Head of Service Children's Residential in Stafford

The Ideal Candidate

Staffordshire County Council,

Our Children and Families services and our vision here in Staffordshire is rooted in four core principles that underpin everything we do:

• Families first – network and community always
• Right help, right time – proportionate, timely and co-produced with children and families
• Whole-system responsibility for supporting children and families to be happy, healthy and safe
• Permanence as belonging from day one

To achieve our ambition, we have taken a bold decision to transform our service structure and we’re looking for talented, values‑driven leaders who can champion these principles, inspire others and help shape the future of Children and Families services in Staffordshire.

We want to create a more resilient, child‑centred and future‑focused system that enables children, young people and families to receive the right help at the right time.

Through this redesign, we are strengthening leadership, increasing capacity and creating clearer lines of accountability across our services. These changes will support high‑quality practice, stronger partnerships and better outcomes for children and families, while ensuring we are well positioned to respond to national reforms and future challenges.

Main Responsibilities

As Head of Residential Services, you will provide strategic leadership and operational oversight for residential care services, ensuring children and young people receive safe, therapeutic and high‑quality care. You will lead service improvement, sufficiency planning and workforce development, driving excellence across residential provision while ensuring children’s voices and experiences shape service delivery and decision‑making. You will be the Responsible Individual for internal residential provision.

You will:

• Lead the strategic development, performance and continuous improvement of residential services, ensuring children receive safe, nurturing and high‑quality care.
• Oversee residential sufficiency planning, commissioning and market development to ensure there is a sustainable range of placements that meet current and future needs.
• Provide leadership for residential managers and teams, embedding a trauma-informed, therapeutic and relationship-based culture across services.
• Ensure compliance with statutory, regulatory and inspection requirements, using performance data, audits and feedback to drive improvement.
• Build effective partnerships across social care, education, health, commissioning and other agencies to improve outcomes for children and young people in residential care.
• Lead strategic planning for transitions, permanence and preparation for adulthood, ensuring children and young people are supported to achieve positive long‑term outcomes.

Minimum Criteria

• Degree or equivalent level qualification.
• Qualified and registered Social Worker.
• Relevant professional or management qualification, or substantial management training and development.
• Significant post‑qualification experience within children’s social care, including senior leadership and management responsibilities.
• Extensive knowledge of children’s residential care, including supporting children with complex trauma, safeguarding needs and multiple vulnerabilities.
• Strong understanding of the Children’s Homes Regulations, Quality Standards, Ofsted requirements and the wider regulatory framework for residential services.
• Experience acting as a Responsible Individual, or working closely alongside a Responsible Individual, with knowledge of governance and regulatory compliance.

The assessment process

Throughout the recruitment process, you will be assessed against the three key competency areas:

• Children & Families Core Principles
• Leadership
• Technical and Role‑Specific Competencies

The process will take the form of in person interview which will include,

• a role specific exercise
• an element involving our Children and Young People and a Foster Carer Interview date to be confirmed)

Our Recruitment Process

We anonymise applications during shortlisting to ensure only relevant information is considered. Please complete your application fully, especially the supporting statement, to highlight what you’ll bring to the role.

Please note: The minimum criteria in the ideal candidate section detailed above will be used if you are applying under one of our Interview Guarantee Schemes, detailed below.

About Staffordshire County Council

We are no ordinary county council

Our Values

The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively.

Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy:

We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future.

We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too.

Our benefits

We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work‑life balance.

In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to Our rewards and benefits - Careers at Staffordshire

Equal opportunities and safeguarding

As an Authority we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Staffordshire County Council is an equal opportunities organisation and Disability Confident employer. We encourage applications from all background and communities.

As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a Gold Award Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as your application meets the minimum criteria for the post.

As you’ll know safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our children and young people/vulnerable adults is important to us and that’s why this position is subject to a criminal record check from the Disclosure and Barring Service. If applicable you should disclose details of unspent and unfiltered spent reprimands, formal warnings, cautions and convictions in your application form.