Operations Manager (Residential Childrens Homes)

Salary details: £ - £

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

Due to this post having access to children and/or vulnerable adults, the successful candidate will be required to undertake a Disclosure and Barring Service check. The possession of a criminal record will not necessarily prevent an applicant from obtaining this post, as all cases are judged individually according to the nature of the role and information provided. Click here to see our policy on criminal background checks.

Apply now and take the first step towards a fulfilling career with us! By joining Derbyshire County Council you will have access to a range of amazing rewards and employee benefits, including our generous annual leave scheme, excellent local government pension and fantastic employee discounts. To discover more detail about the rewards and benefits available to you, click here

CS1

We welcome applications from individuals who share our values — being Collaborative, Innovative, Empowered and Accountable. These values describe who we are and what we stand for as a council. They help shape our culture, encourage consistent behaviour and guide how we work together to make a positive difference for both our employees and the residents we serve.