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Ready to lead and shape practice at the front door of children’s services?

We’re looking for an experienced, strategic and passionate Service Manager to lead our Assessment Service at Dudley Children’s Services. This is a pivotal leadership role where you will oversee multiple teams at the front door, ensuring consistency, quality of practice, and strong decision-making for children and families at the earliest point of contact. You will play a key role in setting the direction of the service, driving improvement, and ensuring children receive the right help at the right time.

Reporting to the Principal Service Lead, you will work as part of a strong leadership team to support delivery, manage demand and embed high-quality, child-centred practice across all assessment teams.

If you are a confident leader who thrives in a fast-paced environment and is committed to making a meaningful difference—this could be the role for you.

As Service Manager, you will:

• Provide leadership and oversight to Team Managers across the Assessment Service
• Work closely with the Service Managers and Principal Service Leads in Family Help to manage demand across areas
• Drive consistency of practice, performance, and decision-making across all teams
• Ensure the delivery of timely, high-quality assessments that are analytical and outcome-focused
• Maintain oversight of risk, thresholds and safeguarding decisions at the front door
• Lead on service development and continuous improvement, embedding best practice across teams
• Manage service demand and performance, ensuring resources are used effectively
• Support and develop Team Managers to deliver strong leadership and high standards of practice
• Work closely with partners to ensure a coordinated, multi-agency approach
• Contribute to strategic planning and service direction alongside the Principal Service Lead

About you

You’re someone who:

• Is a qualified and highly experienced social worker, with substantial leadership experience in management in children’s services
• Has a strong understanding of front door services, thresholds, and assessment practice
• Brings experience of leading managers and driving service-wide improvements
• Is confident making complex decisions in high-pressure environments
• Has a track record of improving performance, quality and outcomes for children
• Is a strong communicator, able to influence, challenge and support at all levels
• Is committed to delivering consistent, high-quality, child-centred practice across services

Why join Dudley?

At Dudley Children’s Services, we are committed to innovation, continuous improvement, and putting children first.

In this role, you’ll have the opportunity to:

• Lead a critical front-line service, shaping practice at the earliest stage of a child’s journey
• Drive consistency and excellence across multiple teams
• Work as part of a supportive and ambitious senior leadership team
• Influence service-wide improvement and strategic direction
• Benefit from hybrid working, with an expectation of 3 in-person office-based days per week

This is your opportunity to lead at scale—shaping how Dudley responds to children and families at first contact, driving consistent, high-quality practice, and ensuring the right decisions are made at the right time.

If you’re ready to lead with impact, influence practice at scale, and drive meaningful change—we’d love to hear from you.

For an informal discussion about the role please contact one of the Principal Service Leads, Karen Johnson, Karen.Johnson@dudley.gov.uk or Donessa Gray, Donessa.gray@dudley.gov.uk

So that we can demonstrate Dudley’s commitment to diversity and inclusion and to improve bias in the recruitment process that could create barriers for candidates. Your personal data will be anonymised when you apply, to ensure that you comply with our anonymisation process, please ensure you have removed your name and date of birth from any attachments prior to uploading them to your application.

Online application forms will only be accepted for this vacancy, online facilities for jobs are available at public libraries within the Dudley Borough.

All applicants must be able to provide documentation to prove their right to work in the UK.

Please note: Dudley MBC does not currently offer sponsorship for candidates without the Right to Work in the UK.

If you require support completing an online or paper application form and or interview techniques, please contact Dudley Adult and Community Learning on 01384 818 143 or acl@dudley.gov.uk who can support with Digital Skills and Job Applications.

If you have a disability and require assistance in making an application please contact the HR Resourcing Team via HR.Resourcing@dudley.gov.uk

If you are experiencing a problem whilst applying for a position, please follow the link below to the WM Jobs Help Page in the first instance https://help.wmjobs.co.uk/

If the WM Jobs Help Page does not resolve your issue then please contact the HR Resourcing Team via HR.Resourcing@dudley.gov.uk

Dudley Council will check the information that you have provided against any details already held for accuracy and completeness. The Council will check, share and cross match your information both internally within the council and with external organisations to protect public funds and prevent or detect crime, only where the law allows us to do so.

The Council’s full Privacy and Disclaimer Statement can be accessed on the website at https://www.dudley.gov.uk/privacy-disclaimer-statement/

N.B. We reserve the right to close this vacancy prior to the advertised date should we receive a large number of applications

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