Job description
We’re looking for a kind, compassionate, and resilient Service Manager to join our Mental Health service in Slough.
£, per annum, working hours per week.
Want to feel like you’re making a difference? You’ll feel at home here.
Making you feel at home here means helping you thrive in every way. That’s why we offer a wide range of benefits, award-winning Learning & Development and a culture that welcomes all. These aren’t token gestures - we’ve thought long and hard about how best to support our team. After all, our people are doing something amazing: helping to transform lives every day.
Our benefits include:
1. Annual leave increasing up to days with length of service
2. Free DBS
3. Exclusive discounts and cashback via Reward Gateway and opportunity to buy a Blue Light Card
4. Fully paid induction programme and further training
5. ILM courses and Apprenticeship Programmes
6. Healthcare Cashplan through our partner Healthshield
7. Cycle to work scheme
8. Employee Assistance Programme for - confidential support
9. Online wellbeing resources
10. A generous pension – we will contribute up to % and life assurance cover up to £, (T&Cs apply)
11. Quarterly Staff Awards to reward & recognise our amazing staff’s commitment and contribution
All applicants must be legally eligible to work in the UK by the start of employment as Look Ahead are not able to offer sponsorship.
We are seeking an experienced and dynamic Service Manager to oversee the successful delivery of our mental health services within the Slough area. This pivotal role is responsible for the operational and strategic management of all contracts in your designated patch, ensuring high-quality service delivery and positive outcomes for individuals with mental health and complex needs.
As a Service Manager, you will lead and support a team of front-line staff, providing clear direction, performance oversight, and ongoing professional development. A key aspect of the role is fostering strong leadership and cultivating competence within your team to drive continuous improvement.
In addition to contract oversight, you may also take on a client group specialism (Mental Health and Complex needs), working closely with fellow Service Managers and the Head of Service to promote the consistent and effective integration of specialist approaches across the organisation.
This is a fantastic opportunity for a values-driven leader who thrives in a fast-paced, person-centred environment and is committed to delivering high-impact support.
What you’ll do:
12. Drive business planning activities within your contract, ensuring relevant and challenging objective setting and ongoing performance tracking, developing turn around action plans as may be necessary
13. Using sound financial and accounting principles, manage contract budgets to deliver on corporate and local contract financial targets
14. Successfully lead and motivate your team to ensure the championing of and maintenance of a positive local culture within your service
15. Work to continuously improve staff competence, ensure ownership of all staff issues and speedy and effective conflict resolution
16. Responsible for reporting all staff changes to HR and Payroll departments, as appropriate starters, leavers, additional hours etc.
17. Responsible for maintaining quarterly staff succession plans
18. Deliver effective, professional and commercially focused briefings and supervision meetings with staff and ensure that information, reporting & communications flow up/down is effective
19. Responsible for managing and allocating customers to support staff (casework management)
20. Develop key business relationships with all relevant customers/external parties to ensure service delivery excellence and maximise new business opportunities in own patch
21. Plan, organise and prioritise operations within your contract to ensure maximum efficiencies/utilisation of all resources
22. Working with your team lead creative and ambitious customer involvement plans across the patch and ensure successful implementation
23. Where appropriate to role, carry client group specialism activities, linking in with other Managers and Heads of Operations to ensure focussed integration of specialisms across the whole organisation
24. Lead quality visits, using Look Ahead’s local indicators to monitor quality/performance, set targets and lead action plans to ensure highly rated services that reflect requirements of local funders and local and national standards
25. Responsible for producing and submitting Monthly Management Reports to the Performance team, ensuring that all data gathered on local KPI’s are accurate and up to date
26. Drive continuous improvement initiatives across contract portfolio ensuring Look Ahead continues to set and achieves sector best practice standards and is held as a benchmark to competitors
27. Develop and maintain excellent internal management relationships with all other Look Ahead departments and functions, ensuring sharing of best practice and supporting initiatives to improve organisational performance
28. Within your service, ensure competent use of all relevant business IT systems and all company policies and frameworks
29. Responsible for managing petty cash for the service in accordance with Look Ahead procedures
30. Deliver an out of hours on-call service for region
31. Ensure Look Ahead Health and Safety policies are adhered to throughout the service, to review at local level and ensure staff are competent and suitably trained
32. Ensure that all safeguarding cases are managed in line with safeguarding protocols and are reported to Head of Operations Managers
33. Ensure that all other Look Ahead policies and procedures are adhered to
34. Carry out other management duties commensurate with the designated role level, as may be deemed reasonable by Look Ahead, including the management of other contracts within the designated patch, or an alternative patch, if such a need arises
This is not an exhaustive list of all the duties and responsibilities that may be required from time to time and is subject to change in accordance with the needs of Look Ahead
About you:
35. Ability to lead and motivate staff to deliver excellent services
36. Is fundamentally calm and resilient, does not let emotion adversely affect them or obscure their judgement
37. Has a practical and logical mind
38. Excellent organisation skills
39. Thrives on change and enjoys dynamic diverse environments
40. Is confident with high levels of self-esteem
41. Is respectful, articulate and sensitive in style of communication
42. Is motivated towards excellence and improvement of personal performance with a can do attitude
43. Ability to cope positively with challenging and diverse behaviour
44. Enjoys social interaction and the company of others, joins in local activities to encourage customer involvement
45. Exudes a warm friendly presence and open behaviour
46. Able to work as part of a group or team as well as being self motivated
What you’ll bring:
Essential:
47. Educated to degree level or equivalent
48. Experience of managing contracts and resources and delivering to budget and performance targets
49. Experience of delivering to housing management performance targets
50. Experience of effectively managing and developing staff to ensure delivery of services performance targets within contract
51. Experience of successfully managing external partnerships to ensure successful delivery of services
52. Holds relevant CMI/NVQ Level or other Business/Management Qualification
Desirable:
53. Other relevant professional memberships and/or specialist qualifications
About us:
Look Ahead is a leading, not-for-profit care and support provider in London and the South East. Our vision is to build better lives through social care and housing in local communities. As an organisation we deliver over services, providing support to thousands of customers each year. Our mission is to co-design and deliver services that offer innovative social care solutions and support people to thrive. We work across mental health, homelessness and complex needs, young people and care leavers and learning disabilities so there are plenty of opportunities to grow and progress your career with us.
We have a strong social purpose and we live and work by our values:
54. We focus on Excellence and innovation.
55. We are Caring and Compassionate.
56. We are Inclusive and Trusted.
57. We work in Partnership and are One-Team.
Look Ahead is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and adults at risk, and expects all employees, workers and volunteers to share this commitment.
If your application for this role is unsuccessful, but we feel that you would be suitable for another role, we may contact you to discuss alternative opportunities. If this occurs you would not need to submit another application for the alternative role.
We reserve the right to close this advert early if we are able to appoint to the vacancy before the advertised closed date.
We are committed to diversity and inclusion at work and are accredited with Silver in the Inclusive Employers Standard. We are a proud member of the Employers Domestic Abuse Covenant and encourage applications from a diverse range of applicants of all backgrounds.