Service Unit Manager (Children's Homes)
| Posting date: | 14 January 2026 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | Not specified |
| Additional salary information: | Competitive |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 13 February 2026 |
| Location: | Tameside, OL6 6BH |
| Company: | inploi |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 75778708 |
Summary
Contract Type: Permanent
Salary: Grade K. Scale 44 - £55,691 to Scale 47 - £60,036
Hours Per Week: 36
Base Location: Tameside Children’s Homes and Tameside Council Offices
Assessment Date: To be arranged
The Role
This is an exciting opportunity to be part of our Tameside children social care senior management team working together to make a real difference to the lives of children, young people, and families across Tameside.
The service manager for residential children’s homes has children and young people at the very heart of our practice model and improvement planning. The role has the strategic lead for the development and delivery of our residential children’s homes and working closely with the head of service and homes registered manager you will lead on Ofsted inspections. You will provide effective leadership to the workforce and oversee the operational management of our children’s homes to ensure that we deliver an excellent standard of care to children where their needs are well understood and promoted. You will support our staff teams through role modelling our care and high ambition for children and young people.
In Tameside we have developed a good relationship with Ofsted and all our homes are presently rated as good across all areas. In this role you will have the opportunity to provide ongoing leadership for our existing homes, as well as the opportunity to grow and develop our sufficiency plan and be highly ambitious for children and young people in Tameside.
About You
We are seeking a highly motivated, skilful, and creative leader to join our leadership team and support our residential children’s homes and their registered managers.
You will be experienced in leadership with a proven track record of delivering quality services for children and young people.
You will be an experienced person manager with the ability to build strong relationships and trust with teams and individuals. You will lead by positive example and be an active advocate for achieving the very best for children and young people.
You will be able to demonstrate clear leadership grip, in order to continually drive progress and performance of our children’s homes and staff teams.
Our Heart of Support Practice Approach
At Tameside, we believe in:
- Compassion understanding the lived experiences of children and families.
- Curiosity asking questions that lead to deeper insight and better outcomes for children.
- Collaboration working together across services to deliver joined-up support.
- Conversation listening and engaging meaningfully with children, families and professionals.
- Courage leading with courage, making bold and compassionate decisions that put children first.
About Us
Message from Jill Colbert, Director of Children’s Services
“I joined the council at the beginning of 2025 and was instantly charmed by the warmth, openness, and energy of colleagues.
“I came to Tameside for one reason; because I know we can do fantastic things for our families here.
“We’re a children’s service on a significant improvement journey. We know what needs to be different for our children and families and we’re ambitious to deliver that change.
“We have a growing range of specialist services for children, where you can test and grow your skills and practice. We have a Social Work Academy that is led by people who bring passion to learning and who know that the DCS’ of the future are right in front of them. We are working on our progression pathways so that staying in Tameside is rewarded and recognised. We have investment in innovation and improvement from the council so that we can grow services and support for families that we can sustain, from family hubs through to complex safeguarding.
“I am so certain that we can build a proud, inclusive and safe climate for great practice to flourish in Tameside. I’d love you to join me on the journey here at Team Tameside.”
At Tameside, we are committed to ensuring all our Citizens lead long, fulfilling and healthy lives. We are committed to supporting economic growth, providing high quality health and care services, protecting our most vulnerable and creating strong and supportive, self-sufficient communities.
We recognise that our people drive our success and enable the organisation to deliver on its vision, purpose and priorities, and that our people are our most important resource and asset. Our values underpin our practice and behaviours, and are at the heart of everything that we do; and we understand that how we do things is just as important as what we do. We pride ourselves on living by our STRIVE values of Support, Trust, Respect, Integrity, Value Diversity and Engage. Our values underpin our practice and behaviours and are at the heart of everything that we do. How we do things are just as important as what we do.
Our employees’ skills, experience and knowledge are essential to our success along with their happiness, wellbeing, commitment, enthusiasm and motivation to be the best they can be.
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults and expect all staff to share this commitment. This position is subject to Enhanced with Barred List Disclosure Procedures.
This post is a designated customer facing role under the fluency duty and requires a specified level of spoken English.
If you have completed the GM Elevate (Leadership Development) Programme, please indicate this within the ‘About You’ or ‘Supporting Statement’ section of your application.
Unfortunately, at this time we are not able to offer sponsorship.
We are committed to developing a culture which respects individuals, appreciates difference and allows everyone regardless of background to reach their full potential. We are proud to be an accredited disability confident employer. Reasonable Adjustments will be considered in accordance with the Equality Act 2010 in relation to the Job Role Criteria.
Our rewards and benefits package can be viewed here
We have made a commitment to improve the employment opportunities for people with disabilities, care leavers, carers, and ex-military personnel. Please click here for more information on our guaranteed assessment scheme.
For further information about this role please contact the recruiting manager on 0161 342 2550 or deborah.smolka-obrien@tameside.gov.uk
Supporting Documents
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