Deputy Manager

We're looking for a kind, compassionate, and resilient Deputy Manager to join our Young People Service in Ealing.

£34,000.00 per annum, working 40 hours per week.

Want to feel like you have an exciting future? You'll feel at home here.

Making you feel at home here means helping you thrive in every way. That's why we offer a wide range of benefits, award-winning Learning & Development and a culture that welcomes all. These aren't token gestures - we've thought long and hard about how best to support our team. After all, our people are doing something amazing: helping to transform lives every day.

al health rehabilitation units for young people aged 18-25 who may have experienced a mental health-related hospital admission. The aim is to support young people to gain and develop the necessary skills for independent living and to manage transitions from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services to Adult Mental Health Services.

Together, these services support up to 12 young people at any one time, offering a welcoming, supportive environment on a spot-purchase basis.

The successful candidate will deputise for the Service Manager when required. This includes direct line management, leadership, coaching, and supporting Specialist Support Workers, Support Workers, and Waking Night Support Workers. Responsibilities also involve ensuring compliance with current legislation, contractual requirements, financial regulations, and Look Ahead's Policies and Procedures.

The role of Deputy Manager will involve five 8-hour shifts, Monday to Friday.

All applicants must be legally eligible to work in the UK by the start of employment as Look Ahead are not able to offer sponsorship.

What you'll do:

Support the Service Manager in driving operational activities within your service area, ensuring clear, relevant, and challenging objectives and ongoing performance tracking.
Successfully lead and motivate your team, championing and maintaining a positive local culture within the service.
Build supportive, trusting relationships with young people and create a welcoming and positive atmosphere.
Prioritise the prompt filling of voids and the reduction of arrears and bad debts.
Continuously work to improve staff competence, ensuring proactive ownership of staffing matters, swift resolution of conflicts, and effective management of issues.
Facilitate transparent and effective communication flows between management and frontline teams.
Lead on casework management, ensuring that risk assessments and support plans are regularly updated and dynamic.
Promote partnership working to maximise opportunities and positive outcomes for customers.
Monitor and maintain creative and ambitious plans for customer involvement.
Support the Service Manager to prepare for quality visits, using Look Ahead's local indicators to monitor performance, set targets, and implement action plans to maintain high-quality services aligned with local and national standards, and funder requirements.
Assist the Service Manager in producing and submitting monthly management reports to the Performance team, ensuring data on local KPIs is accurate and current.
Develop and maintain strong internal management relationships with other departments and functions within Look Ahead, ensuring best practice sharing and supporting initiatives for organisational improvement.

This is not an exhaustive list of all the duties and responsibilities that may be required from time to time and is subject to change in accordance with the needs of Look Ahead

About you:

Enjoys social interaction and engaging with others; actively participates in local activities to promote customer involvement and inclusion.
Able to lead and motivate staff transparently and consistently.
Exhibits warmth, friendliness, and an open approach.
Prefers working collaboratively within a team.
Calm and resilient under pressure; does not allow emotions to negatively impact judgement.
Practical, logical, and naturally well-organised.
Thrives in environments characterised by change, diversity, and dynamic challenges.
Confident with high levels of self-esteem.
Respectful, articulate, and sensitive in communication style.
Motivated towards excellence, continuous improvement, and demonstrates a proactive, 'can-do' attitude.
Capable of positively managing challenging and diverse behaviours.
Able to advocate effectively for young people across professional and community settings.
Confident using IT systems such as SharePoint and the Microsoft Office suite.

Look Ahead is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and adults at risk, and expects all employees, workers and volunteers to share this commitment.

If your application for this role is unsuccessful, but we feel that you would be suitable for another role, we may contact you to discuss alternative opportunities. If this occurs you would not need to submit another application for the alternative role.

We reserve the right to close this advert early if we are able to appoint to the vacancy before the advertised closed date.

We are committed to diversity and inclusion at work and are accredited with Silver in the Inclusive Employers Standard 2021. We are a proud member of the Employers Domestic Abuse Covenant and encourage applications from a diverse range of applicants of all backgrounds.