Responsible Individual /Residential Service Manager Specialist Community Disability Service (0-24) Brighton & Hove City Council About the role We are seeking an experienced and inspirational leader to join Brighton & Hove City Council as a Residential Service Manager / Responsible Individual within our Specialist Community Disability Service (0-24). This is a senior and influential role with statutory responsibility as the Ofsted-registered Responsible Individual for the Council's residential homes for children and young people with disabilities. You will act on behalf of the organisation to ensure our homes meet all regulatory requirements, deliver outstanding, child-centred care, and remain safe, nurturing and aspirational places for children and young people with complex needs. What you'll be doing Acting as the Ofsted Responsible Individual, providing strategic oversight and assurance for registered residential provision. Ensuring full compliance with Children's Homes Regulations, Ofsted standards, safeguarding expectations and council policies. Leading, supporting and holding to account Registered Managers and senior staff to maintain consistently high standards of care. Providing senior leadership on safeguarding, quality assurance, learning from practice, and continuous service improvement. Working closely with social care, health, education and families to ensure placement stability and positive outcomes for children and young people. Contributing to service development, inspection readiness, audits, and responses to regulatory or safeguarding concerns. What we're looking for You will be a confident, values-driven leader with substantial experience in children's residential care, ideally supporting children and young people with disabilities and complex needs. You will bring: Significant management experience in children's residential services. A strong understanding of Ofsted frameworks, statutory duties and safeguarding responsibilities. Proven ability to lead and influence senior managers, drive quality improvement and maintain regulatory compliance. A clear commitment to child-centred, trauma-informed and inclusive practice. Excellent leadership, communication and decision-making skills, including confidence in managing risk and accountability. Why join us? At Brighton & Hove City Council, we are proud of our commitment to inclusion, kindness and high-quality services for children and families. You will join a dedicated leadership team that values: Professional autonomy and trust Continuous learning and reflective practice A focus on staff wellbeing and supportive leadership The opportunity to shape and improve residential services at a strategic level Our commitment to inclusion We actively encourage applications from candidates who reflect the diversity of our city and communities. We are committed to being a disability-confident employer and to creating a workplace where everyone feels valued and supported. Encouraging a diverse workforce Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans. Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk). Why work for us? As a council, we want to: • be connected • be confident • be innovative and creative • be diverse and inclusive • be healthy and psychologically safe For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us which gives details of our wellbeing support, our benefits including leave and pensions as well as details of our training and development. How to apply Please read our Apply for a job at the council pages carefully. They give you all the guidance you need to complete your application as well as information on what will happen after you've submitted your application and at interview. As part of your application, you will need to provide your education and career history and answer some application/shortlisting questions. Your answers to the application/shortlisting questions are the most important part of your application as they will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our Shortlisting questions guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process. AI advice for candidates We are interested in hearing about your experience and skills in your own words. While we value people who know how to use AI, we ask that you minimise using it in your application. We are keen to hear how your experience and skills align to our values and the skills and experience needed to perform well in our roles with clear real examples from you. To support you in this, we have guidance on using the STAR model which can help you ensure you are telling us your whole story. We also provide clarity on the skills we are looking for in our adverts and in the job description/person specification attached to each job advert. All the applications we receive are read by at least two hiring managers and we do not use AI in this process. Our experience of reading applications is that those that have heavily used AI contain generic paragraphs that are strikingly similar to other applicants' responses. This makes it extremely difficult to differentiate between applications, and doesn't give us enough evidence of your individual skills. There is a risk that we will therefore not be able to shortlist you. Instead, we recommend you ensure your application stands out by presenting clear examples of your actual skills and experiences in your own words. Additional information Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only. Please note that this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and is subject to a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Check. We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.