Registered Manager – 5 Bed Children’s Home (Autism & Neurodiversity) Location: Sunderland Salary: £45,827.60 – £52,407.07 per annum Hours: Full-time, permanent Sponsorship: Not available The Home This is a specialist 5-bed children’s home in Sunderland supporting children and young people with autism and neurodivergence. Ages are typically 7–19, depending on referral documentation. Support levels are needs-led, with staffing delivered at 2:1 or 1:1 depending on individual risk and care requirements. You will lead a committed team of 17 staff members and ensure the home provides safe, consistent, child-centred care that enables each young person to progress and thrive. The Role Reporting to the Operations Manager, you will be the named Registered Manager for the home and will take overall responsibility for quality of care, safeguarding, leadership, and compliance. Key responsibilities include: • Being the named Registered Manager and ensuring the home meets all regulatory requirements, legislation, and quality standards • Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, ensuring staff understand and follow safeguarding procedures and policies • Delivering a high-quality service to young people, families, and placing authorities in line with the home’s Statement of Purpose • Leading multi-agency working to develop and implement effective plans, including Placement Plans, STEP plans and Health Action Plans • Ensuring staff understand and consistently implement each young person’s Placement Plan and care documentation • Maintaining positive relationships with families, advocates, and professionals, supporting visits and communication where appropriate • Ensuring young people have access to a structured 24-hour programme that supports communication, education, wellbeing, independence and social development • Overseeing health needs, including medication governance, accurate recording, and access to GPs, dentists and other health professionals • Chairing and minuting reviews where required and ensuring statutory timescales are met • Ensuring physical interventions are only used as a last resort and are fully recorded and reviewed • Leading supervision, appraisal, learning and development, and managing performance where required • Managing rotas effectively and supporting safe staffing, including flexibility where needed for on-call and service cover • Taking an active role in recruitment, selection, screening, induction and retention, including overseeing the referral process with support from the Operations Manager • Maintaining strong governance including Regulation 44 support and completion of Regulation 45 Quality of Care Reviews • Ensuring robust record keeping and oversight of statutory logs, audits, and budgets, keeping the home operationally and financially sound • Ensuring premises safety and maintenance standards are maintained, liaising with relevant internal teams as required Who We’re Looking For ✅ You will be a calm, resilient, values-led leader who can support staff and young people through demanding periods, including crisis situations, and apply specialist training in practice. Essential: • Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Residential Childcare (or equivalent) • Significant experience in children’s residential care, including supervisory experience • Within the last 5 years: at least 2 years in a role relevant to children’s residential care and at least 1 year supervising/managing staff in a care role • Strong safeguarding knowledge and understanding of Children’s Homes Regulations (2015) • Strong written and verbal communication skills, including understanding different communication needs (including non-verbal communication) • Competent IT skills (emails, word processing, internet) • Experience working with families, professionals and multi-agency teams • Confidence with data, reporting and confidentiality, including Regulation 44 and 45 requirements • Competent in budget management for the home and young people • Full UK driving licence, clean, with ability to drive Desirable: • A1 Assessor qualification • Autism-specific qualification • Safeguarding Children Designated Person • STEP trained (or similar) • Experience managing a residential home (or similar) • Experience recruiting and retaining staff, and delivering induction/training • First aid knowledge Who You’ll Be Working For You’ll join a long-established, values-driven charity provider supporting children, young people and adults across the North East for over 40 years, with a strong commitment to safeguarding, inclusion, and respectful, person-centred practice. The organisation is known for: • Multiple services across the region, including residential and education provision • A stable, supportive leadership structure with ongoing line management support • A culture that promotes equality, inclusion and opportunity, including Disability Confident commitments Benefits • 36 days annual leave per year • Pension scheme with employer contributions • Instant access to up to 40% of your salary as you earn it • Specialist training and ongoing development • Employee discounts at over 130,000 shops and venues • Blue Light Card eligibility • Health and wellbeing support via the Employee Assistance Programme • £500 refer-a-friend scheme • Supportive leadership team and structured development How to Apply If you’re ready to lead a specialist children’s home and make a lasting difference to young people with autism and neurodivergence, apply today. For a confidential chat, email: job@sgscare.co.uk