This is an exciting time to join Derbyshire County Council’s Children’s Residential Service.
We are continuing to grow, expand and transform our residential offer, with a strong focus on delivering high-quality, therapeutically informed DDP model of care, which achieves the best possible outcomes for children. This role offers a unique opportunity to be part of that journey—helping to shape services, support homes to improve, and develop practice at a strategic level.
As an Operations Manager, you will play a key leadership role across our homes, providing oversight, support and challenge to Registered Managers, ensuring services are safe, effective and compliant, and driving continuous improvement.
About the role
You will:
- Provide operational leadership across a group of children’s homes, supporting managers to deliver high-quality care and positive outcomes
- Drive service improvement and inspection readiness, supporting homes through Ofsted inspections and embedding learning
- Lead on the development of therapeutically informed practice, including a DDP-informed framework, strengthening relationships and outcomes for our children
- Champion a social pedagogy approach, helping teams build meaningful, consistent relationships with our children
- Work across the wider partnership, representing residential care and contributing to strategic development
- Support the service to manage growth, complexity and change, ensuring stability and quality across the estate
What we’re looking for
We are looking for an experienced and motivated leader who:
- Has significant management experience within children’s residential care
- Holds a Level 5 Leadership and Management qualification
- Has a strong track record of leading, developing and supporting teams
- Brings experience of Ofsted inspections and improving practice
- Has a clear understanding of therapeutic care approaches and a passion for developing this further
- Is confident working across multiple services in a fast-paced, evolving environment
You will be someone who can inspire others, set high expectations and deliver results, while maintaining a strong focus on children’s experiences and outcomes.
Why join us?
- Be part of a service that is growing and evolving, with real opportunity to shape its future
- Work within a supportive and experienced leadership team who are committed to developing others
- Gain experience at a strategic, service-wide level, building your leadership capability
- Contribute to embedding a therapeutic, relationship-based model of care across Derbyshire
- Help improve outcomes for children and young people in our care
Apply
If you are looking for the next step in your leadership journey and want to be part of a service that is ambitious for our children and growing staff, we would love to hear from you.
Further details can be found in the attached Job Profile.
Provisional Interview Date: 29 June 2026
