We're looking for an organised, confident and resilient Service Manager to join our Young People service in Islington. £38,872.00 per annum, working 40 hours per week. Want to feel like you have an exciting future? 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: * Annual leave increasing up to 30 days with length of service * Free DBS * Exclusive discounts and cashback via Reward Gateway and opportunity to buy a Blue Light Card * Fully paid induction programme and further training * ILM courses and Apprenticeship Programmes * A generous pension - we will contribute up to 4% and life assurance cover up to £10,000 (T&Cs apply) * 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. Contract Managers are responsible for the effective management of all contracts within their designated patch, including line managing the relevant front line staff. Leadership and competence development in direct reports is a key responsibility of the role. The working pattern for this role is Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm. This is a 6 month contract until 03/2026. What you'll do: - 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 - Work with the Young People directorate, contributing to and delivering the vision and strategy of our pathway - Maintaining excellent relationships with the local council, commissioning team, landlords, and housing team - Using sound financial and accounting principles, manage contract budgets to deliver on corporate and local contract financial targets - Successfully lead and motivate your team to ensure the championing of and maintenance of a positive local culture within your service - Work to continuously improve staff competence, ensure ownership of all staff issues and speedy and effective conflict resolution - Responsible for reporting all staff changes to HR and Payroll departments, as appropriate e.g. starters, leavers, additional hours etc. - Responsible for maintaining quarterly staff succession plans - Deliver effective, professional and commercially focused briefings and supervision meetings with staff and ensure that information, reporting & communications flow up/down is effective 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: - Ability to lead and motivate staff to deliver excellent services - Is fundamentally calm and resilient, does not let emotion adversely affect them or obscure their judgement - Has a practical and logical mind - Excellent organisation skills - Thrives on change and enjoys dynamic diverse environments - Is confident with high levels of self-esteem - Is respectful, articulate and sensitive in style of communication What you'll bring: Essential: - Educated to degree level or equivalent - Experience of managing contracts and resources and delivering to budget and performance targets - Experience of delivering to housing management performance targets Desirable: - 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 100 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: We focus on Excellence and innovation. We are Caring and Compassionate. We are Inclusive and Trusted. 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 2021. We are a proud member of the Employers Domestic Abuse Covenant and encourage applications from a diverse range of applicants of all backgrounds. Please see our website for full Job description