About Lighthouse  

Lighthouse is a charity creating life-changing, education-focused children’s homes to ensure that children in care have the same opportunities as everyone else. 

We believe that children growing up in residential care should go on to achieve great things and lead fulfilling lives. We believe that social pedagogy, a focus on education, people and place is the best approach to supporting young people. 

The Lighthouse team is driven by a shared commitment to creating empowering places where everyone has the opportunity to grow and learn. We follow our key values of Respect, Play, Difference, Empowerment, Curiosity and Excellence. 

Lighthouse is a charity that sits within the Catch22 group of organisations, running independently on a day-to-day basis.   

We have reached an exciting point in our journey - our team has been working to launch Lighthouse’s first not-for-profit children’s home, which will support up to six 12-18 year olds and is set to open in late 2021. We are recruiting a diverse team of 13 practitioners to work in the home, who have varying life experiences, skills and strengths. The skills and strengths we’re looking for reflect what young people in care have told us are the things that are most important to them. 

Difference is one of our core values, and we strive to take the broadest possible view of diversity. We value people from all backgrounds – by this we mean ethnicity, gender, age, and any other visible or invisible quality that makes you unique. We welcome that every person brings their own perspective and experience to our children’s homes, to contribute to our vision. 

The details

Hours: 40 hours per week
Salary: £50,000 per annum
Responsible to: Director of Lighthouse

Your role  

As the registered manager of our first children’s home, you will be responsible for leading and inspiring a team of social pedagogy practitioners to achieve high standards and ensure that children who live in Lighthouse homes receive the best care possible.  

You will ensure that all staff are able to build strong relationships with young people and support them on their journey through their teenage years, help them figure out their future plans and work towards their goals. You will keep them safe, empower them to thrive and participate in plans for their futures. You will work with young people, families, your team and partner agencies to achieve this.  

You will ensure that our homes are compliant with regulations and ensure best practice and relevant quality and care standards are upheld.  

You will take a leading role in supporting the successful design and delivery of a degree-level training program and continuing professional development of all social pedagogy practitioners. We aim to influence improvements in the wider residential child care sector by exemplifying and sharing best practice and learning. You will play a pivotal role in developing our model of practice and working with evaluators to contribute to improvements across children’s social care. 

Please click here to view the full Job Description

About you  

We are looking for people who are committed to working with young people in care, and want to encourage and help them to reach their goals. We are looking for a confident and experienced leader, with a positive attitude, a willingness to get stuck in, and the determination to make our first home a success!  

We believe it is important that our first home has a family-feel and that we create an inclusive culture, so you will need to be a good listener and an active participant. We are looking for people who are kind and caring, honest and reliable, and can be good advocates and role models for our children. You will be responsible for safeguarding young people and putting their safety and wellbeing first. You will need to have experience of working effectively with young people with a range of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties.  You will provide clear leadership and role modelling of best practice to the staff team to establish a culture of high-quality, relationship-centred care in the home.  You will have a sound understanding of social pedagogy in both theory and practice and the ability to lead the team in this approach and effectively communicate it to external stakeholders. 

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced registered manager with high standards and a clear vision to lead on the creation of a new home from the beginning and make it their own. We have recently purchased a building, which is undergoing carefully-designed and bespoke refurbishment so it best meets the needs of our children. We are going to be recruiting a brand new team of staff, and we would like you to input into this process. As we are setting up a new home, it is likely the role will start in summer 2021. You will have the opportunity to lead on all aspects of the set-up of the service and the development of relationships with partner agencies and commissioners. You will collaborate with both internal and external evaluators to refine and improve our model to achieve the best possible outcomes for young people. You will need to be resilient and to try again when there are setbacks. You will need to be able to adapt your approach depending on the situation, reflect and learn for the next time.  

We are a new home, so we are looking for people who are committed to building up a new home and growing with us over time. 

Please click here to view the full Person Specification

APPLICATION PROCESS

Please provide a cover letter on no more than one side of A4 that outlines how you meet the essential experience outlined in the person specification and why you are interested in working for Lighthouse. 

We will not be able to consider any applications that only provide a CV.

When applying via the Smart Recruiters platform or via a job board like LinkedIn, please include your cover letter in the covering note or email rather than as a separate attachment.

Please note that as we are setting up a new home, it is likely the role will start in summer 2021.

If you would like to find out more about the role and Lighthouse please email [email protected] to arrange a call with the Lighthouse Director, Emmanuel Akpan- Inwang. 

Interviews will be conducted via video conferencing, and will include a competency-based panel interview, a presentation task, a written task and a values-based interview.

Interviews will be held on a rolling basis and we may appoint before the closing date for applications, so candidates are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.