concerns about practice, conduct or safeguarding are listened to, documented and escalated appropriately, including concerns relating to colleagues, managers or external professionals.
· Promote an open reporting culture in which staff can acknowledge mistakes, raise worries and seek support without fear of unfair treatment, while maintaining accountability for unsafe or poor practice.
SHIFT LEADERSHIP & POD OVERSIGHT
The Senior Team Leader will:
· Provide confident, organised and visible leadership throughout each shift, maintaining operational oversight of the home and ensuring the safe, effective and child-centred delivery of care at all times.
· Support the Deputy Manager in maintaining operational oversight across the home, responding proactively to emerging risks, staffing pressures and changing operational demands to ensure continuity of care and effective service delivery.
· Act as the senior operational lead in the absence of the Deputy Manager and/or Registered Manager, exercising delegated authority appropriate to the role and ensuring matters requiring senior management oversight are escalated appropriately.
· Provide operational guidance, coaching and support to Team Leaders, promoting consistent leadership, effective decision-making and the smooth day-to-day running of the home.
· Take overall responsibility for the safe and effective management of allocated shifts, ensuring staff, children, visitors and professionals experience a well-led, organised and welcoming home environment.
· Lead, coordinate and support Residential Support Workers throughout each shift, ensuring responsibilities are clearly delegated, understood and completed to the required standard.
· Provide leadership and operational oversight of the allocated POD, ensuring consistency of care, effective communication, accountability and continuity for the children supported within that team.
· Ensure staff deployment reflects the individual needs, assessed risks, routines and activities of the children, making dynamic adjustments throughout the shift where required.
· Maintain oversight of children's whereabouts, staffing arrangements, appointments, activities, education, family time and significant events throughout the shift, ensuring effective communication across the team.
· Ensure sufficient staffing arrangements are maintained throughout the shift, responding proactively to changes in risk, staffing levels or children's needs by reallocating staff and escalating concerns where appropriate.
· Maintain oversight of visitors to the home, ensuring professionals, family members, contractors and other visitors are welcomed, appropriately supervised where necessary and managed in accordance with organisational procedures.
STAFF SUPPORT & DEVELOPMENT
The Senior Team Leader will:
- Lead by example, modelling the behaviours, values, professionalism and standards expected of all Residential Support Workers.
- Coach, mentor and support Residential Support Workers through day-to-day practice, helping them to develop confidence, competence and professional judgement.
- Undertake formal and informal supervision of allocated Residential Support Workers, providing reflective supervision, coaching, constructive feedback and support in accordance with organisational policy, escalating performance, conduct or welfare concerns appropriately to the Deputy Manager.
- Promote a positive, supportive and accountable team culture where staff feel valued, respected and empowered to deliver high-quality care.
- Ensure all staff understand the purpose behind their work, supporting them to recognise how their day-to-day practice contributes to each child's safety, wellbeing, development and agreed outcomes.
- Provide clear direction, guidance and constructive feedback throughout each shift, recognising excellent practice whilst addressing poor practice promptly, fairly and professionally.
- Support the induction of new staff, agency workers and students, ensuring they understand the home's routines, expectations, safeguarding responsibilities, organisational values and the individual needs of the children.
- Encourage reflective practice by creating opportunities for staff to learn from everyday experiences, incidents, successes, feedback and professional discussions.
- Lead reflective discussions during shift handovers where appropriate, encouraging staff to consider what has gone well, what could have been improved and how learning can be applied to future practice.
OUT OF HOURS AND ACTING UP
The Senior Team Leader will:
- Assume operational responsibility for the home in the absence of the Deputy Manager or Registered Manager, ensuring the safe, effective and compliant running of the service until appropriate management support is available.
- Make timely, balanced and proportionate operational decisions within the scope of delegated authority, recognising when matters require immediate escalation in accordance with organisational procedures.
- Provide confident leadership during emergencies, safeguarding incidents, behavioural crises and other significant events, ensuring children, staff and visitors remain safe and appropriate action is taken.
- Ensure the organisation's on-call arrangements are utilised appropriately, seeking advice promptly where matters fall outside the scope of delegated authority or where additional management support is required.
- Maintain clear communication with senior managers, providing timely updates regarding significant incidents, safeguarding concerns, complaints, allegations, staffing issues or operational risks.
- Coordinate the effective management of staffing arrangements outside normal office hours, responding appropriately to sickness, emergencies, staffing shortages and unforeseen operational challenges.
- Ensure all significant decisions, actions taken and management advice received are accurately recorded and communicated during handovers and through organisational recording systems.
- Promote calm, confident and decisive leadership during out-of-hours periods, providing reassurance and direction to staff whilst maintaining the wellbeing and safety of children.
- Ensure the home remains safe, secure and operationally effective outside normal office hours, responding promptly to emergencies relating to the building, utilities, health and safety or security.
- Exercise sound professional judgement at all times, recognising the limits of delegated authority and escalating matters appropriately to protect children, staff and the organisation.
Person Specification
A minimum of two years' experience working within a regulated children's residential care setting supporting children and young people with complex emotional, behavioural, social, learning or developmental needs.
Experience supporting or deputising for a Deputy Manager within a children's residential home.
Demonstrable experience of leading shifts or undertaking senior responsibilities, including coordinating staff, making operational decisions and maintaining oversight of the day-to-day running of the home.
Experience of implementing children's care plans, risk assessments, behaviour support plans and other child-specific documentation, ensuring they are consistently reflected in day-to-day practice.
Experience of safeguarding children and responding appropriately to safeguarding concerns, allegations, complaints, missing-from-care episodes and behavioural incidents in accordance with legislation, regulation and organisational procedures.
Experience of maintaining high-quality written records using electronic recording systems (e.g. ClearCare or equivalent) and supporting the quality of recording completed by others.
Experience of coaching, mentoring and supporting colleagues to promote high standards of care, professional practice and positive outcomes for children.
Pay: £18.00-£18.50 per hour
Benefits:
- Company pension
- Employee discount
- Free parking
- On-site parking
- Referral programme
Experience:
- Working within a regulated children's residential care : 2 years (required)
- Supporting or deputising for a Deputy Manager : 1 year (preferred)
Licence/Certification:
- Level 3 Diploma in Residential Childcare or an equivalent (required)
Work Location: In person
