Job responsibilities
We are looking to recruit a highly skilled, knowledgeable, and experienced Residential Lead for Children and young people in the care of Staffordshire County Council who live in our childrens homes.
Main ResponsibilitiesYou will:
- be a highly visible leader with a child focused approach and able to develop the sense of belonging for our children and their carers.
- implement and develop our practice model by providing a high challenge/high support environment for your direct reports.
- adopt a collaborative leadership style to apply a systems approach to innovation with our internal and external stakeholders. We are growing our internal children homes provision and need your expertise to deliver on our ambitious plans.
- be the responsible individual for regulation purposes. You will also need to have experience of wider childrens service as you will be expected to take part in the out of hours senior manager rota.
The Ideal CandidateAs our Residential Lead youll need to:
- To be social work qualified with SWE registration
- Have a relevant management qualification or substantial management experience
- Have substantial knowledge and experience of managing residential services for children and young people, along with the related regulatory framework and safeguarding
- Provide leadership for 6 residential settings across Staffordshire in Burton Upon Trent, Cannock, Stafford and Tamworth locations
- Leadership skills with the ability to inspire and motivate others in what can be a challenging environment
Above all, youll have the resilience to lead the service through expansion, knowing the difference you and your team are making to children and young people.
The assessment process will be held during the week starting 18 May 2026
For an informal chat about the role please contact Jo Spender at: jo.spender@staffordshire.gov.uk
Our Recruitment Process: We anonymise applications during shortlisting to ensure only relevant information is considered. Please complete your application fully, especially the supporting statement, to highlight what youll bring to the role.
About Staffordshire County CouncilWe are no ordinary county council:
Our Values:
The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively.
Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy:
We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future.
We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too.
Our benefits:
We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance.
In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access toOur rewards and benefits - Careers at Staffordshire
Our recruitment process:
As an Authority we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
Staffordshire County Council is an equal opportunities organisation and Disability Confident employer. We encourage applications from all background and communities
As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a GoldAward Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as yourapplication meets the minimum criteria for the post.
As youll know safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our children and young people/vulnerable adults is important to us and thats why this position is subject to a criminal record check from the Disclosure and Barring Service. If applicable you should disclose details of unspent and unfiltered spent reprimands, formal warnings, cautions and convictions in your application form.
