Service Manager: Care Leavers and Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children
| Posting date: | 22 November 2025 |
|---|---|
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 22 December 2025 |
| Location: | leicestershire, LE3 8RA |
| Company: | Leicestershire County Council |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 6580 |
Summary
Organisation: Leicestershire County Council
Work Location: County Hall Glenfield LE3 8RA
Worker Category: Fixed Location Worker
Salary: £63,027 - £69,342
Working Hours:37 hrs
Contract Type: Permanent
Closing Date: 2nd December 2025
Interview Date(s): 8th December 2025
About the Role
We are looking for someone to be a strategic lead to our committed, passionate and caring care leaver and UASC teams. Both are well established and have a settled and secure work force who bring experience and specialism to this area of work. You will need to bring a strong understanding of the needs of care experienced children and young people and the specific needs of the cohort who became looked after due to being unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. We are highly ambitious to continue to improve outcomes for our children and young people and they are at the centre of our decision making and engagement. The Service is dynamic and will flex and respond to the changing needs of our cohort of children and young people. We approach our work through a trauma lens and have a core belief in the importance of relationship-based practice and signs of safety to develop meaningful networks and engage in purposeful practice.
This role requires a visible leader with high expectations, a results-focused approach which is supported by well-developed analytical planning, excellent practice knowledge and strong organisational skills, to ensure that the service is reflective, restorative and has open culture where there is an environment of high support but also high challenge. You will manage operational teams within a children’s social care and need to have a genuine commitment to the provision of high quality services for our children and young people. Partnership working forms a key part of the role and you will initiate, develop maintain and monitor multi-agency links and relationships, ensuring the voice and needs of care experienced children and young people are central to all development and decisions.
You will be joining a department with shared values and goals and a commitment to make a lasting difference to the lives of care experienced young people. Be part of our journey of excellence and ensuring our children and young people are provided with the best support and opportunity.
A DBS enhanced check for a regulated activity is required for this post.
For information on our approach to the recruitment of ex-offenders, please see our policy statement.
About You
To apply for this post, you must respond to and evidence the following 7 essential criteria within your personal statement.
- Substantial experience of managing children’s social care services
- Significant experience of influencing partners to deliver within the framework of an overall programme, using leadership, influence and negotiation skills.
- Experience of establishing performance management and quality assurance processes
- Well-developed listening skills with the ability to interpret information, negotiate, and influence decision making. In particular the ability to create an environment where excellent social work practice can flourish
- Able to use a broad range of resources to research and analyse information and data, provide clear recommendations and decisions, in order to inform service and policy planning.
- Ability to motivate staff and partners to work together effectively for change.
- Risk identification and management.
You must also have an understanding of, and commitment to, equality, diversity and inclusion.
In addition, we also expect you to share our commitment to our values and will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.
Reasonable adjustments will be considered for applicants with a disability.
Interested in Flexible Working?
We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below. This may include requests for term-time working, part-time hours, compressed hours, flexible start and finish times, home/remote working, etc.
Every role within the Council has a defined working style which determines where they can work. The worker category applicable to this post is detailed in the above advert. You can find out more about our worker categories in the Our Working Styles page on our career site.
For more information or an informal discussion, please contact:
James Thurston
Telephone: 01163051300
Email: James.Thurston@leics.gov.uk
How to Apply
Leicestershire County Council is an inclusive organisation which is on a journey to embed and celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion at every level. We warmly welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, as having a diverse workforce with different perspectives and ideas is fundamental to our values and enriches the services we offer our communities. We particularly welcome applicants from Ethnically Diverse and LGBTQ+ communities and people with disabilities to create a balanced workforce and one that reflects the communities we serve. Applicants with a disability who meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above will be offered an interview under the Disability Confident Employer Scheme.
To apply for this job, please click on the apply button. You will need to upload a supporting statement as part of your application which explains how you meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above. For more information, see the How to Apply section on our career site.
We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.
If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post or you want to request an application pack in an alternative format, please contact our Employee Service Centre by telephoning 0300 3030222 (select option 2) or raising a ticket via our online portal: https://emss.org.uk/support.
By applying for this post, you agree to our Terms and Conditions.
Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme