HR Manager – Children’s Social Care & Education
Oaktree is a growing provider of children’s residential care, supported services and education across the North West.
We are looking for an experienced HR Manager to take day-to-day ownership of HR across the Group.
This is a hands-on role. We are not looking for somebody who simply provides HR advice from the sidelines. We need someone who is confident dealing with managers, making decisions, managing employee relations cases and making sure the basics of HR are consistently done properly.
You will work closely with our senior management team and will be supported by the HR team.
The role
You will take responsibility for the day-to-day HR function across the Group, including:
- Employee relations, disciplinaries and grievances
- Absence, capability and performance management
- Supporting managers with difficult or complex staff issues
- ACAS matters, Employment Tribunal preparation and settlement discussions where required
- Contracts, policies and HR processes
- Recruitment and onboarding oversight
- Safer recruitment and regulatory HR compliance
- DBS, references, right-to-work and personnel file compliance
- Probation and performance processes
- HR systems, records and management information
- Supporting restructures, investigations and organisational change
- Ensuring managers follow consistent and commercially sensible HR processes
- Managing and developing the HR Administrator
What we are looking for
We are particularly interested in somebody who is:
- An experienced HR Manager, Senior HR Advisor or HRBP ready to take ownership of a function
- Strong and confident in employee relations
- Comfortable independently managing disciplinaries, grievances, investigations and difficult conversations
- Practical and commercially minded rather than overly process-driven
- Highly organised and able to keep control of a busy HR workload
- Confident challenging and advising managers
- Comfortable using HR systems and management data
- Able to improve processes rather than simply maintain existing ones
Experience within children’s social care, healthcare, education or another regulated environment would be a significant advantage.
CIPD qualification is desirable, although practical experience and judgement are equally important to us.
About Oaktree
Oaktree is an established and growing organisation providing specialist care, support and education to children and young people.
As the Group continues to grow, we want to strengthen the HR function with someone who can bring structure, consistency and good judgement while remaining approachable and pragmatic.
This is a good opportunity for someone who wants genuine ownership of an HR function and direct access to senior decision-makers rather than another layer of a large corporate HR department.
Pay: £30,005.18-£35,434.23 per year
Work Location: In person
