Deputy Service Manager in Dover

We are looking for a kind, compassionate and resilient Deputy Manager to join our Mental Health Social Care Service in Tower Hamlets. No personal care or experience is required, just the right values. £36,000 per annum, working 40 hours per week. Want to feel like you are making a difference? You will feel at home here.

Making you feel at home here means helping you thrive in every way. That is why we offer a wide range of benefits, award-winning Learning & Development and a culture that welcomes all. These aren’t token gestures - we have thought long and hard about how best to support our team. After all, our people are doing something amazing: helping to transform lives every day.

Our benefits include:

• Annual leave increasing up to 30 days with length of service
• Free DBS
• Exclusive discounts and cashback via Reward Gateway® and opportunity to buy a Blue Light Card
• Fully paid induction programme and further training
• ILM courses and Apprenticeship Programmes
• Cycle to work scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme for 24‑7 confidential support
• Online wellbeing resources
• A generous pension – we will contribute up to 4% and life assurance cover up to £10,000 (T&Cs apply)
• Quarterly Staff Awards to reward & recognise our amazing staff's commitment and contribution

All applicants must be legally eligible to work in the UK by the start of employment as Look Ahead are not able to offer sponsorship.

The Deputy Service Manager will play a central role in the day-to-day leadership and development of Barnsley Street Project, a co-located pilot service operating with East London Foundation Trust (ELFT – NHS) and the Third Sector Mental Health Alliance partners. The service provides six hospitality beds for short-term stays and a drop-in service operating 8 am-8 pm for anybody in the community needing support with their mental health.

This role is designed for a reflective, values-led manager who is comfortable working without fixed templates, and who can hold clinical, ethical, and organisational complexity. Barnsley Street is intentionally experimental. It seeks to move away from coercive, compliance-driven models of mental health support and instead develop humane, relational, psychologically informed ways of working that prioritise choice, collaboration, dignity and proportionality in risk management.

The Deputy Service Manager will work closely with the Service Manager to build, test and refine new processes in real time, while maintaining accountability, safety, and learning. The post holder will provide operational leadership, line management and practice leadership to frontline staff. They will deputise for the Service Manager when required and act as a key interface between Look Ahead, ELFT and Third Sector colleagues, commissioners, and wider system partners. Working pattern is 9 am-5 pm, Monday to Friday, with some flexibility to support the supervision of Waking Night Support Workers.

What you’ll do:

• Practice & service leadership
• Provide day-to-day operational leadership of the service, supporting the development of a psychologically informed, anti-coercive and relational culture.
• Act as a visible practice leader, modelling curiosity, reflective thinking, and ethical decision-making in complex and uncertain situations.
• Work collaboratively with ELFT and Third Sector partners within the shared building, contributing to genuinely integrated ways of working.
• Support the development, testing and refinement of new ways of working, including alternatives to traditional risk assessment, escalation, and containment-focused responses.
• Hold and communicate the service’s values and purpose, particularly when under pressure and scrutiny.

Risk, safeguarding & governance

• Lead a proportionate, relational and least-restrictive approach to risk, balancing safety with autonomy, dignity, and psychological safety.
• Support staff to think critically about risk management, encouraging a proportional response that puts the customer at the heart of the process.
• Ensure safeguarding concerns are identified, held and responded to in line with statutory requirements, while maintaining a trauma-informed and non-punitive stance.
• Work alongside the Service Manager to ensure appropriate recording, learning, and reflective review of incidents, near-misses, and complexities.
• Contribute to a learning culture where mistakes, uncertainty, and anxiety can be thought about.

People management & staff development

• Provide direct line management, supervision, reflective space for Support Workers, Specialist Support Workers and Waking Night Support Workers.
• Deliver high-quality supervision that integrates performance, wellbeing, emotional impact, and practice reflection.
• Support staff to develop confidence in working relationally and tolerating uncertainty.
• Identify learning and development needs within the team and support progression, retention, and succession planning.
• Foster a culture of trust, shared responsibility, and mutual accountability, avoiding micromanagement while maintaining clear boundaries and expectations.

Desired Skills and Experience

• Essential
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with ability to write high standard report
• Experience of using Microsoft Outlook, Excel and Word
• Desirable
• Other relevant professional memberships and/or specialist qualifications are desirable
• Experience of working in a mental health setting
• We welcome and encourage applicants with lived experience of mental health conditions and services.