Service Manager

Recruiting a Contract Manager to join our Young Peoples service in Hounslow!

GBP40,000 per annum, 37.5 hours per week plus 25 days Annual Leave, Pension schemes, Staff discounts, healthcare and more

Hounslow supports young people with medium to high and complex needs including looked after children, care leavers and teenage parents across 6 sites. Support is provided by support workers and specialist workers, aiming to achieve the very best outcomes including tenancy sustainment, ETE, enhancing life skills, managing mental health and emotional wellbeing and a successful move on from the service with greater independence, confidence and resilience. Contract Managers are responsible for the effective management of all contracts within their designated patch, including line managing the relevant front line staff. Leadership and competence development in direct reports is a key responsibility of the role. Post-holders may also carry client group specialism responsibilities, linking in with other Managers and Head of Operations to ensure focussed integration of specialisms across the whole organisation.

Key Responsibilities:

- Drive business planning activities within your contract, ensuring relevant and challenging objective setting and ongoing performance tracking, developing turn around action plans as may be necessary
- Using sound financial and accounting principles, manage contract budgets to deliver on corporate and local contract financial targets
- Successfully lead and motivate your team to ensure the championing of and maintenance of a positive local culture within your service
- Work to continuously improve staff competence, ensure ownership of all staff issues and speedy and effective conflict resolution
- Responsible for reporting all staff changes to HR and Payroll departments, as appropriate e.g. starters, leavers, additional hours etc.
- Responsible for maintaining quarterly staff succession plans
- Deliver effective, professional and commercially focused briefings and supervision meetings with staff and ensure that information, reporting & communications flow up/down is effective
- Responsible for managing and allocating customers to support staff (casework management)
- Develop key business relationships with all relevant customers/external parties to ensure service delivery excellence and maximise new business opportunities in own patch
- Plan, organise and prioritise operations within your contract to ensure maximum efficiencies/utilisation of all resources
- Working with your team lead creative and ambitious customer involvement plans across the patch and ensure successful implementation
- Where appropriate to role, carry client group specialism activities, linking in with other Managers and Heads of Operations to ensure focussed integration of specialisms across the whole organisation
- Lead quality visits, using Look Ahead's local indicators to monitor quality/performance, set targets and lead action plans to ensure highly rated services that reflect requirements of local funders and local and national standards
- Responsible for producing and submitting Monthly Management Reports to the Performance team, ensuring that all data gathered on local KPI's are accurate and up to date
- Drive continuous improvement initiatives across contract portfolio ensuring Look Ahead continues to set and achieves sector best practice standards and is held as a benchmark to competitors
- Develop and maintain excellent internal management relationships with all other Look Ahead departments and functions, ensuring sharing of best practice and supporting initiatives to improve organisational performance
- Within your service, ensure competent use of all relevant business IT systems and all company policies and frameworks
- Responsible for managing petty cash for the service in accordance with Look Ahead procedures
- Deliver an out of hours on-call service for region
- Ensure Look Ahead Health and Safety policies are adhered to throughout the service, to review at local level and ensure staff are competent and suitably trained
- Ensure that all safeguarding cases are managed in line with safeguarding protocols and are reported to Head of Operations Managers
- Ensure that all other Look Ahead policies and procedures are adhered to
- Carry out other management duties commensurate with the designated role level, as may be deemed reasonable by Look Ahead, including the management of other contracts within the designated patch, or an alternative patch, if such a need arises

This is not an exhaustive list of all the duties and responsibilities that may be required from time to time and is subject to change in accordance with the needs of Look Ahead.

Person Specification:

- Ability to lead and motivate staff to deliver excellent services
- Is fundamentally calm and resilient, does not let emotion adversely affect them or obscure their judgement
- Has a practical and logical mind
- Excellent organisation skills
- Thrives on change and enjoys dynamic diverse environments
- Is confident with high levels of self-esteem
- Is respectful, articulate and sensitive in style of communication
- Is motivated towards excellence and improvement of personal performance with a can do attitude
- Ability to cope positively with challenging and diverse behaviour
- Enjoys social interaction and the company of others, joins in local activities to encourage customer involvement
- Exudes a warm friendly presence and open behaviour
- Able to work as part of a group or team as well as being self motivated

For more information or to apply please visit our website