Overview

Service Manager (0-25 Disabilities Service)

Salary: PO9: £73,266 pa rising in annual increments to £78,090 pa LW

Contract: Permanent / Full Time / Hybrid

Hybrid Working: 2-3 days a week in office

About Lambeth Children Services

Lambeth is a borough of huge diversity, strength, and possibility. Lambeth is home to approximately 63,000 children aged 0-18, representing nearly 20% of our borough’s population. Our Lambeth partnerships have the highest ambitions for our children and want them to grow up to be happy, safe, and thriving in supportive communities. We have a rich network of good and outstanding schools, a passionate voluntary community sector and an exciting youth and play offer. Children growing up in Lambeth are surrounded by beautiful green spaces and a borough with a rich history, arts, and music scene.

“Lambeth – a borough with social and climate justice at its heart…we will proactively tackle inequalities so that children and young people can have the best start in life and so everyone can feel safe and thrive in a place of opportunity” Lambeth Borough Plan 2023. In Lambeth we put people engaging with our services at the heart of practice, and practice at the heart of all that we do.

Our new Borough Plan has social justice at the centre and a clear vision for improving outcomes for our residents. We launched our 0-25 Disability Service in July 2024 bringing together services supporting children and young people and adult services to deliver better outcomes and promote independence for children, young people, and their families as they prepare and transition to adulthood. Now is the perfect time to join the service as within this role you will have the opportunity to be part of the growth and development, in shaping and influencing the service by promoting excellence, setting high standards and motivating others to do the same.

About the role

As a Service Manager in the 0-25 Disabilities Service, you will provide both operational and strategic leadership. You will be at the forefront of our service ensuring;

• the delivery of a high-quality responsive support,
• a high level of performance to provide a quality service for all our children and young people with complex and severe disabilities,
• and a seamless transitioning and preparation to adulthood.

The primary focus of this role will be the delivery of statutory functions aimed at providing an effective Children’s social care service. You will play a pivotal role in connecting with multi-agency teams to deliver holistic services. You will oversee service performance, safeguarding practice, quality assurance and budget management.

You will be responsible for managing four Team Managers, which includes the Transition Team Manager.

About you

You will need to be an experienced Service Manager with significant leadership in children’s social care and SEND and understand the complexities of delivering services across 0-25 age range. The role requires you to lead with passion and motivate staff to demonstrate best practice. You must have the ability to manage risk and use of multidisciplinary working with partner agencies being essential. You will be an expert in supporting social workers to be the agents of change and to empower and enable them to spend their time doing good quality, meaningful social work, coproduced and tailored around the needs and issues of each family they work with.

You will need exceptional interpersonal skills, strong data analysis skills to be able to identify issues and address them within the service and be able to successfully develop working relationships with partners to achieve effective and excellent multi-agency working.

You will need to provide leadership for a designated service portfolio and will work to ensure the service is effective and of the highest quality. A proved track record of improving outcomes for vulnerable children and young people is required.

As a Service Manager you will manage all aspects of the service’s work, and hold responsibility for the quality of this work, ensuring performance indicators are met and taking budgetary responsibility. You are expected to demonstrate and role model responses and decisions in the best interests of children, young people, and families by using ‘role generosity’ when considering service / team / practitioner remits.

Why Lambeth

• Fantastic, modern working environment in the award-winning Lambeth Town Hall and Civic Centre buildings
• Competitive Salaries
• Up to 35 days annual leave, dependent upon continuous service
• 5 Minutes from London Underground and excellent transport links into the centre of London
• Hybrid/Flexible working
• Cycle to Work Scheme (including City Bike Hire scheme)
• Attractive Local Government Pension Scheme

We are a Stonewall diversity champion; a Living Wage Employer and we guarantee to interview all disabled candidates who meet the minimum criteria of the role. Please note: a full list of our accreditations is available on our website.

If you have any queries in relation to this job vacancy, please contact the Assistant Director: Maura Banda, mbanda@lambeth.gov.uk

How to apply

Interested?

Click on the apply button and complete an on-line application, along with uploading your Supporting Statement and CV, explicitly evidencing how you meet the shortlist criteria marked with an ‘A’ on the job specification.

For detailed qualifications and requirements, please review the job description and person specification in the hyperlink below: Job Description and Person Specification

You must upload a Supporting Statement and CV for your application to be considered. Please note we operate an anonymised application process. If you are uploading your CV or a personal statement, please remove your personal details.

Successful candidates will be asked to apply for an Enhanced Certificate from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). Further information about the DBS can be found at

www.homeoffice.gov.uk/agencies-public-bodies/dbs

In addition, you will also be required to undertake a Cifas check from the Fraud Prevention organisation. Further information can be found at https://www.cifas.org.uk/

Closing Date: 21st September 2025 at midnight

Lambeth aims for quality services and equal opportunities for all and is committed to safer recruitment