Head of Services

Your Place
Overview

Head of Services

Reporting to: Director of Frontline Services

Purpose of Position

This is a critical operational leadership role that is responsible for the operation of the organisation’s supported accommodation services. Providing operational leadership to team managers and ensuring compliance with organisational, contractual, local authority and legal regulations and the quality of services is pushed to the highest possible standards; ensuring excellent outcomes for residents and a positive and high performing working environment for teams. This role will also be accountable for the development of excellent relationships with external partners, commissioners, and other key stakeholders for support services in the organisation. You will be a key member of the charity’s Extended Leadership team.

Responsibilities & Accountabilities

Service Delivery

• Lead in setting organisational standards and performance targets across the support and resident services teams that reflect contractual requirements and organisational standards.
• Actively promote and develop person centred practices based on a trauma informed approach and psychologically informed environment to working with residents with high support needs and challenging behaviour.
• Be accountable for the operational performance of the services, allocating resources strategically to ensure that key performance indicators are achieved and that action plans are in place where required to improve service performance.
• Remodelling to promote accountability and co-production approaches with residents.
• Work with the Head of Building & Facilities to ensure your teams put health & safety procedures into practice to create a safe environment for our residents and staff. Contribute, and when required, lead on the formation and review of policies and procedures.
• Contribute to the Frontline Service’s Management On Call rota, providing support to frontline services outside of office hours

Stakeholder Management

• Build strong relationships with Commissioners and regulatory bodies to enable the service to meet contractual and regulatory KPI’s and requirements.
• Submit management information on a monthly and quarterly basis and produce other statistics and data as directed by the Director of Frontline Services.
• Responsible for effective liaison with outside agencies including the police, social services and other statutory and voluntary agencies and delegating this work where appropriate.
• Represent the organisation externally at forums, conferences and meetings.
• Contribute to the wider management team in frontline services to ensure good communication, coordination and consistency of practice, approach and development across the Directorate.

Business Planning and Project Management

• Drive business planning activities within contracts, ensuring relevant and challenging objective setting and ongoing performance tracking, developing turnaround action plans as may be necessary.
• Where agreed, project manage new services or service developments.
• Working closely with Finance Department to set, manage and monitor allocated budgets for income and expenditure for support and resident services and to ensure that teams meet performance targets.
• To ensure that financial procedures are maintained at all times in accordance with organisational policies and procedures.

Managing and Developing People

• Take a leading role in developing a positive, values-based organisational culture, in line with the charity’s Your Place Way approach.
• Developing performance targets and quality control measures for teams, and monitoring performance to ensure that these are met.
• Supporting managers and teams by setting clear objectives and holding individual supervisions regularly.
• Ensuring good communication across teams by holding team meetings regularly, and additional briefings as necessary.
• Inducting new managers and planning the continuous professional development of existing managers through annual appraisals.
• Managing the workload of teams to ensure that adequate cover is provided at all times.

Safeguarding

• Act as Safeguarding Lead for the organisation
• To actively promote an open and accountable approach across the organisation as a whole that ensures the organisation meets our legal duties, keeps our policies up to date, and puts our residents’ best interests at the forefront.

Intensive Housing Management

• Ensure that our landlord responsibilities are delivered in a person-centred way and in line with our regulatory and legal responsibilities
• Oversee the creation of a welcoming, safe and inclusive environment across all our services that is responsive to resident needs.
• Develop standards and practice that provide clear evidence-based reporting to meet regulatory compliance

General

• To attend meetings internally as and when necessary, for example, Directorate, Management and planning meetings.
• To undertake such other duties within the competence of the post holder which may be required from time to time.

Person Specification

Ideal attributes for meeting the needs of position and being an effective member of the Your Place team.

Essential Criteria

Experience

• Strong background in leading and delivering supported accommodation services
• Extensive experience working with rough sleeping and other homelessness services
• Experience leading and delivering intensive housing management responsibilities
• Experience of case management and delivering best practice around; needs assessments, high quality personalised support or advice services to vulnerable adults, including people with high support needs
• Experience of contract management with stakeholders
• Experience of project management and mobilisation of new services or developing existing services

Skills & knowledge

• Knowledge and understanding of the housing and support needs of single people who experience homelessness and rough sleeping, the benefit of move on and the ability to translate knowledge into good practice.
• Knowledge of the commercial and regulatory requirements of supported housing.
• CIH Level 5 qualification

Abilities

• Ability to interact at senior, strategic level with external stakeholders.
• Ability to work in a fast paced, high pressured environment, with multiple competing priorities and to quickly adapt to new situations.
• Ability to network, liaise, negotiating and influence effectively with outside agencies.
• Ability to undertake budget management, produce financial reports and collate and interpret financial and statistical information.

Personal qualities

• Demonstrates a commitment to the mission of Your Place.
• Self-sufficient and highly organised with the ability to accomplish goals according to deadlines, and a flexibility to juggle a variety of tasks.
• Excellent organisational skills.
• Strong communication and negotiation skills.
• Strong sense of responsibility and accountability.
• Awareness of own training and support needs.
• Ability to collaborate with colleagues across teams and functions
• Commitment to the values of inclusion and belonging

Desirable criteria

• Educated to degree level or equivalent in adult social care or leadership and management.

Before starting this position, you’ll need to undergo a criminal record check by the Disclosure and Barring Service. You must be entitled to work in the UK.