Central Operations Lead (Options)
| Posting date: | 02 December 2025 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | Not specified |
| Additional salary information: | Up to £30,600 per annum |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 01 January 2026 |
| Location: | Bolton, Greater Manchester |
| Remote working: | Hybrid - work remotely up to 2 days per week |
| Company: | Acorn Care and Education |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 297426FAJ |
Summary
The role
The role of the Central Operations Team is to act as the link between central services and operational sites across the Acorn and Options divisions. Working with your allocated division you will have four main areas of focus:
Stakeholder Management
School/site visits:
Attend regular (ideally weekly) meetings with site leaders and key colleagues in your Division (inc. admin/finance/IT) to understand barriers to growth/development/issues (process and/or system).
Develop relationships and widen understanding of sites/service.
Gain feedback on weekly bulletin (In Focus) and identify areas for improvement.
Working with Head of Central Operations to identify trends/improvement opportunities and work with central depts. to resolve.
Identifying sites that may need further support/training on a process/system.
Central Directory: working with the other Central Operations Leads, ensure the central directory is kept up to date, and published monthly.
Supporting Integration & Onboarding of new acquisitions
Working closely with the project team to support integration of new acquisitions (schools and other businesses).
Delivering proactive support (hypercare’) to sites as they onboard into OFG. This will include organising orientation/briefing days; collating FAQs; managing new SharePoint sites; & proactive stakeholder management (including visits).
Feeding back issues/barriers and working with Head of Central Operations and central functions to deliver improvements (process/system)
Operational Compliance
Managing the flow of information and requests between central services and operations, including the distribution and/or return of operational compliance information to ensure sites are compliant with key areas of day-to-day activity.
Weekly Bulletin: ensuring central service ops actions/data requests and information sharing is channeled through the weekly ops bulletin (In Focus), copy editing as required and publishing the bulletin each week (Monday).
Managing bulletin deadlines and pushing back where required.
Site reminders: ensuring that ops sites receive reminders to submit central actions/returns and chasing-up submissions when required.
Operational Planner: ensuring central services information/data requests are channeled through the weekly planner in a coordinated and well managed way to ensure efficiency and timeliness of requests.
Reporting performance on the above to the Head of Central Operations through monthly compliance dashboards, including assisting in the scope and design of the dashboards.
What you'll do:
Reporting progress/outcomes to the Head of Central Operations.
Ensure that you work you work proactively with central service leaders/managers and ops sites leaders/managers.
Required to develop relationships with key operational site leaders to ensure receipt of inbound information/data as required and respond to queries or issues in a timely manner.
Identify and reports back trends, issues, and potential areas of improvement across all areas of responsibility to the Head of Central Operations.
Contribute to the team strategy and ongoing performance by attending regular team meetings, and 1-1 development meetings.
Ensure clear communication around expectations and deliverables is delivered to both central functions and operational site leaders/managers and staff.
The role includes flexible working across the week – specified as two days in the office; maximum two days working from home (WFH); and one 4 Day Working Week (4DWW) wellbeing day. (NB: 4DWW day subject to eligibility and work priorities/deadlines; WFH days subject change by Head of Central Operations where required i.e. to meet individual/team workload objectives and KPIs).
What we're looking for:
Stakeholder management – experience of working with customers/clients and delivering to relationship management plans.
Deliver excellent customer service – ensure all tasks are dealt with in line with agreed central service/operational/team KPIs/SLAs.
Strong written communication skills – excellent attention to detail.
Ownership and initiative – take full ownership of your allocated division and use initiative to find effective solutions where required.
Performance reporting – ensure all reporting on performance is delivered to your line manager per deadlines/KPIs.
Continuous improvement – feedback regularly (team meetings/1-1s) on the effectiveness / issues of service delivery and potential areas of improvement.
Strong time management / organisational skills – have ability to be flexible and prioritise tasks to meet deadlines.
Knowledge of key systems: Microsoft Office, Reach, XD etc
Benefits
Your health and wellbeing are important to us, so you’ll get an exceptional reward package including:
Life Assurance
Pension scheme with options to increase your contributions
“Your Wellbeing Matters” – access to a wide range of first-class mental health support services and physical health checks
Family Growth Support - inclusive benefits package covering enhanced maternity and paternity leave, along with paid fertility treatment support.
And a market-leading benefit offering through our Flexible Benefits Platform, Vista, enables you to choose the package that’s right for you, including:
A wide range of health, wellbeing, and insurance benefits
100’s of discount options valid in the UK and abroad
Cycle to Work Schemes
Electric Car Purchase Scheme
Critical illness cover
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and we expect all employees to share this commitment and undertake appropriate checks.
All applicants will be subject to social media checks and successful applicants to a fully enhanced DBS
The role of the Central Operations Team is to act as the link between central services and operational sites across the Acorn and Options divisions. Working with your allocated division you will have four main areas of focus:
Stakeholder Management
School/site visits:
Attend regular (ideally weekly) meetings with site leaders and key colleagues in your Division (inc. admin/finance/IT) to understand barriers to growth/development/issues (process and/or system).
Develop relationships and widen understanding of sites/service.
Gain feedback on weekly bulletin (In Focus) and identify areas for improvement.
Working with Head of Central Operations to identify trends/improvement opportunities and work with central depts. to resolve.
Identifying sites that may need further support/training on a process/system.
Central Directory: working with the other Central Operations Leads, ensure the central directory is kept up to date, and published monthly.
Supporting Integration & Onboarding of new acquisitions
Working closely with the project team to support integration of new acquisitions (schools and other businesses).
Delivering proactive support (hypercare’) to sites as they onboard into OFG. This will include organising orientation/briefing days; collating FAQs; managing new SharePoint sites; & proactive stakeholder management (including visits).
Feeding back issues/barriers and working with Head of Central Operations and central functions to deliver improvements (process/system)
Operational Compliance
Managing the flow of information and requests between central services and operations, including the distribution and/or return of operational compliance information to ensure sites are compliant with key areas of day-to-day activity.
Weekly Bulletin: ensuring central service ops actions/data requests and information sharing is channeled through the weekly ops bulletin (In Focus), copy editing as required and publishing the bulletin each week (Monday).
Managing bulletin deadlines and pushing back where required.
Site reminders: ensuring that ops sites receive reminders to submit central actions/returns and chasing-up submissions when required.
Operational Planner: ensuring central services information/data requests are channeled through the weekly planner in a coordinated and well managed way to ensure efficiency and timeliness of requests.
Reporting performance on the above to the Head of Central Operations through monthly compliance dashboards, including assisting in the scope and design of the dashboards.
What you'll do:
Reporting progress/outcomes to the Head of Central Operations.
Ensure that you work you work proactively with central service leaders/managers and ops sites leaders/managers.
Required to develop relationships with key operational site leaders to ensure receipt of inbound information/data as required and respond to queries or issues in a timely manner.
Identify and reports back trends, issues, and potential areas of improvement across all areas of responsibility to the Head of Central Operations.
Contribute to the team strategy and ongoing performance by attending regular team meetings, and 1-1 development meetings.
Ensure clear communication around expectations and deliverables is delivered to both central functions and operational site leaders/managers and staff.
The role includes flexible working across the week – specified as two days in the office; maximum two days working from home (WFH); and one 4 Day Working Week (4DWW) wellbeing day. (NB: 4DWW day subject to eligibility and work priorities/deadlines; WFH days subject change by Head of Central Operations where required i.e. to meet individual/team workload objectives and KPIs).
What we're looking for:
Stakeholder management – experience of working with customers/clients and delivering to relationship management plans.
Deliver excellent customer service – ensure all tasks are dealt with in line with agreed central service/operational/team KPIs/SLAs.
Strong written communication skills – excellent attention to detail.
Ownership and initiative – take full ownership of your allocated division and use initiative to find effective solutions where required.
Performance reporting – ensure all reporting on performance is delivered to your line manager per deadlines/KPIs.
Continuous improvement – feedback regularly (team meetings/1-1s) on the effectiveness / issues of service delivery and potential areas of improvement.
Strong time management / organisational skills – have ability to be flexible and prioritise tasks to meet deadlines.
Knowledge of key systems: Microsoft Office, Reach, XD etc
Benefits
Your health and wellbeing are important to us, so you’ll get an exceptional reward package including:
Life Assurance
Pension scheme with options to increase your contributions
“Your Wellbeing Matters” – access to a wide range of first-class mental health support services and physical health checks
Family Growth Support - inclusive benefits package covering enhanced maternity and paternity leave, along with paid fertility treatment support.
And a market-leading benefit offering through our Flexible Benefits Platform, Vista, enables you to choose the package that’s right for you, including:
A wide range of health, wellbeing, and insurance benefits
100’s of discount options valid in the UK and abroad
Cycle to Work Schemes
Electric Car Purchase Scheme
Critical illness cover
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and we expect all employees to share this commitment and undertake appropriate checks.
All applicants will be subject to social media checks and successful applicants to a fully enhanced DBS