Homes Manager

The team at Aycliffe Secure Centre provide a caring, trauma informed and aspirational environment for young people aged between 10 and 18. Our young people are accommodated under a welfare or criminal justice order and have faced many adversities, including neglect, trauma, relationship breakdown and criminal proceedings. As a result, you will be working with young people with complex needs and behaviours including violence and aggression. Our job is to provide them with a safe and caring home and to support them to develop the relationships and skills that will help them towards a positive and successful future.

The Multidisciplinary team at the Centre work collaboratively together and with external professionals and families to create an experience for young people that results in a successful and safe transition into a community home. We are rated Good overall by Ofsted and Outstanding in Children’s Health and Wellbeing.

Becoming a Homes Manager at Aycliffe Secure Centre is one of the most rewarding career development choices you could make. You will have the opportunity to provide leadership to a dedicated team and ensure that all young people cared for by the Centre receive quality levels of care, education and intervention. To achieve this, you will be working with full‑time, on‑site, integrated services including education, physical health, mental health, psychology, psychiatry, occupational therapy, speech and language and substance misuse.

In this role you will have the opportunity to:

• Work with multidisciplinary services on a daily basis to ensure all young people’s educational, social, emotional and behavioural needs are met.
• Play a key role in shaping your team’s and the Centre’s ethos and culture.
• Set outstanding standards of practice outlined within the Children’s Homes regulation 2015.
• Change people’s lives.

With experience of leading and managing a team, you will:

• have the ability to motivate and lead others.
• be empathetic and people centred.
• understand workforce management procedures.

You will also need a Level 3 qualification in childcare or social care as well as a recognised and relevant management qualification. Please refer to the attached Person Specification for the full criteria. If successful, you will be required to apply for a Disclosure and Barring Service Enhanced Disclosure.

The role combines leading and managing a home with providing duty manager cover across the centre. You’ll work a varied shift pattern including early, day, and late shifts. There will be weekend work, but our current rota only covers one weekend in four and with an average of two duty shifts per week, this offers great flexibility for work‑life balance.

There are excellent initial and ongoing training and development opportunities as well as time to reflect upon workplace practice and access to specialist support. You will be able to make use of the thorough mandatory training via Durham County Council as well as accessing service‑specific training designed and delivered by Aycliffe Secure Centre. As well as access to formal training you will be joining a leadership team with hundreds of years’ experience between them and as such a wealth of knowledge and skills to share.

The difference we make to the lives of our young people is extremely valuable and we want everyone who contributes to that to feel appreciated. As a valued member of the team you can expect a competitive rewards package that includes attractive salaries, a generous annual leave entitlement of 27 days (rising to 32 after five years’ continuous local government service) and membership of the excellent contributory career average Local Government Pension Scheme.

It is anticipated interviews will be held week commencing 8th December 2025. We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that can show they meet all the essential criteria and have indicated they have a disability, are a looked‑after young person, care leaver or a veteran.

We are a proud equal opportunities employer and believe a diverse workforce brings fresh ideas and drives service improvement. We welcome applications from everyone and make employment decisions based on skills and ability. As a Disability Confident Leader, we actively encourage applications from disabled people and offer support throughout the recruitment process.

Please note, we do not accept CVs. All applications must be submitted online via the Northeast Jobs portal. Use the ‘Person Specification’ section of the form to clearly demonstrate how you meet the essential (and where possible, desirable) criteria. Applications that do not evidence the essential requirements will not be shortlisted.