Service Manager - Children in Care
About the role
Are you an experienced service manager in children’s social care, able to inspire others to drive a sustainable improvement to the lives of children and families?
As Service Manager for Children in Care at Northamptonshire Children’s Trust, you will lead a social work team to deliver safe, stable, and ambitious care planning that improves outcomes for children. Reporting to the Strategic Manager of Children in Care, you will drive high-quality, relational and trauma-informed practice, working with partners to improve permanence, placement stability, education, health and wellbeing.
This is a key role within a collaborative, forward-thinking environment — and a genuine opportunity to shape services that make a real difference to children's lives.
Key responsibilities include
- Delivering child-centred care planning focused on safety, stability, permanence and wellbeing
- Leading service improvement and embedding strong relational practice
- Ensuring strong performance, quality assurance, and statutory compliance
- Strengthening partnerships to support stability, family time, lifelong networks and better outcomes
- Ensuring support reflects children's voices and individual needs
Get in Touch
We welcome the opportunity to speak to interested candidates. Please feel free to email Dudley Foster, Strategic Manager - dudley.foster@NCTrust.co.uk.
What will you be doing?
You will offer leadership to Children in Care Service, developing a service plan for the Portfolio, and leading the production of team plans, in accordance with the Trust objectives. Systematically reviewing progress against these plans to ensure a consistently high standard of service which is in accordance with Trust objectives.
You will provide the professional lead in Children in Care Service, responsible for supporting and improving outcomes for children in care and their families.
You will ensure that budgets and other resources are used in accordance with NCT’s priorities and financial regulations, and that expenditure is accurately monitored and reported, and does not exceed budget.
The ideal candidate will be accountable for developing and implementing the service plan to meet objectives and attain performance targets.
About you
As the ideal candidate you will
- Be a qualified Social Worker, with current Social Work England registration, and ideally with a Level 5 NVQ Management qualification, or equivalent relevant experience.
- Have the ability to manage a service and ensure development and performance issues are addressed though support and coaching.
- Have previous budgetary control experience, ICT skills
- Have the ability to represent the service at a more senior level if required.
- Have senior leadership experience within statutory children's social care services
- Have experience of Family Safeguarding
- Be able to lead high-performing teams, leading change and manage complex services
- Have experience managing large budgets effectively
- Demonstrate a strong understanding of children in care and the importance of family and lifelong networks
- Have knowledge of statutory frameworks, Ofsted requirements and quality assurance
- Possess excellent communication, influencing and partnership skills
This role is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore subject to an enhanced DBS certificate. It is also a regulated activity and will be subject to a Barred List check
