Head of Care – Children's Residential Services
Location: Carlisle
Salary: £50,000 - £60,000 (depending on experience)
Job Type: Full Time | Permanent
Hours: 40 hours per week
Lead Outstanding Children's Residential Services
An experienced Head of Care is required to lead a well-established provider of therapeutic children's residential services supporting children and young people with complex emotional and behavioural needs.
This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced senior leader to oversee a portfolio of children's homes, drive quality, compliance and operational excellence, whilst shaping the future growth of an established organisation.
If you're passionate about achieving exceptional outcomes for children, developing high-performing teams and maintaining the highest Ofsted standards, this could be the ideal next step in your career.
Salary & Benefits
- Salary £50,000 - £60,000 DOE
- 30 days annual leave
- Company pension
- Retail discount scheme
- Employee Assistance Programme
- Enhanced pay for Christmas Day & New Year's Day
- Overtime available
- Excellent career progression opportunities
- Comprehensive therapeutic training programme including:
- PACE
- Therapeutic Parenting
- Attachment Theory
- Child Development
- Whole Brain Child Model
The Role
Reporting to the senior leadership team, you'll provide strategic and operational leadership across a portfolio of children's residential homes, ensuring every service delivers safe, therapeutic and high-quality care.
Working closely with Registered Managers, Responsible Individuals and senior stakeholders, you'll drive continuous improvement, maintain regulatory compliance and ensure every young person receives the highest standard of care.
You'll also play a key role in supporting the ongoing growth, performance and sustainability of the organisation.
Key Responsibilities
- Provide leadership across multiple Ofsted children's homes.
- Drive high-quality, therapeutic, child-centred care.
- Support and develop Registered Managers to achieve Outstanding outcomes.
- Ensure full compliance with Children's Homes Regulations, Quality Standards and Ofsted requirements.
- Lead safeguarding and risk management across services.
- Monitor service quality through audits, KPIs and quality assurance processes.
- Build positive relationships with Local Authorities, Commissioners, Ofsted and external professionals.
- Support occupancy, service development and operational growth.
- Lead, coach and inspire senior management teams.
- Ensure services consistently deliver excellent outcomes for children and young people.
- Produce reports, action plans and operational updates for senior leadership.
- Promote a positive culture of accountability, learning and continuous improvement.
About You
To be successful, you'll have:
- Level 5 Diploma in Leadership & Management (Children & Young People) or equivalent.
- Level 3 qualification in Residential Childcare (or equivalent).
- Minimum two years' management experience within UK children's residential care.
- At least one year's experience managing managers or supervising staff teams.
- Strong knowledge of:
- Children's Homes Regulations
- Quality Standards
- Ofsted inspections
- Safeguarding legislation
- Experience leading multiple children's residential services.
- Excellent leadership, coaching and people management skills.
- Strong commercial awareness and operational management experience.
- Excellent written, organisational and communication skills.
- Full UK driving licence and access to a vehicle insured for business use.
Please note that Wolf Healthcare is acting as an agency for this full-time, permanent position in Carlisle
IND1
Job Types: Full-time, Permanent
Pay: Up to £60,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Company events
- Company pension
- Cycle to work scheme
- Free parking
Experience:
- OFSTED REGULATED CHILDREN'S HOME MANAGEMENT: 2 years (required)
Licence/Certification:
- Level 5 Leadership and Management CHILDREN'S RESIDENTIAL (required)
Work Location: In person
