Service Manager – Children with Disabilities (Family Support and safeguarding Service)

Job Title: Service Manager – Children with Disabilities (Family Support and safeguarding Service)
Location: London Borough of Newham
Salary: Competitive, subject to experience £67,174 - £82,809
Contract Type: Full-time, Permanent.

Equality and Diversity

We are committed to creating an inclusive, anti-racist environment for all our employees. All employees are expected to understand and promote our Equality and Diversity policy in the course of their work.

The London Borough of Newham has important responsibilities for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. If you are appointed to a job that involves working with these groups, you may be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

We practice anonymised recruitment. Please ensure that you remove all personal information from any documents that you upload.

About the Role

We are seeking a passionate and experienced Service Manager to lead our Children with Disabilities (CWD) service in Newham. This is a strategic leadership role within Children’s Services, responsible for ensuring that children and young people with disabilities receive high-quality, personalised support that promotes their safety, wellbeing, and development.

This is a unique role that combines leadership of the Children with Disabilities service with strategic oversight of three Family Support and Safeguarding Teams. You will provide operational and strategic leadership across Child in Need (CiN), Child Protection (CP), Public Law Outline (PLO), and care proceedings, ensuring that safeguarding practice is robust, child-centred, and compliant with statutory frameworks. The Family Support and Safeguarding service enhances the family shared, relational values that were already at the centre of our practice and will continue the evolution of our firmly embedded Circles of Support practice model. We are keeping children at the heart of everything we do whilst improving the overall experience of the families, partners, and social workers in our sphere.

You will oversee 2 (CWD) teams delivering statutory social work services, short breaks, and transition planning. A key part of the role involves managing and developing our Short Breaks Service, which provides essential respite and enriching experiences for children and young people with disabilities, while supporting families to maintain resilience and stability.

You will also lead on Preparing for Adulthood pathways, working closely with Adult Social Care, health, education, and housing partners to ensure smooth and well-supported transitions. You will oversee the development and review of care packages, ensuring they are tailored, cost-effective, and meet assessed needs. As part of this, you will represent Children’s Services at the Multi-Agency Joint Funding Panel, contributing to decisions on complex packages of care requiring cross-agency collaboration.

In line with the national social care reforms, you will play a key role in embedding early intervention, improving placement stability, and ensuring financial transparency and accountability in service delivery.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and manage the Children with Disabilities service, including the Short Breaks provision.
• Provide strategic and operational leadership of three Family Support and Safeguarding Teams.
• Ensure high-quality practice across CiN, CP, PLO, and care proceedings.
• Develop and implement strategic plans to improve service delivery and outcomes for children and families.
• Lead on Preparing for Adulthood, coordinating multi-agency transition planning and ensuring continuity of care.
• Oversee the development, review, and approval of care packages, ensuring they are needs-led and financially sustainable.
• Embed principles of the national children’s social care reform strategy, including early intervention, placement quality, and financial transparency.
• Monitor performance and outcomes, using data to inform strategic decisions and continuous improvement.

About You

You will be a confident and compassionate leader with:

• Extensive experience in children’s social care, particularly in services for children with disabilities and safeguarding.
• Strong understanding of SEND legislation, safeguarding frameworks, disability rights, and transition planning.
• Experience in managing short breaks, care packages, and statutory safeguarding processes.
• Proven ability to lead strategic planning and manage budgets effectively.
• Experience working within multi-agency panels or funding forums.
• A recognised social work qualification and registration with Social Work England.

Why work for us?

Newham is a vibrant and diverse borough with a strong commitment to inclusion and innovation. We offer:

A supportive leadership team and a culture of learning and development. In Newham, there are opportunities for career progression and professional growth. We promote flexible working arrangements and a focus on staff wellbeing and a chance to make a real difference in the lives of children and families.

We’ve been working hard to make Newham a great place to practice social work. We are a GOOD Local Authority focused on reaching excellence. We offer genuinely flexible/hybrid working as long as children and families are supported. Stability: 100% of senior Management and 80% of Team Managers are now permanent. Our firmly established practice model, Circles of Support, was recently nominated for the prestigious MJ Award for Innovation in Children’s Services and allows systemic, restorative practice to flourish. Career progression is possible with Newham; within Children’s social work we promoted 30 internal colleagues in 2023 and 38 colleagues so far in 2024. Social Care Academy – our academy received significant praise from Ofsted and 50+ social workers have studied for systemic higher education with us since 2020.

To Apply
To apply please submit your CV through our online recruitment portal.

If you have any questions about the recruitment process or want to discuss joining Newham Children’s Services with one of our managers, please contact:

Sandra.Reddie@newham.gov.uk

Please view JD here

Closing date 23.11.25

Additional Information

We are committed to creating an inclusive, anti-racist environment for all. When you apply for a job at Newham, your application is considered on its merits regardless of your age, disability, ethnicity, faith, gender identity or sexual orientation. If you share our vision and values, and you bring the experience and skills we need, that’s all that matters to us.

The London Borough of Newham has important responsibilities for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. If you are appointed to a job that involves working with these groups, you may be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

Please attach your supporting statement, explaining in no more than x2 A4 sides why and how you meet the criteria for this role.

We practice anonymised recruitment. Please ensure that you remove all personal information from any documents that you upload.

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