- Are you an experienced children’s residential leader looking for an opportunity to take full ownership of a small, specialist home?
- Are you a Registered Manager or an established Deputy Manager who can demonstrate that you are ready to take the next step?
- Do you lead through genuine relationships, natural therapeutic interactions and consistent, high-quality practice?
If so, we’d love to hear from you.
About Illuminate Care Group
Illuminate Care Group provides residential care and education services for children and young people, creating safe, nurturing and empowering environments where every young person is supported to reach their potential.
Their approach is love-led, relationship-based and trauma-informed, with natural engagement at the heart of their practice. Staff meet young people where they are, respond to behaviour as communication and create the warmth, consistency and genuine care that help a house feel like a home.
Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI) underpins the organisation’s approach to crisis prevention, emotional regulation and positive behaviour support. Teams are trained to prevent and de-escalate incidents safely and respectfully, using reflective practice to learn and improve.
Illuminate is now looking for a Registered Manager to lead a small solo-placement children’s home in Doncaster. The home supports a young person with emotionally and behaviourally complex needs and has a staff team of approximately 10.
What will you be doing?
As Registered Manager, you’ll take overall responsibility for the leadership, quality and day-to-day management of the home. You’ll create a safe, stable and child-centred environment while developing a confident, consistent and therapeutically informed staff team.
Your role will include:
- Leading the day-to-day running and continued development of the home, managing and developing a team of approximately 10 staff while maintaining a positive, consistent and child-centred culture.
- Ensuring the home operates in line with Ofsted requirements, the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and safeguarding legislation, including oversight of Regulation 40 notifications and actions arising from Regulation 44 and 45 reports.
- Overseeing care plans, risk assessments, behaviour support plans, safeguarding processes and statutory records to ensure the young person receives safe, personalised and consistent care.
- Embedding Illuminate’s love-led, relationship-based approach, natural therapeutic interactions and TCI across the home’s daily practice.
- Building effective relationships with the young person, their family, social workers, education providers, local authorities and other professionals.
- Managing staffing levels, rotas, on-call arrangements, budgets and resources while leading quality assurance, audits and continuous improvement.
What are we looking for?
This opportunity could suit an experienced Registered Manager or an established Deputy Manager who can demonstrate that they are ready to take overall responsibility for a children’s home.
You’ll need:
- Significant experience within children’s residential care, including at least two years in a relevant role within the last five years and at least one year supervising and managing care staff.
- Essential experience supporting children and young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties, including complex and challenging presentations within a residential setting.
- Strong knowledge of the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015, Ofsted Quality Standards, safeguarding and safer recruitment, alongside experience of care planning, risk management, quality assurance and regulatory inspections.
- Proven leadership experience, with the ability to develop a confident team, maintain high standards and create a positive culture.
- A naturally empathetic, emotionally attuned and relationship-led approach, with the confidence to remain calm, make sound decisions and communicate effectively in challenging situations.
- A Level 3 Diploma in Residential Childcare and a Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Residential Childcare, or the willingness and ability to complete the Level 5 with Illuminate’s support.
- A full, valid UK driving licence and the ability to commute reliably to the Doncaster home.
What’s on offer?
- A salary of £50,000-£55,000 per year, plus an on-call allowance.
- 38 days’ annual leave, plus your birthday off each year.
- Private healthcare through Aviva, a workplace pension and access to employee wellbeing support.
- Comprehensive induction, regular supervision, ongoing professional development and support to complete the Level 5 qualification where required.
- Support from an experienced senior leadership team, with the opportunity to shape and develop a small, specialist home.
- Free parking and a casual dress environment.
- The opportunity to join an ambitious, values-led organisation and make a genuine difference to the life of a young person.
A little more about the appointment
Illuminate Care Group is looking to make an appointment as soon as possible and welcomes applications from candidates with different notice periods.
The successful candidate will be required to register with Ofsted as the Registered Manager for the home. The appointment and start arrangements will be discussed openly and may differ depending on whether the successful person is an existing Registered Manager or a Deputy Manager stepping up.
This is an active residential childcare position and may involve participation in physical interventions where necessary, in line with Illuminate Care Group’s Therapeutic Crisis Intervention framework. The role also includes participation in the on-call rota.
Safeguarding and recruitment process
Illuminate Care Group is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people.
The successful candidate will be subject to an enhanced DBS check, verification of references, right-to-work checks, a confidential pre-employment health assessment and all other relevant safer recruitment checks.
Candidates progressing to the final stage will be required to complete Illuminate Care Group’s application and safer recruitment documentation. This will include providing a complete employment history, explanations for any gaps and appropriate referee details for relevant regulated settings.
Next Steps
The first stage will be a short Teams conversation of approximately 15 minutes following review of the application questions.
Oliver King Consulting is supporting Illuminate Care Group with this recruitment campaign. We kindly ask that recruitment agencies do not contact the organisation directly regarding this vacancy.
Job Types: Full-time, Permanent
Pay: £50,000.00-£55,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Casual dress
- Company pension
- Free parking
- Health & wellbeing programme
- On-site parking
- Store discount
Application question(s):
- Thank you for your interest in this opportunity. Please tell us about your current role and what has prompted you to begin looking for a new position.
- What appeals to you about Illuminate Care Group and this Registered Manager opportunity?
- Please outline your experience within children’s residential care, including the types of homes you have worked in and the needs of the children and young people you have supported.
- Please outline your experience supporting children and young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties, including complex or challenging presentations within a residential setting.
- Please describe your current management or senior leadership responsibilities, including the size of the team you support. Please also explain the experience you have gained in safeguarding, staff leadership, care planning, quality assurance, regulatory compliance and service development.
- Please tell us about your experience of Ofsted inspections and the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015, including any role you have played in preparing for an inspection or responding to recommendations.
- Please confirm whether you hold, or are working towards, the Level 3 Diploma in Residential Childcare and the Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Residential Childcare, or equivalent qualifications. Please include the qualification titles and completion or expected completion dates.
- Ofsted requires relevant residential childcare and management experience. Please confirm whether you have worked for at least two years in a role relevant to the residential care of children within the last five years, including at least one year supervising and managing staff working in a care role. Please briefly outline this experience.
- As part of Illuminate Care Group’s safer recruitment process, a reference will be required from every regulated setting listed within your employment history. If your CV does not already include referee details for each regulated setting, please list the organisation, your job title, dates of employment, referee’s name, position, email address and telephone number.
- Have you previously applied for a role with Illuminate Care Group? If so, please provide the approximate date, the position you applied for and the outcome of your application.
- This position requires a full UK driving licence, the ability to commute reliably to Doncaster and participation in an on-call rota. Please confirm whether you can meet these requirements and what your commute would look like:
Work Location: In person
