Head of Service

Role Description

Building on strong services. Investing further in quality.

At By the Bridge with Cambian, we are proud that all of our fostering services are rated Good. But our ambition does not stop there.  We want to build on our significant strengths and continue investing in the quality of our services, our people and, above all, the experiences and outcomes of the children and foster families we support.

As part of that investment, we are looking for an experienced Head of Service (Peripatetic) to provide additional senior leadership capacity across By the Bridge.

This is a new opportunity for an experienced fostering leader to work alongside established Heads of Service, Registered Managers and teams, helping us build on  our strengths. It is an investment in continuous improvement, leadership capacity and consistently excellent fostering practice.

About the role

There will be real variety in this position.  At times, you may work alongside a service to support its next stage of development, helping leaders understand what is working particularly well and where there are opportunities to achieve even more for children and foster families.

You may lead a specific piece of improvement or development work, help us strengthen children's participation, support developments for our Foster Parents and improve placement stability, or identify excellent practice that could benefit other services across By the Bridge.

At other times, you may provide additional senior leadership capacity during a period of management absence, vacancy or service change, ensuring children, foster families and colleagues continue to experience a safe, stable and well-led service.

Whatever the circumstances, your approach will be about working alongside people. You will listen, understand the service, recognise its strengths, build trusted relationships and support leaders and teams to make strong practice even better.

About you

You'll be an established fostering leader who understands what excellent fostering practice looks and feels like.

You will recognise that becoming an outstanding organisation is about much more than regulatory compliance. It requires strong and curious leadership, skilled social work practice, well-supported foster carers, meaningful participation from children and Foster Parents, learning from experience and an organisation that continually asks itself how it can do better.

You'll be able to work with an established service and quickly understand its strengths, culture and opportunities for development. Crucially, you'll know how to bring people with you.

You'll be comfortable offering appropriate professional challenge, but your approach will be relational, reflective and supportive. You'll recognise existing strengths and help managers and teams build the confidence and capability to develop them further.

You will bring:

substantial senior leadership and management experience within fostering
strong safeguarding knowledge and professional judgement
a sound understanding of fostering legislation, regulation, National Minimum Standards and Ofsted expectations
experience of developing and improving fostering and social work practice
the ability to identify and build on strengths as well as respond effectively to areas requiring improvement
a strong commitment to children's and foster parents participation and ensuring their lived experiences influence decisions and services
an understanding of the importance of supporting, developing and retaining foster carers
excellent communication and partnership-working skills
resilience, flexibility and the confidence to work across different services and regions.

Why join By the Bridge?

All of our services are Good. We are proud of that, and we want to build on it. Creating this role is part of our decision to invest further in quality, expand our support to our Foster Parents and improve experiences of children we care for.

We want additional senior leadership capacity that enables us to be proactive, to learn across our services, invest in our managers and teams, recognise excellent practice and continually raise our expectations for what children and foster families should experience.

For the right person, this is an unusual opportunity.  Rather than leading one service, you will have the chance to influence quality across By the Bridge, work alongside different teams and leaders, share learning and contribute to our continued journey towards consistently outstanding fostering services.

Safeguarding

By the Bridge is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. The successful candidate will be expected to demonstrate high standards of safeguarding practice, professional integrity and child-centred leadership.