Service Manager - Children's Placement Brokerage & Provider Quality Assurance

Service Manager – Children's Placement Brokerage & ProviderQuality Assurance 

PO9: £69,258 pa rising in annual increments to £73,818 pa incl. London Weighting

Permanent / Full Time 

Hybrid Working (Office Based - 3 Days per week) 

About Lambeth Children Services:
 

Lambeth is a borough of huge diversity, strength, and possibility. Lambeth is home to approximately 63,000 children aged 0-18, representing nearly 20% of our borough’s population. Our Lambeth partnerships have the highest ambitions for our children and want them to grow up to be happy, safe and thriving in supportive communities. We have a rich network of good and outstanding schools, a passionate voluntary community sector and an exciting youth and play offer. Children growing up in Lambeth are surrounded by beautiful green spaces and a borough with a rich history, arts, and music scene.

Despite this, our children also face challenges and adversity. There are several health and wellbeing indicators that are higher in Lambeth than other boroughs, including children in need due to parent disability, first time entrants to youth justice system, and children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. We have significant demand for mental health and emotional wellbeing provision and have critical challenges regarding placement sufficiency for our Children Looked After. Lambeth is the fifth most densely populated borough in the UK with sharp contrasts between wealth and poverty. It is estimated that 27% of our children and young people are living in poverty, rising to 43% when housing costs are factored in; we know Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated challenges for many families in Lambeth and created a new set of problems for others.

It’s an incredibly exciting time to come and work in Lambeth. There’s plenty to get your teeth into – be it leading the implementation of our strategy for youth services, overseeing the transformation of our emotional health and wellbeing provision, or presiding over the development of a new team delivering efficient brokerage for our teams.  We are passionate about integration of services and teams across education, health and social care to ensure our population can access services that are joined-up and seamless. All of these roles play very important roles in partnership development with internal and external stakeholders.

About You:
 

You will provide both operational strategic leadership to 10 staff within the Children’s Placement Brokerage and Provider Quality Assurance service to deliver the required placement services for Children, Young People and their families. You must be an excellent problem solver and a solution - focused individual.
A key aspect of the team’s role is to source stable homes, families, and appropriately regulated and registered provisions for our children in care, often within tight timeframes.  Working with senior colleagues, the role will also be responsible for the implementation of our sufficiency strategy so that we can ensure the best possible outcomes for our children and young people. You will be responsible for the strategic commissioning of children’s placements and developing and improving relationships with our providers, frameworks, alliances, and partnerships.

In line with our improvements plans the Placement Brokerage Specialist Placement service has recently been reviewed and this role will be responsible for leading the transformation of our Placement Brokerage Service. You will also need to ensure that budgets and other resources are used in accordance with Lambeth priorities and financial regulations, and that expenditure is accurately monitored and reported within budget.  
A key part of the role will be working with commissioning colleagues on placement sufficiency, as well as supporting the borough’s ongoing Ofsted improvement journey; crucially, you will play a key role in identifying and driving financial savings within the field of placements and brokerage.

A message from The Assistant Director
 

Successful applicants should have a drive to get things done and have extensive experience of line management of children’s care and resources, project management, and financial management. You’ll be joining high-performing, passionate and diverse teams of individuals who are passionate about reducing inequality and improving outcomes for our population.

You must have exceptional customer service, client relations and problem-solving skills. An in-depth knowledge of local authority’s payment systems and platforms would be an advantage. 

We especially encourage applications from people from Black Asian and Multi-Ethnic backgrounds and while the role is open to all applicants, Lambeth will utilise the positive action provisions of the Equality Act 2010 to appoint a candidate from a Black Asian and Multi-Ethnic background where there is a choice between two candidates of equal merit.

Applicant must have relevant qualification and extensive working experience in Procurement, Payment Systems, Finance and Brokerage. A technical knowledge of Oracle Payment Platform and Mosaic Financial applications would be an advantage. 

Why Lambeth:-

• Fantastic, modern working environment in the award-winning Lambeth Town Hall and Civic Centre buildings
• Competitive Salaries
• Up to 35 days annual leave, dependent upon continuous service
• 5 Minutes from London Underground and excellent transport links into the centre of London
• Hybrid/Flexible working
• Cycle to Work Scheme (including City Bike Hire scheme)
• Attractive Local Government Pension Scheme

We are a Stonewall diversity champion; a Living Wage Employer and we guarantee to interview all disabled candidates who meet the minimum criteria of the role. Please click here for a full list of our accreditations.

If you have any queries in relation to this job vacancy, please contact the Assistant Director: Andrews Osei, AOsei1@lambeth.gov.uk

Successful candidates will be asked to apply for an Enhanced Certificate from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). Further information about the DBS can be found at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/agencies-public-bodies/dbs. 

You will also be required to undertake a Cifas check.  Further information about Cifas can be found here Cifas

Please note we operate an anonymised application process. If you are uploading your CV or a personal statement, please remove your personal details and replace these with your unique candidate application number.

Interested, click on the apply button and complete an on-line application, explicitly evidencing in the supporting statement field how you meet the shortlist criteria marked with an ‘A’, along with uploading your CV.

Job Description and Specification

Closing Date: Sunday 10th March 2024 at midnight

Lambeth aims for quality services and equal opportunities for all and is committed to safer recruitment