Service Manager: Children in Care

Staffordshire County Council's Children and Families services are rooted in four core principles: 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.

Location
This post will cover East Staffordshire.

Main Responsibilities

• Provide operational leadership across services supporting children in care and young people preparing for adulthood.
• Ensure children receive safe, stable and high-quality care, while leading teams, developing partnerships and driving continuous improvement to help children achieve positive long-term outcomes.
• Lead and manage Children in Care teams, ensuring high-quality practice, effective care planning and positive outcomes for children and young people.
• Drive placement stability and permanence planning, helping children access the right care and support at the right time.
• Build strong partnerships with health, education, housing, police, carers and community organisations to deliver coordinated support.
• Monitor performance, quality assurance and service standards, using insight and learning to improve practice and outcomes.
• Lead, motivate and develop managers and teams, creating a culture of high performance, accountability and continuous learning.
• Manage resources, budgets and service improvement projects to ensure effective, sustainable and child-focused services.

The Ideal Candidate

• Degree or equivalent level qualification.
• Qualified and registered Social Worker.
• Substantial experience in managing teams within children’s social care within a multi-agency environment.
• Significant knowledge, understanding and experience of working with relevant legislation, policy and procedures relating to children in care.
• In-depth understanding of statutory frameworks, national agendas and best practice for children in care.
• Experience of successfully developing and monitoring performance frameworks, quality assurance processes and reporting.

Interviews
Interviews will be held in person - Date to be confirmed. We value transferable skills, experiences, and qualifications so consider applying anyway or for an informal chat about the role.

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 essential criteria in the ideal candidate section detailed above will be used if you are applying under one of our Interview Guarantee Schemes.

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.

Recruitment process and commitment
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 backgrounds 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.