Service Manager - Children in Care, Leaving and After Care & Fostering

Service Manager - Children in Care, Leaving and After Care & Fostering

Permanent, Full Time

£66,899 to £76,280 per annum

Location: Basildon

Working Style: Operational field-based worker

Closing Date: 29th March 2026

Please note the expectation to attend the Basildon office is 2-3 days per week.

The Role

This role provides strategic leadership across services that support children and young people throughout their entire care journey. You’ll oversee teams working with children in care—whether living with foster families or in residential homes—ensuring their experiences are positive, stable and focused on achieving the best outcomes.

You will also guide the support provided to young people aged 16–25 as they prepare to leave care or transition into independence, delivered through multidisciplinary teams including mental health coordinators and targeted youth advisors.

Alongside this, you’ll lead our fostering and adoption functions, responsible for recruiting, assessing and supporting foster carers and adoptive parents, matching children to the right families and ensuring placements are safe, nurturing and well supported.

To read more about our business area, please visit: Children & Families

Please take a look at our ‘No Magic’ Children & Families video

The Opportunity

Children and Families is recognised as a service in which social work can develop and prosper, with a culture of collaboration, integrity and compassion: promoting development and wellbeing of children, young people and their families; protecting them from neglect and abuse; working together with partners delivering a range of early help, family support and effective social work interventions which build resilience, remove barriers and enable children and young people to look forward to a brighter future.

Service managers are accountable for performance and delivery of a lead service area. This leader will have extensive social care experience; an understanding of current issues and the ability to ensure the innovative use of resources to improve productivity and quality outcomes. Contributing to the development of policy and strategy, this leader will build strong, credible working relationships with internal and external partners, driving and shaping service improvements and design.

This role focuses on delivering high‑quality outcomes within a specialist functional area, using professional expertise to enhance policy application and service delivery. You’ll lead on operational planning, performance review and continuous improvement, ensuring services meet statutory requirements and align with the council’s priorities.

Working collaboratively across teams and with external partners, you’ll help deliver financially sustainable services and positive customer outcomes. You’ll also champion equality and diversity, make effective use of digital technologies, and contribute to maintaining strong relationships and a high‑quality customer experience.

Accountabilities

• Accountable for providing leadership across Children and Families and nationally as part of our Partners in Practice work, which delivers the best possible outcomes and builds resilience for children, young people and families.
• Establish and develop effective local approaches to integrated working with delivery partners and external agencies, to achieve successful operational delivery of targeted services.
• Responsible for delivering change within complex environments to promote and deliver new ways of working.
• Implement the Children and Families - Vision and Values which supports the wider aims of helping people to get the best start in life.
• Work with external operational stakeholders and partnerships to maximise potential opportunities through the development of innovative approaches.
• Accountable for ensuring compliance with regulations, statutory guidance and governance bodies, maintaining effective links with these bodies to monitor and improve standards.
• Responsible for the delivery of services within the agreed budget, highlights risks and contract issues.
• Lead on matters of business continuity and health and safety for the service area, ensuring that relevant business continuity plans are updated and that both corporate and function specific health and safety policy is followed and all requirements met.
• Working collaboratively with Commissioning, external partners and stakeholders to ensure quality solutions are cost effective.
• Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework.

The Experience You Will Bring

• A recognised social work qualification (i.e. Diploma, degree or Masters in social work, CQSW, CSS or equivalent) with current registration with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). Alternatively, a qualified Occupational Therapist with HCPC registration in relation to leadership of Young People with Disabilities Service.
• Evidence of continuing professional development, aligned to any relevant Professional Competency/Capability frameworks or Knowledge and Skills Statements.
• Ability to work collaboratively with internal and external partners and stakeholders, demonstrating breadth of thinking across social care, partners, the wider council and the system as a whole.
• Significant experience within a social care setting, with a deep understanding of current social care issues and implications for delivery at local level.
• Strong leadership and behavioural skills with the ability to focus on results, forging a highly performing and motivated team from diverse backgrounds to achieve objectives.
• Experience of successful delivery within a rapidly changing and ambiguous environment, while managing conflicting priorities.
• Proven influencing skills with an ability to pro-actively lead and deliver cultural change to improve quality of service.

Why Essex?

As one of the largest and most dynamic UK local authorities, Essex offers a stimulating public service environment. Covering over 1,420 square miles and serving 1.8 million residents, we’re committed to transformational change and delivering better quality at lower cost. Recognised in the top three of the latest IMPOWER index for productivity, we ensure everyone matters in Everyone's Essex. With flexible working options and a focus on innovation, whether you are looking to develop your career or contribute to the local community, Essex is the ideal place for you. 

In February 2025, Greater Essex was accepted onto the Government’s devolution priority programme, which will see local authorities in Essex work towards establishing a Mayoral Combined County Authority by May 2026. You can read more about devolution and local government reorganisation (LGR)) on our careers site

Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process. We’re also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.

Once you’ve secured your role within Essex County Council you will receive many great employee benefits, including support for unpaid carers and flexible working arrangements to accommodate their needs.

At Essex County Council, we value integrity and ethical behaviour. We kindly ask that you embrace our code of conduct and the Nolan principles, including throughout the recruitment process. Your commitment to these standards helps us maintain a positive and respectful workplace for everyone.

The role requires you to be mobile throughout a wider operational area including travelling around the county of Essex and beyond, transporting service users and their belongings and to be able to do so in an emergency. Driving licence and car or the ability to meet the mobility requirements of the role through other means is essential.

As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

If you would like to be kept up to date on other relevant opportunities, blogs, news, events and industry related news at Essex County Council, please join The Essex Talent Community

If you have queries or require anything further, please email resourcing.team@essex.gov.uk

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