Reporting into the Divisional Director your duties will include:
Quality and Governance
- Provide operational support to the Divisional Director and all services to achieve GOOD or OUTSTANDING ratings with the Regulator (Ofsted/CIW or country specific equivalent) utilising internal audits. You will be expected to take responsibility for a specified number of service visits and service audits (set as KPIs) which are to be managed by you in this role.
- You will implement the recommendations from the feedback of the children and young people, ensuring your Divisional Director has an overview of progress. It will be your responsibility to ensure improvements are achieved and maintained.
- Lead in your allocated area in driving improvement on all areas of quality performance – such as audits compliance, action plan completion, and other relevant quality metrics.
- Deliver service improvement via the effective management of complaints, compliments, and feedback, ensuring that lessons are learnt and shared.
- When allocated by the Divisional Director, manage and lead on complaints, with the aim to achieve a positive and complete resolution in line with policy.
- Ensure that the service action plans are embedded and driven to accomplishment. Support managers and liaise with the Support teams, facilitate and co-ordinate Quality Improvement. As an operations manager you will jointly own and implement the service improvement plans being a key member of the team linking with the managers and the Divisional Director
- Remove any barriers and ensure Managers have ready access to, and support from internal and external support services to achieve maximum performance against key goals and objectives. You are also responsible for ensuring Managers update and use the internal systems effectively and appropriately.
- Ensure the highest standards of care, customer service, hospitality and support are always delivered and evidenced.
- Have a good awareness of the Ofsted and CIW regulations, so that the Registered managers can be supported appropriately in readiness and during assessment processes.
- Ensure legal frameworks that ensure the children and young people we support are safe and/or court orders and enact conditions where this is appropriate.
- Represent the organisation in issues of safeguarding/LADO and attend meetings to work towards resolution of areas of concern.In some instances, as an operational manager, you will be required to lead and manage some cases, reporting directly back to the Divisional Director.
- Ensure that environments are safe, meet health and safety requirements, that all major areas such as fire and water are consistently tested and measured and that environments are of a decorative presentation in conjunction with people who live at the location.
- Work with the children and young people we support, their support and the circle of support around the individual to develop ways of hearing their voice to have best outcomes.
- Have a good working knowledge of the regulatory and legal frameworks relevant to the children’s and young people social care sector.
- To lead and over see your allocated location(s) in support of the regional director using data and IT systems such as power BI, Nourish, SharePoint etc.
- To work with the registered managers to support the staff team for each location to meet their excepted mandatory training and seek further support for specialist training appropriate to the children and young people’s needs as assessed and to monitor that training and skill development are part of the yearly development plan.
Financial and commercial
- Support the Divisional Director to achieve and exceed Regional EBITDA and KPI measures with emphasis on appropriate occupancy, the eradication of agency and direct cost controls- including the management of absence and staff turnover - you will be expected to have a working knowledge of the regional financial status and to report and action accordingly.
- Support the Divisional Director to Identify where capex and resources are needed to drive new revenue and quality improvements- ensuring a robust return on investment on any expenditure.
- Input to budgets, objectives and targets for each Manager and their Home, including new services and growth, ensuring occupancy targets are met and exceeded.
- Work with the managers and Divisional Director to ensure that that costs are managed in line with budget and identify opportunity for efficiencies.
- Support the Divisional Director to actively seek opportunities to develop effective commercial partnerships with key third party organisations e.g., Local Authorities, NHS etc. working with the Divisional Director to ensure that forecasting occupancy targets are met and admissions are planned in line with budget and admission process is followed robustly using Salesforce and other internal systems.
- Support the Divisional Director to ensure that homes are fully compliant with all company financial operating instructions, policies, and procedures.
Partnership
- Develop effective partnerships with key third party organisations e.g. Local Authorities, NHS, Ofsted/CIW/LADO always acting as an ambassador for Salutem Care & Education and external stakeholders.
- Assist the Divisional Director to identify opportunities for business development, including re-developments, new services, and partnership working with commissioners.
- To develop partnerships with key people in an individual’s life such as family members, advocates and commissioners of services ie social workers, nurses to enable an appropriate fee response to identified or changing needs
- As an operations manager working directly with the teams at each location allocated to you, you will need to be an effective communicator being a key link between your locations and the senior and executive management teams.
Regional and Divisional Strategy
- Assist the Divisional Director to create a strategic plan for the geographic region, to ensure sustained growth and re-purposing of services where they may not be fit for purpose.
- Support the Divisional Director and children’s division Senior management team to develop the Childrens Division Strategy
- Where a service may not be fit for purpose or have quality issues-be responsible for ensuring that a robust service improvement plan is implemented, working with the quality team and using support functions as required, keeping the Divisional Director appraised of progress or issues at all times.
- Undertake required level of monitoring of performance against all key performance criteria, with emphasis on compliance with all legal and regulatory standards, ensuring that monitoring is recorded on Nourish and other systems as required.
Effective people management and leadership
- The Divisional Director will oversee but you will be responsible for ensuring that robust supervision and development through personal development plans are in place for the managers you directly line manage and that all staff within your portfolio are supervised in in line with Salutem KPIs.
- You will adopt a coach and mentor style with your portfolio of Managers and teams to ensure they are supported in their professional and personal development and actively manage a talent pipeline to maintain management and leadership strength across the region, division and Salutem Care & Education as a whole - supporting with relevant succession and development plans with the managers you are allocated to as directed by the Regional Director
- Demonstrate commitment to staff retention and development, with effective reward & recognition and learning & development programs in all homes. As an operations manager, you will be working with the senior management team on implementing retention strategies to meet Divisional KPIs.
- Good leadership at all levels of the organisation, shapes its culture into one where people who use the services and the quality of care come first. You will be expected to regularly visit your services within the region and attend meetings nationally to ensure the effective operation and leadership of your region and homes allocated to you.
- In extreme circumstances and where no other solution is readily available, become the registered manager for a location to reduce the risk of any regulatory action.
- Actively seek opportunities within your role to develop your skills and knowledge within the multi-site and regional level.
This job description should not be seen as all encompassing, and the post holder will be expected to undertake any other responsibilities appropriate to the post as identified by the company.
The post holder will need to be able to travel and be available for flexible working in line with the needs of the region and division. Overnights stays are an essential element of the role.
Essential skills:
- Good standard of oral and written Math and English
- Strong inclusive leadership style
- First class communication skills, able to communicate at all levels.
- Confident problem analysis & judgment skills
- The ability to work under pressure and to deadlines.
- Skilled at implementing vision and direction of executive management in a way that staff at all levels will understand, helping them to see how their contributes to the achievement of those goals
- Experienced in managing people, finances and resources to demanding plans and budgets.
- Experience in multi-site management
- Must have worked in a health care environment managing resources and people, preferably in a matrixed management environment.
- Experience of managing in a heavily regulated environment
- Strong relationship building skills.
- Excellent communication and presentation skills.
- Quality & Customer Focused
- Attention to Detail, organised
- Responsive and flexible – to changing demands and priorities
- Celebrates success and performance manages in a supportive and constructive way following appropriate processes.
- Able to work under own initiative and under pressure.
- Problem solver
- Team player
Desirable skills:
- Educated to degree level or equivalent experience
- Experienced in project management