Deputy Manager - Residential Childcare

You will be privileged to be supporting some amazing, characterful & inspiring children & young people, alongside working with a 'child focused', dedicated & compassionate team. Our children & young people have varying levels of difficulties & behaviours, and as a team, you will enhance their lives, make & provide memorable experiences on their journey to adulthood.

They will inspire you, surprise you, connect to you and also give you experiences that you will not forget!

We truly believe and work to our EPIC Values

Excellence Passion Integrity Caring

Our values stand at the 'core' of everything we do, for the children and young people we support and also for our teams

You will be part of a national provider who really support, develop and nurture their teams, with the potential to grow & with opportunities to progress

Our homes are all individually unique, 90% are rated Good or Outstanding, offering highly tailored, personalised & holistic care to our children, with fantastic support & dedication to our young people & teams.

Comments from our most recent inspection include

"Staff provide highly valued individualised care and support to the children. Dedicated staff help harness and build on the children's strengths."

Our Home …

Our home is a large detached house situated in Crawley, close to the town centre. The home has 5 bedrooms for children, and 2 bedrooms for staff, and provides support for up to five young people. The home has a large bright kitchen and dining room, 2 Lounge areas, one leading directly to the garden, a cosy 'snug' room, a laundry, bathrooms & toilets and a staff office

Our home has a large rear garden and parking at the front of the property.

We have two vehicles to use for transport to school and to enable activities and trips, alongside using the trains for activities.

The home supports children & young people between the ages of 10 to 18. The children & young people live full time in the home and can have varied levels of contact with their families and with people who are important to them. This is sometimes supervised by the staff team.

All our children & young people have emotional and behavioural difficulties and can have additional difficulties such as ADHD and Autism and require varying degrees of support. We fully support and promote choice and expression for our children and young people and they are all able to and have personalised their own bedrooms to their own taste and likes and are allowed to be unique and individual!

We nurture, mentor and listen to the children and young people and act as role models to support and build them through ups and downs during their journey with us.

The ethos of the home is working on the PACE (Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity, and Empathy) model, it is upbeat, fun, active and nurturing. Staff provide constant engagement and experiences to demonstrate better ways to approach life and how to make safe choices. We work openly and transparently and at times, addressing difficult behaviours and supporting them through tougher times. Every day is different - no two days are the same.

Our staff team is large and consists of the Home Manager, a Deputy Manager, four senior support workers and support workers.

Your Role & Responsibilities ….

The children and young people that we care for demonstrate a wide range of challenging behaviours and can be very demanding of time, attention and emotions.

All posts involve supporting the children & young people in their 'everyday' lives, which includes physical & emotional support, behavioural support, education, their physical & mental well-being, developing their independent skills, advocating for them & empowering them to flourish, grow & develop, promoting choice & their ability to make informed decisions. You will be their 'corporate' parent, which includes not only their 'individual' needs, but also their environmental needs, safety & comfort (including cooking meals, cleaning the home, ensuring it is safe, warm & welcoming, keeping records, washing & ironing).

You will enhance their experiences by undertaking activities with them, led by their interests; such as swimming, beach trips, train rides, visits to theme & water parks, arts & crafts, baking, computer games. If a child shows interest in an activity, we will always endeavour to provide them with that experience, and build memories.

Being part of leading a team along with other professionals, you will provide the therapeutic care and support needed for each individual child & young person, developing trusting relationships that create recovery, growth and lasting change. You need to be able to work flexibly in caring for the children and young people.

Your role as a Deputy Manager will include working shifts, some allocated office time and doing sleep ins.

Your role can & will be quite challenging at times, but also varied, inspiring & delightful, and seeing the achievements & progress our children and young people show, makes it all the more fulfilling. Our Home Managers are hands-on, always around and you will always feel supported in your role, and confident to make the right decisions day to day.

As the Deputy Home Manager, you will be accountable for delivering a high quality care to the children and young people resident within the home, in conjunction with the Service Manager. This means joint responsible for delivery of all care services, as well as the strategic planning for developments within the home, and all day to day management matters.

You will demonstrate the ability to build on the well-established principles and practice standards already existing and proactively contribute to the continuous improvement of childcare standards across the company.

You will be part of a team, responsible for delivering childcare that is focussed on obtaining the best outcomes for each child and young person within the home. Consequently, you are expected to demonstrate practical leadership in childcare, as well as organise and support staff to provide the best possible care for each child and young person.

This involves being personally available, as well as the supervision and mentoring of staff, organisation of work patterns, and facilitation of care focussed training, and accessing of appropriate services to support the childcare practices within the home.

As this is a vital role in the lives of children and young people, it requires an active and long term commitment. The Deputy Home Manager is expected to participate in the rota and work on shift as and when directed to by the Service Manager.

You will be accountable to the Service Manager, who in turn reports to the Regional Manager. When on shift you will have initial responsibilities for monitoring and supervision of staff and take responsibility for the day to day management, and guidance of colleagues whilst ensuring the welfare and care of the children & young people.

As part of our team, there is a wide ranging support network to guide and support you, the team as a whole and the children & young people, we have a team of specialist advisors, and therapists, we have regular team meetings and you will receive individual & group supervision, a 5 day Induction, alongside extensive ongoing training & development and an On Call support system., There are comprehensive training programmes that you are paid to attend which will give you the tools to provide the best possible support to the young people that we support and care for on a daily basis.

You will be required to complete, and will be supported to complete, a QCF Level 4 in Children, Young People and Families Practitioner Qualification.

We provide bespoke training for each team member according to the needs of the young people you will support.

Our Working Shift Patterns

Your working week will vary, according to the needs of the service and our children, but would be made up of 'early' shifts (7am - 2.30pm), 'late' shifts (2pm - 11pm), 'Long Day' (8am - 11pm), sometimes there may be 'split' shifts (7am - 10am - 2pm - 11pm) and sleep in shifts. This includes alternative weekend covering shifts. As a Deputy Manager, you will have 15 hours per week of allocated office time. Flexibility is the key - as we work with people, things can change with little or no notice.

You will also work at times in our other homes, giving support - which adds to your breadth of experience & skills - this may be within your normal shift working, or available as overtime.

This is a full time role, and we would love to hear from you if you recognise the above in yourself and have the drive & passion to support others!

We are looking for exceptional individuals with experience of working with young people with Emotional & Behavioural difficulties, as well as Autism / ADHD and associated needs, Minimum of 2 years' experience working in a residential childcare / similar environment

A Level 3 Diploma (or above) in Residential Childcare or equivalent

Hold a Full UK Driving Licence

Passionate & Caring

Reliable & Consistent

Flexible

Good communicator's

Comfortable & confident with IT

Willing to learn & develop, Disability Confident
About Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.

Salary: £32,042.40 - £33,259.20 (£15.80 - £16.40 per hour)

Plus - £62.64 per sleep-in (working approx. 5 - 7 sleep ins per month, an additional £3758 -£5,261 pa), Benefits of Working for Keys…..

• NEST Workplace pension scheme


• HAPI (app-based) benefits, including high street discounts and much more!


• Supportive Managers


• Allocated Mentor


• Employee Assistance Programme - with access to advice, support & counselling (if required)


• 5.6 weeks annual leave per year (pro rata)


• Excellent Salary with Sleep Ins paid on top


• Enhanced Overtime Rate


• DBS Funded by the Company


• Amazing training & career progression opportunities


• Centrally located with good travel links


• Opportunity for over time and working within our other regional services


We are keen to hear from you if you wish to join an Outstanding, supportive and fun team supporting young people to do things that are amazing and awe-inspiring!