The salary range for this position is £79,260 - £87,153 per annum based on a 36-hour working week.

This role has the flexibility to be based in Reigate or Woking as the contractual base, however travel around the county as needed is a requirement.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for a creative and entrepreneurial system's leader to rise to the challenge of developing our existing portfolio of 12 registered children's homes and leading on our expansion program which will see our portfolio double in the next 3 years.

Surrey County Council is currently the 7th largest Local Authority (LA) provider of in-house children's homes but we're not stopping there! We are set to become the largest LA residential provider of homes based on our ambitious additional £30 million capital investment.

We have a lot to be proud of…

• A political and strategic commitment to provide Surrey Homes for Surrey children based on assessed need
• Homes of the highest quality in key locations
• Homes consistently rated Good and Outstanding by Ofsted
• Permanent and experienced Responsible Individuals, Registered Managers and Deputies who understands the needs of Surrey Children
• A £2.4m in increasing management capacity and upskilling our workforce
• A workforce development strategy that has increased our permanent qualified residential worker workforce.

Rewards and Benefits:

• 26 days' holiday rising to 28 days after 2 years' service and 30 days after 5 years' service
• Option to buy up to 10 days of additional annual leave
• An extensive Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to support health and wellbeing
• Up to 5 days of carer's leave per year
• Paternity, adoption and dependants leave
• A generous local government salary related pension
• Lifestyle discounts including gym, travel, shopping and many more
• 2 paid volunteering days plus 1 team volunteering day per year
• Learning and development hub where you can access a wealth of resources
• Up to £8,000 to ease your move to Surrey if relocating.

About Us

In Surrey we take our Corporate Parenting responsibilities seriously and placement sufficiency across our residential provision is a key part of that. Our commitment is to provide the right care in the right place at the right time, to help children in our care achieve the best outcomes. Wherever possible we want our children looked after to live in Surrey in line with our Surrey Homes for Surrey Children ambition.

To support this, we are developing and expanding our portfolio of Ofsted registered children's homes, to enable children looked after to remain rooted in their communities and supported by the local specialist services they need. To help us realise our ambitions we are looking for a Head of Service for Children's Residential.

About the Role

As our new Children's Residential Head of Service, you will support Joanne Rabbitte, our Assistant Director, in realising our ambition to expand the residential estate ensuring that we meet the diverse needs of our looked after children keeping children with the highest needs in Surrey.

You will understand the stakeholder network that is required to support a large residential homes estate ensuring that we meet the regulatory requirements and consistently maintain Ofsted ratings of Good and Outstanding.

Working in partnership with colleagues and external partners you will support the council's capital development program for children's homes as agreed by cabinet.

The remit of this role includes:

• Lead on the residential workforce development workstream under the auspices of CFFL Recruitment, Retention and Culture Board
• Implement a quality assurance and reporting framework linked to the SCIF
• Ensure effective management of resources so that children have the right placement at the right time
• Ensure services are delivered within our equalities framework, capturing the individual voices of the children and young people in our care ensuring we are child focused.
• Maximising opportunities for our children and young people to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives, supporting them through trauma informed practice.

As a leader your approach will be strength based, individualised and proactive. You will provide critical systems leadership, helping us to deliver against our priorities across a complex environment, which includes key stakeholders such as health, education, commissioning and operational teams. Building trust and credibility with teams and beyond will be key to this role. We do this through a culture of high support and high expectations to ensure a relentless focus on delivering safe and effective services for the children in our care.

When you identify areas of poor performance you will be proactive in rectifying them.

Shortlisting Criteria

To be considered for shortlisting for this position, your application will clearly evidence the following:

• A relevant professional social care qualification and registration with Social Work England
• Comprehensive understanding of the relevant legislation and practice standards and the implications that changes to legislation may have, including Inspection Regulations and what it means to be Inspection ready
• A good understanding of effective models of practice used within children's residential care.
• A proven ability to engage with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders and understand their perspective and priorities
• Ability to prioritise and effectively lead a range of services in line with strategic ambitions
• An ability to provide high quality written reports to be used in a wide variety of senior forums- you will present to members and boards - Corporate Parenting Board (CPB) and Cabinet as required.
• Ability to build and maintain positive relationships built on trust in sometimes challenging situations

Contact Us

Please contact us for any questions relating to the role. This could be to discuss flexible working requests, transferable skills or any barriers to employment.

To arrange for an informal conversation about the role please contact Jenny Day via email at j who will be able to facilitate setting this up.

The job advert closes at 23:59 on Sunday the 14th of July with shortlisting planned for the W/C 15th of July.

Interviews are planned to take place across the W/C 22nd and 29th July 2024.

An enhanced DBS 'Disclosure and Barring Service' check for regulated activity (formerly known as CRB) and the Children's and Adults' Barred List checks will be required for this role.

Surrey has both urban and rural areas and locality based social care workers will be expected to have a valid driving licence to drive in the UK and access to a vehicle and be willing to travel across a wide geographical area.

Reasonable adjustments where needed will be made for successful applicants who have a disability or long term health condition to enable them to fulfil the requirements of the job.

Our Commitment

Surrey County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. A guaranteed interview will be offered to all disabled applications where:

• The candidate has evidenced the minimum criteria for the role through their application
• The candidate has chosen to share that they have a disability on the application form
• Our application form and onboarding process will provide an opportunity to request any reasonable adjustments for the interview and/or the role.
• We want to be an inclusive and diverse employer reflecting the community we serve and particularly welcome applications from all underrepresented groups.