ROLE

Head of Support Services (Interim)

REPORTING TO

Director of Frontline Services

PURPOSE OF POSITION

This is a critical frontline leadership role that is responsible for the operation of the organisation’s homelessness and rough sleeping services at Anchor House.

You will provide operational leadership to support services managers and ensure compliance with organisational, contractual, local authority and legal regulations and requirements. You will ensure the quality of services is pushed to the highest standards possible, ensuring excellent outcomes for residents and a positive and high performing working environment for teams.

This role will also be accountable for building and maintenance of excellent relationships with external partners, commissioners, other key stakeholders for support services in the organisation.

RESPONSIBILITIES & ACCOUNTABILITIES

Service Delivery

• Lead in setting organisational standards and performance targets across the support services that reflect contractual requirements and organisational standards.
• Actively promote and develop person centred practices based on a trauma informed approach and psychologically informed environment to working with residents with high support needs and challenging behaviour.
• Be accountable for the operational performance of the services, allocating resources strategically to ensure that key performance indicators are achieved and that action plans are in place where required to improve service performance.
• Promote accountability and co-production approaches with residents.
• Support with the creation and review of local and service wide policies and procedures.
• As part of the Frontline Services Leadership Team, ensure the support services team follow established Health & Safety and building management procedures
• Contribute, and when required, lead on the formation and review of local and service wide policies and procedures.
• Contribute to the Frontline Service’s Management On Call rota, providing support to frontline services outside of office hours.

Stakeholder Management

• Develop and maintain close relationships and working protocols with external partners and local authorities to enable the service to meet agreed objectives and improve service outcomes.
• Submit management information on a monthly and quarterly basis and produce other statistics and data as directed by the Director of Frontline Services.
• Responsible for good and effective liaison with outside agencies including the police, social services and other statutory and voluntary agencies and delegating this work where appropriate.
• Represent the organisation externally at forums, conferences and meetings.
• Contribute to the wider management team in frontline services to ensure good communication, coordination and consistency of practice, approach and development across the Directorate.

Business Planning and Project Management

• Drive business planning activities within contracts, ensuring relevant and challenging objective setting and ongoing performance tracking, developing turn around action plans as may be necessary
• Where agreed, project manage new services or service developments.
• Working closely with Finance Department to set, manage and monitor allocated budgets for income and expenditure for support services and to ensure that teams keep within set performance targets.
• To ensure that financial procedures are maintained at all times in accordance with organisational policies and procedures.

Managing and Developing People

• Creating an open and inclusive culture across the support services teams that reflects the organisation’s values.
• Developing performance targets and quality control measures for teams, and monitoring performance to ensure that these are met.
• Supporting managers and teams by setting clear objectives and holding individual supervisions regularly.
• Ensuring good communication across teams by holding team meetings regularly, and additional briefings as necessary.
• Inducting new managers and any other direct reports and planning the continuous professional development of existing managers through annual appraisals.
• Managing the workload of teams to ensure that adequate cover is provided at all times.

Safeguarding Lead

• To be the designated Safeguarding Lead for the organisation ensuring that it meets legal duties, keeping policy and practices up to date
• To actively promote an open and accountable approach across the organisation as a whole that achieves best practice and keeps the best interest of the residents central to our safeguarding practices.

General

• To attend meetings internally as and when necessary, for example, Directorate, Management and planning meetings.
• To undertake such other duties within the competence of the post holder which may be required from time to time.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Ideal attributes for meeting the needs of position and being an effective member of the wider Your Place team.

Experience

• Experience of working with vulnerable adults, including managing the provision of a safe operating environment in a relevant context
• Experience of leading, supervising and motivating managers of specialist service delivery teams in either a supported housing, advice, homelessness, care or other relevant environment
• Experience of case management and delivering best practice around; needs assessments, high quality personalised support or advice services to vulnerable adults, including people with high support needs
• Experience of contract management with stakeholders
• Experience of project management and mobilisation of new services or developing existing services

Skills & knowledge

• Knowledge and understanding of the housing and support needs of single people who experience homelessness and rough sleeping, the benefit of move on and the ability to translate knowledge into good practice.
• Knowledge of the commercial and regulatory requirements of supported housing.
• Strengths based coaching skills.

Abilities

• Ability to interact at senior level with external stakeholders.
• Ability to work in a fast paced, high pressured environment, with multiple competing priorities and to quickly adapt to new situations.
• Ability to network, liaise, negotiating and influence effectively with outside agencies.
• Ability to undertake budget management, produce financial reports and collate and interpret financial and statistical information.

Personal qualities

• Demonstrates a commitment to the charitable purposes of Your Place.
• Self-sufficient and highly organised with the ability to accomplish goals according to deadlines, and a flexibility to juggle a variety of tasks.
• Excellent organisational skills.
• Strong communication and negotiation skills.
• Strong sense of responsibility and accountability.
• Awareness of own training and support needs.

Desirable criteria

• Educated to degree level or equivalent in adult social care or leadership and management.

Before starting this position, you’ll need to undergo a criminal record check by the Disclosure and Barring Service. You must be entitled to work in the UK.