Are you a passionate and experienced leader committed to improving outcomes for young people leaving care? We are seeking an inspiring Service Manager to lead one of our Care Leavers Teams, driving excellence in practice and ensuring that young people leaving care receive the support, opportunities, and encouragement they need to thrive as they move into adulthood.
This is an exciting opportunity to lead a dedicated team of professionals, shaping a service that is ambitious for our young people and focused on delivering positive, lasting change. You will play a key role in developing high-quality services, fostering strong multi-agency partnerships, and ensuring statutory responsibilities are met while keeping the voice and experience of young people at the heart of everything we do.
If you are a compassionate leader with a strong understanding of Leaving Care services and a commitment to achieving the very best outcomes for young people, we would love to hear from you.
At Cheshire East Council we are resident, and partner focused with a vision to enable prosperity and wellbeing for all. People really are at the heart of everything we do and that starts with our incredible workforce. We promote a culture of high performance where people can aspire, thrive and flourish, where we strive to deliver best value in everything we do.
For us, success isn’t just about what we achieve, but how we achieve it together. We promote curiosity, excellence, innovation and continuous improvement.
We are values led and committed to wellbeing and inclusion for all, where our employees co-created our values of drive, integrity, respect and collaboration which inform all that we do.
We are proud to work for Cheshire East Council and believe you would be too!
We’re on a meaningful journey in Children’s Social Care and we’d love for you to be part of it. Joining us means becoming part of a supportive, forward-thinking team that’s passionate about making a real difference in the lives of children and young people. Everything we do is about putting them first, helping them grow, thrive and reach their full potential so they can build brighter futures.
If this sounds like the kind of impact you want to make, we’d be delighted to hear from you. Come and join us in shaping positive change for our young people.
As Service Manager, you will:
- Lead, manage and motivate Personal Advisers and practitioners to deliver high-quality services to care leavers.
- Provide effective leadership, support and challenge to ensure consistently good practice and positive outcomes for young people.
- Ensure robust supervision, practice oversight and performance management arrangements are in place across the service to drive improvement.
- Support practitioners to undertake high-quality assessments, pathway planning and reviews that place the voice, wishes and aspirations of young people at the centre of practice.
- Drive continuous improvement through quality assurance, auditing and learning, ensuring practice is reflective, strengths-based and relationship-focused.
- Develop strong partnership working across housing, health, education, employment, training and community services to maximise opportunities for young people.
- Monitor service performance, manage risk effectively and ensure compliance with statutory duties and performance expectations.
- Champion equality, participation and co-production, ensuring care-experienced young people influence service development.
This is just a snapshot of some of the exciting things you’ll be doing in the role, to find out more about the other key responsibilities of the role please view the attached job description.
- Qualified and registered Social Worker with substantial experience supporting children and families.
- Strong knowledge of safeguarding in relation to both children and adults, child development, risk assessment, exploitation and Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children.
- Skilled in analysing complex information and delivering effective interventions.
- Experienced in multi-agency partnership working, service improvement, and budget management.
- Excellent communication, report-writing, and performance management skills.
- Committed to achieving positive outcomes through collaboration, integrity, and high professional standards.
To find out more about the essential and desirable criteria for the role please view the attached job description specification document.
- A competitive salary - Between £54,994 per annum - £62,777 per annum (CEC NJC – Grade 12) with guaranteed yearly pay increases!
- Enhanced annual leave - Start with an impressive 34 days of annual leave (including bank holidays) from day one, and watch it grow to 39 days after just five years of service
- Purchase of annual leave – Want more time off? You can purchase up to 10 extra days of annual leave each year, giving you the flexibility to balance work and life just the way you want (Pro-rata for part-time staff)
- Flexible working pattern - Enjoy a 37-hour standard full-time work week with the added perks of flexitime and hybrid/remote working arrangements where possible. Your work-life balance just got a whole lot better!
- Salary sacrifice green car scheme - Drive green and save green! Lease a brand-new electric or hybrid car through our salary sacrifice scheme. There’re no credit checks, no deposits, just significant savings and exclusive offers on a three-year lease
- White goods salary sacrifice scheme - Upgrade your home with ease. Purchase home and electronic items through our salary sacrifice scheme, spreading the cost of big-ticket purchases like appliances, computers, and tech gadgets directly from your salary
- Enhanced public pension - Secure your future with our career average pension, where contributions are built at a rate of 1/49th of your yearly pensionable pay
- Cycle to work scheme - Save up to 25-39% on the retail price of bikes and safety equipment through Income Tax and National Insurance savings. Get fit and save money!
- Employee assistance programme - Access a completely free and confidential assistance service to help manage, reduce, and overcome life’s challenges, both at work and in your personal life
- Discounted gym membership - Stay active and healthy with corporate membership prices for Everybody Leisure, including:
- Gym, Swim and Group Fitness at all 16 facilities
- Off-Peak Racket Sports
- Athletics Tracks
- Sauna/Steam/Spa
Organisation
Cheshire East Council
Job Category
Children and Young People Services
Salary Min
£54,994 per annum
Salary Max
£62,777 per annum
Employment Type
Permanent
We’re delighted that you’re considering applying for this role!
As an equal opportunities’ employer, we warmly welcome applicants from all backgrounds. We believe that a diverse workforce helps us better reflect and serve our local communities, and together, we can build something truly special.
To join our team, simply click ‘Apply for this job’ at the bottom of the page. If you’d prefer an informal chat first or have any questions about the role, feel free to reach out to Francine Salem at: [email protected], they will be happy to hear from you! Please remember to include the job reference so we know which role you are interested in.
Once you’ve applied for the position, please keep an eye on your email inbox (including your junk and spam folders), as we’ll send any correspondence there to stay in touch with updates about your application.
If you haven’t heard from us within four weeks of the closing date, it likely means we weren’t able to move forward with your application at this time but please don’t let this discourage you as your interest means a lot to us, and we’d truly love to hear from you again in the future!
We wish you all the best in your application and if you run into any technical issues, our friendly team are here to help at: [email protected].
Cheshire East Council is committed to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults across the Borough. As such, any cautions, convictions, reprimands or final warnings that are ‘not protected’ as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) order 1975 (as amended in 2013) relating to the non-disclosure of spent convictions do not apply to this job. You must therefore, disclose whether you have any previous convictions where prompted to do so within the application process.
