Deputy Manager - Children’s Home - Croydon

40 hours per week including evenings, weekends and bank holidays

Contract: Permanent

We have a fantastic opportunity to join St Christopher's fellowship as a Deputy Manager for our new specialist Children’s home in Croydon. You will work alongside the Registered Manager to lead and support a professional team of staff committed to transforming young lives and creating positive outcomes. You will be supported by Team Leaders, experienced Residential Practitioners, as well as our Wrap Around and Education Teams.

About Us

Our vision is for every child and young person to be safe, loved and happy, to achieve their potential and have a bright future. St Christopher's is a leading charity for children and young people. We are proud of our history of providing fostering, children's homes and innovative leaving care services across the UK & Isle of Man. We have a passionate commitment to our young people, placing them at the centre of everything we do. We provide positive life experiences for young people who are unable to sustain a placement in their parental or foster home.

We are an equal-opportunity employer keen to develop an inclusive workforce where people feel they belong. We hope to attract applications from under-represented groups, including people from different cultures, nationalities, socioeconomic backgrounds, ages, disabilities, religions, faith, sex, orientation, childcare responsibilities, and gender-diverse identities.

About the Role

As Deputy Manager, you will lead and support a professional team of staff committed to transforming young lives and creating positive outcomes. You will be supported by a Registered Manager, Deputy Manager, Team Leaders, and the team of residential staff.

Key aspect of the role:

• To assist the manager in safeguarding and ensuring every child and young person receives high quality care as measured by Ofsted in the social care common inspection framework.
• To assist the manager in the management of the home, including the staff, external relationships, the budget, the resources and fabric of the building.

St Christopher’s Academy

Our 'St Christopher’s Academy' ensures our staff is continually developing. We will support you to map out your career trajectory and help you achieve your professional ambitions.

The successful candidate will have:

• A degree in a relevant discipline (e.g. Psychology, Social Work, Mental Health Nursing, Youth Work etc)
• A willingness to undertake a Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Residential Childcare, if possessing only a Level 3 qualification relevant to the role
• At least 2 years’ experience in residential children’s homes
• At least 1 years’ experience of staff supervision and management responsibility.
• Ability to develop appropriate one-to-one relationships with young people and employ mentoring skills that empower young people to achieve their goals.
• Numeracy skills to manage budgets efficiently and contribute to the budgetary process.
• An understanding of the regulatory framework relevant to the provision of residential services for children and young people.
• Awareness of issues facing young people such as bullying, gangs and exploitation and how these impact on behaviour.
• An understanding of trauma informed practice
• Ability to work shifts including weekends and bank holidays and undertake sleep-ins.
• Ability and willingness to be part of an on call rota overseeing multiple Homes.

In return we offer:

• Starting salary up to £50,000 depending on experience and qualifications
• Opportunities to develop your career and become a Registered Manager.
• A friendly working environment, a fun, open and honest culture.
• 25 days holiday rising to 27 days after 3 years’ service, plus Bank Holidays, pro-rata.
• Industry leading training programme including access to level 3 qualifications, children’s right and participation, CSE, empowerment, mental health and social pedagogy.
• Contributory pension scheme, enhanced maternity and company sick scheme.
• UK Life Assurance (Death in service) to the value of 3 times your annual salary.
• BUPA employee assistance programme, offering counselling, financial advice and legal support.
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Bluelight card; discount shopping scheme at hundreds of retailers across the UK.
• Discretionary funded training programs.
• Employee awards based on performance and length of service.
• Fantastic opportunities to develop your career within our range of services.

Recruitment Process:

At St Christopher’s we are committed to the safeguarding of all children and young people in our care. During the recruitment process you will be expected to complete an online application form to ensure we capture essential information to meet legislation, best practice and vetting requirements. Applicants will ideally already be on the DBS Update Service; if this is not the case St Christopher's will carry out a DBS (police) check prior to starting. Your online application must include a supporting statement addressing the criteria stated in the Person Specification. CV’s will not be accepted.

This post has a minimum age restriction of 21 year for roles working directly with children and young people in our residential and supported accommodation Homes in line with the Equality Act ‘occupational requirement’. It is illegal to apply for any role that involves working with children and young people under the age of 18, if you know you are barred from working with children.

All shortlisted candidates invited to interview will be asked to submit a Self-Declaration and Disclosure form which will need to be returned prior to an interview being booked.