Service manager role profile

Primary purpose of role

To lead and manage Services based within Children Young People and Family. This role will be generic across the areas of Referral and Assessment Service, Children’s Social Work Service and Permanency Service which includes Plymouth In House Fostering. The service manager will be required to ensure improving outcomes and delivering a high quality of service to meet the needs of children and young people

Key accountabilities and key measures

Role outcomes

• Ensuring adherence to safeguarding requirements, including legislation, regulations and Working Together Guidance, within Childcare Legislation including Children Act 1989, Children and Families Act 2014 including Fostering, Adoption and Care leavers regulations
• Delivering against key performance indicators and service targets
• Operating as the business lead for contracts for specific services
• Responsible for managing and monitoring a prime budget ranging from £2-£7 million
• Contributing to the development of departmental and service plans
• Working across the Department to analyse issues and to deliver specific actions, service developments and improvements
• Proactively identifying emerging trends and local and national issues and promoting appropriate responses for the Department
• Leading on or contributing to specific projects or initiatives identified within the senior management team
• Working with multi-agency partners on developing policy or practice in response to specific themes or service issues
• Presenting or representing the Department at PCC, city-wide or regional boards or committees and ensuring learning is brought back and informs change
• Being proactive in ensuring the views of children and families inform service developments
• Leading and embedding a culture with high expectations of practice standards and a focus on impact and improved outcomes for children and young people
• Line managing the service area staff group including 4th tier managers, and holding overall accountability for people management within the service area
• Holding accountability for the quality assurance of work undertaken within service area (100%)

Role measures

• Evidenced by casework scrutiny, KPIs, audit work, supervision
• Contract monitoring processes indicate best value, appropriate service delivery, sufficiency and contract variance where flexibility is needed
• Budget monitoring processes
• Timely feedback on identified issues
• Good quality briefing reports.
• Issues and alerts raised swiftly and appropriately
• Service and departmental plans in place and progressing
• Outcomes measures of plans evidencing impact
• Emerging issues identified and brought to the management team with recommendations
• Identified initiatives progressing and achieving specific outcomes measures and targets. Actions completed to timescales
• Evidence of stakeholders engaged throughout the work of the service area
• Multi-agency partners contributing to service delivery and evidence of joined up approach to issues
• Service user feedback routinely contributing to service development
• Active engagement with local and regional forums with evidence of impact
• Staff throughout the service engaged with the direction of travel and aspirational for practice improvements
• Culture of reflection and challenge evident through supervision audits, Inspections, reviews, staff feedback
• Evidence of HR processes, supervision etc. actively undertaken
• Staff retention. exit surveys, annual staff survey
• Staff/team stress/risk assessments

Key activities

• Being responsible for casework risk-management across the service area, including quality assurance systems and assuring and ratifying the decision- making of managers and social workers in complex cases
• Ensuring work is allocated safely
• Ensuring appropriate assessments and plans are in place, are of good quality and are progressing appropriately
• Ensuring services are delivered within delegated budgets and that limited resources are effectively targeted on those most in need (30%)
• Taking a whole system approach to managing change, including leading the 4th tier managers in implementing cultural change and modifying service delivery to address shortcomings and secure improvements in performance
• Working corporately to provide a pro-active response to inspection planning and management, resource issues and major practice issues/incidents
• Ensuring compliance with corporate processes within the service area, including safer recruitment and information security (30%)
• Working across the Department when required, e.g. to support cover arrangements, investigate complaints, or chair capability/disciplinary hearings (10%)
• Taking lead responsibility for specific project areas or service themes. Ensuring planning, implement service or practice changes and monitoring the outcomes for impact
• Working collaboratively with colleagues within the Department, across the council and with multi-agency partners to achieve results (10%)
• Actively seeking feedback on service delivery and ensuring all stakeholders, including multi-agency partners and children young people and carers/parents, are included in planning and designing service changes
• Working collaboratively with partners to address practice issues and themes, taking a systems-based approach to early help, safeguarding and improving outcomes
• Developing links with key partners, e.g. schools, and promoting the work of the Department
• Acting as a conduit for informal problem resolution with partners, and promoting escalation procedures when appropriate, in order to ensure difficulties are identified and resolved at the earliest point (10%)
• Ensuring HR processes including recruitment, capability and disciplinary processes are appropriately and equitably operated
• Taking responsibility for Health and Safety issues of the working environment and staff within the service area
• Taking responsibility for information security within the working environment and ensuring staff within the service area understand their responsibilities and operate safely
• Ensuring high quality supervision takes place throughout the service area, in line with departmental standards and evidenced by auditing
• Actively undertaking a range of quality assurance activities (including observations of practice and audits), using a system-based approach, and promoting reflection and non-acceptance of poor practice standards
• Ensuring processes for safe decision-making are adhered to and challenge is evidenced (10%)

Essential qualifications/knowledge

• Degree level or equivalent in Social Work e.g. CQSW, DipSW
• Registration with Social Work England
• Knowledge of the legislative requirements placed on Services for Children & Young People
• Detailed knowledge of the legislation pertaining to area of operation
• Understanding of how changes in the economic, political, social and organisational climate can impact on the organisation
• Sound understanding of the safeguarding agenda

Desirable qualifications/knowledge

• Masters level qualification in social work
• Management/Leadership qualification

Essential experience

• Experience of working as a statutory Social Work practitioner and as a first line manager
• Experience of effectively managing budgets
• Experience of setting and achieving organisational performance and standards.
• Experience of interpreting and analysing complex financial and performance management information
• Experience in raising practice standards and of developing and using performance data in securing service improvement
• Experience of multi-agency working

Desirable experience

• Experience of undertaking a range of HR related tasks
• Experience of leading change
• Experience of project work or undertaking strategic tasks

Essential skills

• Proven leadership ability
• Highly developed analytical skills
• Excellent communication skills, including ability to influence, written and verbal communication skills and ability to present
• Ability to think strategically and to work across organisational boundaries and silos
• Planning ability to undertake service designing, structure planning and implement new government initiatives or practice changes
• Staff management skills, including change management
• Keyboard skills required to create and respond to letters and emails and compile reports

Corporate standards

• In accordance with Council policies and guidance on information management and security, it is your personal responsibility for data protection, client confidentiality and information governance.
• Act at all times in accordance with appropriate legislation and regulations, codes of practice, the provisions of the Council’s constitution and its policies and procedures.
• Work within the requirements of the Council’s Health and Safety policy, performance standards, safe systems of work and procedures.
• Undertake all duties with due regard to the corporate equalities policy and relevant legislation.