Operations Manager | Newton Aycliffe

Are you passionate about making a positive and lasting difference to children and young people and do you want to work for a progressive independent fostering agency with ambitious plans for the future? Are an experienced Social Work Manager looking for a new challenge or social work practitioner who has lead and managed a team looking for career progression?

We are looking for an enthusiastic and passionate Fostering Operations Manager to join our experienced and successful team who are responsible for leading an experienced team of Supervising Social Workers whom are reflective and creative in practice. Working collaboratively with all stakeholders, you will strive to ensure that the children and young people in our care reach their full potential.

Whilst based at our Newton Aycliffe office, regional travel is part of the role to support your team and national travel will be required to visit other Compass offices. A car and a valid driving licence are essential to the role.

In your role you will

• Contribute to the Fostering Service in delivering the overarching strategic plan for Compass.
• Work with the Head of Fostering in delivering operational excellence, continuous improvement and financial performance of the business whilst safeguarding children and young people.
• Lead, motivate and guide a team of social care practitioners in ensuring that we provide outstanding care and the best possible outcomes for our children and child protection and safeguarding principles are embedded in practice.
• Work within Compass Fostering Policy and legal and regulatory standards and requirements and ensure that the team’s practice is of a consistent high quality, reflective, evidence based, documented and quality assured.
• Achieve regional targets and KPI’s for placement growth and carer recruitment and retention whilst ensuring that the needs of the children and young people and the carers are met when making placements.
• Demonstrate a positive and dynamic leadership and management style, responsible for providing day to day operational support to your team of Supervising Social Workers, creating a highly skilled, trained and motivated team.
• Safeguard the children and young people in our care, including support to the Registered Manager within the monitoring of Schedule 6/7 matters and when appropriate, to have delegated responsibility for liaising with Ofsted on these matters.
• Demonstrate excellent communication and engagement skills in developing, managing and strengthening the customer relationship with key LA customers.
• Have a relevant professional qualification in social work and be Social Care England (or equivalent) registered.

The benefits of joining Compass Fostering

• Career Development – We offer many career paths, recognising hard work & supporting you into senior roles.
• Competitive Salary – using structured pay grades based on your training and experience.
• Car Allowance – £100 p/m car allowance to allow you to work flexibly from different locations.
• Wellbeing – Access to therapeutic wellbeing sessions with our Therapeutic Services team.
• Bonuses – receive £200 service award on your two-year anniversary, plus up to £500 special recognition service for outstanding practice.
• Medicash – Cashback for various medical appointments & treatments with MediCash.
• Life Assurance Scheme – 3 x annual salary after successful completion of your probation review.
• Increased Holiday – 27 days (including birthday and wellbeing day) increasing gradually to 30 hours after 4 years’ service.

The recruitment process aims to create and maintain a safe workforce and contains robust vetting procedures. The successful applicants will be appointed subject to satisfactory references and enhanced DBS check. Please note that Compass reserves the right to close this vacancy early upon receipt of sufficient applications.

The Compass Community values equality and diversity across our workforce and aims to ensure our staff community is reflective of the diversity of the children and young people within our care. In support of this commitment, we welcome applications from individuals of Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds.