Registered Manager - Ofsted

REGISTERED MANAGER — SPINNEY COTTAGE

Alpha Care Group Ltd · Polesworth, Warwickshire · £50,000–£60,000 DOE + bonuses · Full-time, 40 hours

THE ROLE

This is a rare one: a Registered Manager appointment where you build the home rather than inherit it. Spinney Cottage is a newly refurbished four-bed home in Polesworth, preparing to register with Ofsted as a children's home for young people aged 13–17 with emotional and behavioural difficulties, trauma and attachment needs.

You will build the home in partnership with our Responsible Individual, named on the application, co-authoring the Statement of Purpose, recruiting the staff team and shaping the culture of the home from its first day, then run what you built together.

The role has two phases:

Phase 1: Registration (from appointment): complete SC2 and support the provider application; finalise the Statement of Purpose, workforce plan and operational policies; recruit and induct the staff team; prepare for and attend the Ofsted fit-person interview.

Phase 2: Operation (from registration): full operational leadership of the home; safeguarding lead; placements, care planning and reviews; staff supervision, rotas and development; quality of care consistent with the Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the Quality Standards; budget management; relationships with placing authorities, schools, health partners and families.

REPORTING

You'll report to the Responsible Individual and directors, and you won't be building alone. You'll shape the home in partnership with an RI whose background is also in care, with broad autonomy over the day-to-day and a leadership team invested in your success. For the right manager, that partnership is the best part of the job: the backing of people who've built things before, and the freedom to make this home yours.

THE CARE — HOW THIS HOME ACTUALLY WORKS

Who lives here. Four young people, 13 to 17, mixed gender, looked after. Between them: learning disability; autism, including alongside a learning disability; ADHD and other neurodevelopmental conditions; mental health needs; behaviour others find challenging, which we understand as communication; trauma and attachment difficulties including neglect, abuse and exploitation; and a history of placement breakdown. Most will have more than one of those. Assessment starts from the young person, not from a list of diagnoses.

The staffing, because it is the first thing any good manager asks. Four beds and sixteen posts. Two staff across the waking day as a floor, not a ratio. Two waking night staff, 21:30 to 07:30, and no sleep in, the night is staffed.

Clinically supported, not clinically staffed. We employ no clinicians. We work with The Neuro Medical Group, CQC-registered for the treatment of disease, disorder or injury with registration covering children aged 0 to 18. A clinical psychologist holds a formulation of every young person living here and works with the staff team. The reason we have that relationship is time: a young person whose placement, education and safety all turn on understanding what is going on cannot wait a year for an assessment.

The practice. Behaviour is communication, and our first question is what a young person is telling us rather than how to stop it. Positive behaviour support built from a functional assessment for each young person of what a good day looks like, what the early signs are, what helps and what makes it worse. Low arousal, meant literally: adjustable lighting, acoustic treatment, zoned space, and a snug that is genuinely available and is never used as a sanction or a seclusion space. Restorative practice where harm is done. We do not run a sanctions culture.

Education is treated as a safeguarding issue, not an administrative one, because a young person who is out of education is a young person available to be exploited. Structured learning starts in the house in the first week, funded by us where the placing authority has not yet commissioned it.

The house. Four single bedrooms of 14 to 20 square metres, three with en-suites, nobody shares. A communal hub with a dedicated education area, a second lounge and the snug. The office is divided from the hub by glazed sliding doors, so staff are visible and available rather than shut away. Secured externally without being secured internally: every external door opens from the inside, at all times.

What we will not take. This is not a ligature-resistant environment and does not hold itself out as one. What we can and cannot hold is written into the Statement of Purpose and is not traded away at placement planning.

And the part that matters most to whoever takes this job: the Registered Manager may decline any referral, and no one at Alpha Care Group will overrule a decline on commercial grounds.

ESSENTIAL - ALL NON-NEGOTIABLE

• At least 3 years' experience in children's residential care within the last 5 years, our bar deliberately exceeds the regulatory minimum, including at least 1 year in a supervisory or management role.

• Level 5 Diploma in Leadership & Management for Residential Childcare — held. Applications working towards the qualification will not be considered.

• A minimum of 3 years' management experience, with direct experience of Ofsted inspection.

• Practice grounded in trauma-informed, relationship-based approaches, PACE, Positive Behaviour Support, low-arousal and restorative practice. This is how the home works.

• The capability and appetite to set a service up, not just run one.

• Enhanced DBS including children's barred list check; full employment history with any gaps discussed openly.

• A minimum of two references, covering your last two employers in children's residential care settings.

DESIRABLE

• Prior experience of an Ofsted registration application or new-service start-up.

• Confidence working alongside clinical partners.

THE PACKAGE

• £50,000–£60,000 depending on experience.

• £3,000 bonus on successful Ofsted registration · annual bonus linked to Ofsted outcomes.

• 25 days' annual leave plus bank holidays · pension.

• A funded training and personal development plan, agreed and signed off individually.

• On-call as part of the home's management arrangement.

THE PLACE

Polesworth, a village setting five minutes from Tamworth, commutable from Birmingham, Nuneaton and the Leicester side; Tamworth station with a local bus link.

APPOINTMENT CONDITIONS

Appointment is conditional on Ofsted registration of the home and fit-person approval. Alpha Care Group is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children; this post is subject to safer recruitment practice, enhanced DBS disclosure, and full referencing. We are an equal opportunities employer.

TIMING

Ofsted does not give registration timescales, and we are not going to invent one. Our planning assumption is that the home opens in early 2027. So the appointment begins as a paid consultancy — agreed days a month, flexible around your current role — covering registration, recruitment and the fit-person interview, converting to the full-time employed post on registration. It suits someone settled who would only move for the right home, and who would rather transition than jump.

Alpha Care Group Ltd · [email protected] · Company No. 16266524

Pay: £50,000.00-£60,000.00 per year

Work Location: In person