Operations Director - Children's Residential Services

In a newly created role, YMCA Robin Hood Group are seeking an Operations Director to oversee our residential service for children in care. You will bring operational excellence to this role as you lead and manage our Operations Managers and Registered Managers of our current home portfolio with an ambitious plan to expand this service so we can support more children and young people recover from the trauma they have experienced in their lives so far. As a not-for-profit operator, we put the needs of children and young people ahead of everything else. Our priority is to enable these young people to 'discover who they are and what they can become'. The Role As a member of the Senior Leadership Team, this role will focus on providing an outstanding environment for children to thrive in whilst ensuring that we are compliant with OFSTED and other regulatory bodies. Core Duties

• Ensure all aspects of service delivery in the residential homes comply with contractual, legislative and other necessary
requirements.
• Create and implement robust policies and procedures for placements across all homes for looked after children, including
oversight of quality assurance and ensuring all staff work in a way which prevents abuse and safeguards everyone.
• Support and expand our children's therapeutic care service; leading on contract negotiations for future placements,
registration of new homes and supporting the Executive Director in introducing a continuum of care provision
• You will investigate any safeguarding concerns for the service area and to make informed, fair, and transparent decisions based
on information obtained including the production of investigation reports with recommendations and outcomes.
• Maximise resources and overall occupation to ensure your budget is responsibly managed.
• Provide strong cause-centric leadership and management to Operations Managers, to provide the highest professional standards of
care and support to children and young people in our services, ensuring that they thrive who in turn will manage Registered Managers across all regions.
• Work with Operational Managers within the service to develop strategies that support ongoing learning, staff engagement and
alignment to the organisations culture By virtue of being part of a wider organisation with a wide range of other services, we would look for you to be a positive and active member of the organisation's Senior Leadership Team, supporting and participating in YMCA initiatives, internal projects and community projects across the Group., Your role will encompass our current homes which cover Nottingham, Newark, Goole and Selby with our key YMCA office locations being situated in Nottingham and Newark. We would envisage that you would spend time within our home settings as well as our office locations. Your willingness to travel and be flexible to the needs of your service are imperative. Our Work from Home policy supports one day a week working from home. The recruitment process aims to create and maintain a safe workforce and contains robust vetting procedures. Successful applicants must complete a company application form and will be appointed subject to satisfactory references and enhanced DBS check. To be successful in your application, you will be subject to a rigorous safer recruitment process and must adhere to a strict code of conduct regarding your behaviour at all times.

With extensive experience in a children's residential care setting in an Operational management role, you will bring to the role:
• Operational knowledge and expertise of working in and managing Children's Residential / Children Leaving Care / Children Looked
After sectors including experience of opening new residential homes
• Experience of the support of successfully implementing new services; involvement in sourcing funding streams; and some
experience of writing funding bids and applications.
• Demonstrable experience of working with OFSTED and other regulatory bodies, quality assurance frameworks and assessment
standards.
• Experience of managing a dispersed staff team including recruitment, training, sickness absence and managing performance -
staff team size of 50+ staff members.
• Compassion, empathy and understanding for the work your teams do every day
• Passion for working within a home-setting, knowing the difference you are making to a young person's life.
• Inspiration and motivation to ignite the passion for the work we do among your team.
• Your desire to disrupt and challenge the norm both within our organisation and across the wider Industry.
• Exceptional communication skills at all levels from child to Board member.
Our North Star will speak to the very core of who you are; the relentless dedication that all children and young people have the developmental relationships that support them to connect with one another and their communities. You would ideally hold:
• Higher/further level qualification in a relevant field (business, psychological, social care) and/or a portfolio to evidence an
equivalence of knowledge.
• Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Residential Childcare or equivalent
• Minimum level 3 Safeguarding Diploma., Disability Confident
About Disability Confident A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.