Registered Manager - Ofsted

Registered Manager – Specialist Solo Children’s Home

Location: Nottingham
Salary: £60,000–£65,000 per annum, depending on experience

We are seeking an experienced, resilient and highly capable Registered Manager to lead a new specialist solo children’s home in Nottingham.

This is a unique opportunity to establish and lead a high-quality, therapeutic service supporting one young person at a time. The home will support a young person with highly complex emotional and behavioural needs, requiring consistent, skilled care and potentially staffing ratios of up to 3:1, based on assessed needs and risks.

The successful candidate will bring the leadership, safeguarding expertise and regulatory knowledge needed to create a stable, safe and nurturing home environment from the outset.

The role

As Registered Manager, you will take overall responsibility for the safe, effective and compliant operation of the home. You will lead the mobilisation of the service, build and develop a skilled staff team, and ensure the young person receives individualised, trauma-informed and outcome-focused care.

The young person’s movements, activities and access to the community may be subject to restrictions authorised through a court-approved care arrangement. You will therefore need a clear understanding of how to manage restrictions lawfully, proportionately and in the least restrictive way, while ensuring the young person’s welfare, dignity and rights remain central to decision-making.

Key responsibilities

• Lead the registration, mobilisation and ongoing operation of a specialist solo children’s home.
• Ensure the home meets the requirements of the Children’s Homes Regulations 2015, Quality Standards and Ofsted framework.
• Provide strong, visible leadership to a team delivering care at staffing ratios of up to 3:1.
• Recruit, induct, supervise, develop and retain a skilled and consistent staff team.
• Oversee safeguarding practice, risk assessments, behaviour support, care planning and placement stability.
• Ensure robust, child-centred management of court-approved restrictions and deprivation of liberty arrangements where applicable.
• Promote a therapeutic, trauma-informed and relationship-based approach to care.
• Maintain excellent standards of recording, monitoring, reporting and regulatory compliance.
• Build effective working relationships with social workers, commissioners, clinicians, families and other partner agencies.
• Drive continuous improvement and maintain a culture focused on safety, quality and positive outcomes for children and young people.

About you

This role is suited to an established Registered Manager or highly experienced children’s home leader—not someone seeking their first Registered Manager opportunity.

You will have:

• Substantial experience managing an Ofsted-registered children’s home.
• A proven history of achieving, or contributing to, Good or Outstanding Ofsted outcomes.
• Direct experience supporting children and young people with complex emotional, behavioural and safeguarding needs.
• Strong knowledge of safeguarding, risk management, care planning and placement stability.
• A thorough understanding of the Children’s Homes Regulations, Quality Standards and Ofsted requirements.
• Experience managing highly structured care environments and significant staffing ratios.
• Knowledge and confidence in working with lawful, proportionate and least-restrictive court-authorised restrictions.
• Excellent leadership, communication and partnership-working skills.
• The ability to remain calm, decisive and child-focused in complex or high-risk situations.
• A Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Residential Childcare, or be actively working towards the qualification.
• Ideally, experience opening, registering or mobilising a new children’s residential service.

What’s on offer

• Salary of £60,000–£65,000 per annum, dependent on experience.
• The opportunity to establish and lead a highly specialist, high-impact children’s home.
• A role where quality, safety, consistency and therapeutic care are central.
• The chance to make a meaningful difference to the life and long-term outcomes of a young person with complex needs.

If you are an experienced Registered Manager with the confidence, credibility and specialist knowledge to lead a solo provision, we would love to hear from you.