Service Delivery Manager - Leaving Care

Job title: Leaving Care Service Manager

Salary: £58,605 - £64,262

Hours: 37

Contract: Permanent

Location: Leeds

As a Leaving Care Service Manager in our Care Leavers Service, what matters to you most is using your strong leadership skills and passion to ensure the best possible outcomes for our care leavers.

It's about more than meeting statutory service standards. You'll want to support your teams to exceed those standards and continually improve the service we deliver to care leavers, ensuring they have a voice and are listened to.

This role is an exciting opportunity to lead across our service, driving forward our commitment to introducing care experience as a protected characteristic and expanding our offer of support to care experienced young people. You should have significant understanding and experience of working with care experienced young people, the legislative framework, and the importance of stable housing, safe relationships, mental health and employment opportunities for care leavers.

You'll draw on your experience and compassion to develop a consistent, outstanding service with the highest standards of safeguarding and care for young people, while ensuring your work is aligned to and directly contributing to our Best City Ambition and Children and Young People's Plan .

We are committed to the ambition of Child Friendly Leeds . We want Leeds to be a city where all children are safe, happy and healthy, do well at school, fulfil their potential and grow up to be active citizens with voice and influence.

About you

You'll bring to the role:

• A qualification in Social Work and current registration with Social Work England
• Significant understanding and experience of working with care experienced young people
• Strong knowledge of the legislative framework around care leavers
• A commitment to improving partnerships with housing, prisons, mental health, education and employment services to improve opportunities for care leavers
• Skill in improving services in partnership with people who have lived experience

About the role

As our Leaving Care Service Manager for the Care Leavers Service, you'll be integral to our Corporate Parenting team, using your senior leadership experience to develop and maintain a high performing workforce, ensure we meet our statutory requirements for care leavers and continuously improve services.

You will lead your Team Leaders and other key staff to ensure the effective day-to-day delivery of the care leavers service, ensuring it is centred around the needs of young people and is in accordance with agreed targets and objectives included in council and service plans.

The role is perfect for someone who can be a champion for care leavers and care experienced young people, seeking and incorporating their views and ambitions wherever possible and flying the flag for our Child Friendly Leeds initiative.

We have other Service Delivery Manager positions available to apply for alongside this role. You can view the adverts on our job site to find out more.

What we offer you

We pride ourselves on offering the best employee experience, with a genuine commitment to keeping our colleagues safe and well at work. We offer:

• a competitive pay progression structure
• membership of West Yorkshire Pension Fund with generous employer contributions
• flexible career paths with tailored personal and professional development
• hybrid working arrangements and a flexitime system (subject to needs of the role).
• a range of staff benefits to support you, your home and family, boost your wellbeing and make your money go further

How to apply

Please complete the online application form.

Closing date 23:59 Sunday 30 ^th March 2025

Assessment and Interviews 7 ^th and 8 ^th April 2025

Read our guidance for further advice. Please check your information carefully and ensure you complete all sections before submitting your application.

For more information or to arrange a discussion about the role, please contact Jacinta Kane - Jacinta.Kane@leeds.gov.uk or Ben.Finley@leeds.gov.uk

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check against the Children's barred list will be carried out on preferred candidates. Read our recruitment of ex-offenders policy .

We promote diversity and want a workforce that reflects the population of Leeds and the communities we serve. Leeds City Council is recognised in Stonewall's Workplace Equality Index 2024. We are also an Age-friendly Employer, a Mindful Employer and a Disability Confident Leader.

All new Leeds City Council appointments are made subject to the satisfactory completion of a six month probationary period.

This role is based in the UK. Home Office guidance states that candidates must evidence their right to work in ...