Service Leader Residential Services

MB2 (£59,395 - £67,990) + Market Supplement

37 Hours, Full Time

Permanent

Hybrid: Children’s Homes and homeworking around the needs of the service.


Application Deadline: 29 January 2026, 11:59pm

Please be aware that we may close this vacancy early if a high volume of applications are received. We encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Shortlisting Date: 30 January 2026

Interview Date: w/c 2 February 2026

Interview Type: In Person


While we embrace the use of AI as an innovative tool to maximise our services at Stockport Council, we are looking for authenticity in applications we receive. We therefore ask you to think carefully if choosing to use AI when completing your application and ask that you ensure you read all instructions carefully and that your application is written by you and reflects your skills, knowledge and enthusiasm.

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Your Role

This is an exciting opportunity to be part of our Stockport Family Children social care senior management team working together to make a real difference to the lives of children and families.

The Service Lead Residential Services has the strategic lead for the development and delivery of Stockport’s children’s homes and supported accommodation. As Responsible/ Nominated Individual you will lead on ofsted inspections, provide effective leadership of the workforce and operations in a manner that delivers a good standard of quality care that best meets children and family’s needs, working closely with locality teams and wider partners.

In this role, you will further provide ongoing leadership and development for the service that is creative to deliver against the council’s sufficiency plan and ambitions.

About You

We are seeking a highly motivated, creative and skilled service leader to join our leadership team to support our residential services to deliver outstanding care and support for our children.

You will be experienced in leadership and management of children’s homes and supported accommodation, with a proven track record of delivering high quality services for children. You will join an experienced leadership team and be supported to lead and drive improvements within our services delivering our sufficiency plan.

About Us

In this role you can expect benefits such as

  • Flexible and hybrid working
  • Strong leadership team
  • Access to the councils’ benefits, wellbeing and support services
  • Opportunities for training and professional career development

At Stockport Council we are one ambitious team on a mission to create opportunities for everyone who lives, works and spends time in the borough. Working at Stockport Council means contributing to one of the most thriving towns in the North. We’re keen to recruit people with the right values and behaviours that can help us ensure our workplace values are at the heart of everything we do.

We are proud to be recognised under the Good Employment Charter as an organisation committed to the wellbeing of our colleagues. As members of the charter, we have been recognised as a great place to work for all colleagues and pledge to pay the real living wage, engage staff in key decisions and endorse fair and flexible working conditions.

If you would like to find out more about the role please contact Jeanette Warburton jeanette.warburton@stockport.gov.uk for an informal discussion about the role.

The successful applicant’s appointment will be subject to satisfactory pre-employment clearances including a Disclosure and Barring Service check.

Stockport Council holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not currently qualify.

Please note that we have made a commitment to improve the employment opportunities for people with disabilities, care leavers and ex-military personnel. As part of the Guaranteed Assessment Scheme you will therefore be guaranteed to be shortlisted for Assessment if you meet both the criteria for the scheme and the essential job role criteria.

Find out if you meet the criteria here: https://www.greater.jobs/our-guaranteed-assessment-scheme

If you have completed the GM Elevate (Leadership Development) Programme, please indicate this within the ‘About You’ or ‘Supporting Statement’ section of your application. Please also email recruitment@stockport.gov.uk.

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Stockport Council is committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive workforce culture - a place where we can all be ourselves and succeed. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and communities to join our workforce.

We want our employees to have a good work life balance and in many job roles we can offer a range of flexible/hybrid working arrangements. We also have inclusive employment policies and staff engagement forums to support our diverse workforce. We will listen to, learn from, and develop our workforce.

Supporting Documents

Job Profile

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Location

21 Egerton Road, Davenport, Stockport , SK3 8SR, United Kingdom

Job ID

1837

Employee Benefits

Annual Leave

A generous annual leave allowance, up to 30 days annual leave dependent on grade and length of service, plus bank holidays with the option to purchase additional annual leave

Work Life Balance

Work and personal life balance. Many jobs include part time working, flexi-time and homeworking

Employee engagement

Employee engagement networks to support colleagues and create opportunities to feed into both workforce and borough strategies

Volunteering

Support for volunteering by allowing up to 4 hours per month (pro rata) to carry out any duties associated with this

Learning and Development

A suite of learning and development opportunities, from important data protection training to all level apprenticeships

Discounts

A huge range of discounts via an easy to use portal, including: Gym memberships, restaurants, events, travel, cycle to work scheme, home electronics and more.

Wellbeing

Access to an employee support hotline, available 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year.

Pension Scheme

Option to join the Local Government Pension Scheme and give your pension a boost by enrolling into a salary sacrifice scheme.

Our Recruitment Journey

Seen a job you’re interested in but want to understand more about our recruitment process?

  • Application stage

    When you have seen a job, you are interested in you can submit your application online by clicking ‘Apply Now’, some vacancies will ask you to complete a supporting statement where you should address the About You section of the Job Profile for the role. Other vacancies will ask you to upload a CV.

  • Shortlisting

    In keeping with our commitment to inclusion, recruiting managers take an anonymised approach to recruiting when shortlisting your application form. They will use the supporting information section of your application and your work history to assess your suitability for the job. You'll be notified of the outcome of your application form via email and if successful you'll be invited to book an interview slot.

  • Interviews

    When preparing for the interview, you should familiarise yourself with the job profile. The About You section of the job profile contains the criteria that will be assessed at interview stage. You can prepare for interview by ensuring that you have clear examples relating to how you have met these criteria. If you require any reasonable adjustments because of a disability under the Equality Act, to assist you during the selection process we would be pleased to discuss them with you on recruitment@stockport.gov.uk

  • Offer stage and pre-employment checks

    Offer stage and pre-employment checks If you're offered the job after interviewing, you'll be sent a conditional offer detailing your new role. Along with the conditional contract and offer letter, our team will be in touch regarding your pre-employment checks.

    The pre-employment checks that you will need to undertake will depend on the role that you've applied for. These checks may include:

    • right to work in the UK

    • Disclosure and Barring Service checks.

    The information provided will be dealt with in accordance with the DBS Code of Practice

    • gaps in employment

    • reference checks. We will request references prior to issuing your conditional contract

    • pre-employment health declaration

    • qualification checks