Registered Manager - Care at Home in Inverness

You're good at this. You know it. The rota shifts at 6am and you've already got it covered. A carer calls in sick on a Friday, a care plan needs updating before the morning run, a commissioner is chasing a report. You handle it, because you always do. The question is whether the service you're doing it for deserves that. This one might.

A well‑established care at home service based around 14 miles north of Inverness is looking for a Registered Manager to take the reins and grow something worth growing. It's a live, operational service delivering around 700 hours of care per week across a wide rural geography, with a clear, realistic plan to grow sustainably beyond 1,000. A team of 26 care practitioners is in place, a Care Coordinator and Team Leads are alongside you, and the infrastructure to build properly is there.

What the service needs is someone who brings more than a job title. Someone who understands that lone workers operating across remote Highland communities need more than a rota; they need a manager who sees them, supports them and sets the standard consistently.

This is what a strong week in this role looks like:

• Care plans that reflect people's lives as they are today, not six months ago.
• Compliance that stands up to scrutiny and means something operationally.
• Supervision that staff actually benefit from rather than just tick off.
• Commissioner relationships built on reliability and honest communication.
• A service that grows because the quality earns it.

The Highland setting is unique. The geography demands logistics thinking and independence of judgement. If you've managed care at home in a rural area before, you'll recognise it immediately. If you haven't, the relocation support on offer, including open discussion around housing and temporary accommodation during your transition, makes the move more achievable than you might think. Sponsorship may also be available for the right candidate with strong care at home experience.

Who you'll be working with and what that looks like in practice. The Operations Manager you'd report into has spent her career at the sharp end of care at home. Former Operations Director for one of the Highlands' largest providers, and someone who has grown the Dingwall branch herself since taking it on. She's not a figurehead; she's operationally fluent, well‑connected with commissioners, and genuinely invested in the right person succeeding. That means real support. Not a check‑in once a month and left to it. If there's a development area you want to build, clinical specialism, quality improvement, workforce strategy, there's appetite to back that properly, with protected time and resource.

Decisions that sit within operational delivery are yours to make. Budget sign‑off sits higher in the business, which is worth knowing upfront. But day‑to‑day, you run the service. The culture here is straightforward. Standards matter. The team are treated well, genuinely, not just on paper. And the expectation is that you build something stable enough that the people above you aren't worried when they're not in the office. That's the benchmark.

By the end of year one, success looks like this:

• Care hours growing steadily toward 1,000.
• A team that's properly supervised and retained.
• An inspection outcome that reflects the quality of the work.
• A commissioner relationship built on consistency.

Growth beyond the single branch is a realistic longer‑term conversation for the right person, but that starts with making this one the service it should be.

What will help you succeed:

• Several years working within care at home services — not just social care more broadly.
• Registered Manager experience or a clear, credible route to registration.
• Confidence managing compliance, inspections and stakeholder relationships.
• A full UK driving licence.

Qualifications being sought:

• SCQF Level 9 in a health, social work or related field.
• Leadership and Management at SCQF Level 10 (or a committed plan to complete it).
• SVQ Level 4 in Health and Social Care — or readiness to move quickly toward it.

A competitive salary is on offer, aligned to experience.

Recruitment Panda Ltd is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy. We are committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from all suitably qualified candidates regardless of race, sex, disability, religion, sexual orientation, or age. By submitting your application, you consent to Recruitment Panda Ltd processing your personal data in accordance with our Privacy Policy.