Service Manager – Look Ahead Care and Support, Slough

Service Manager

We’re looking for a kind, organised and resilient Service Manager to join our Homelessness Social Care Service in Slough.

£42,000.00 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.

Our benefits include:
• Annual leave increasing up to 30 days with length of service
• A generous pension – we will contribute up to 8% and life assurance cover up to 3x Pensionable Salary (T&Cs apply)
• Exclusive discounts and cashback via Reward Gateway® and opportunity to buy a Blue Light Card
• Fully paid induction programme and further training
• ILM courses and Apprenticeship Programmes
• Cycle to work scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme for 24-7 confidential support
• Online wellbeing resources
• Quarterly Staff Awards to reward & recognise our amazing staff’s commitment and contribution
• Free DBS
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.

The Slough service comprises three distinct mental health services: Hope Place, a high-support service; Hope House, a medium-support service; and Doddsfield, a floating-support service. The Service Manager provides operational and strategic oversight across all three services, ensuring safe, person-centred and outcome-focused delivery that meets organisational, contractual and regulatory expectations.
The role directly manages two Team Leaders and provides leadership and oversight to two service teams operating across the three services. The postholder maintains strong performance and financial control, develops effective partnerships, promotes consistent specialist practice and ensures that delivery is appropriately tailored to high-support, medium-support and floating-support models.

The working pattern for this role includes; Mon-Fri 9-5, with flexible working, when required.

What you’ll do:
• Provide clear, accountable leadership across Hope Place, Hope House and Doddsfield, ensuring consistent standards while responding to the different requirements of high-support, medium-support and floating-support provision.
• Directly manage, support and develop two Team Leaders and provide effective leadership to two service teams so that customers receive high-quality, person-centred support.
• Hold overall responsibility for contract performance, financial management, staffing, quality, safeguarding, housing management, health and safety and effective use of business systems.
• Build productive relationships with commissioners, statutory partners, internal departments and community organisations.
• Use performance information, quality findings, customer feedback and operational learning to improve outcomes and address underperformance promptly.
• Contribute mental health and complex-needs expertise across the wider organisation where required.
Key Accountabilities
Contract Leadership and Service Delivery
• Provide visible leadership across the contract, setting clear priorities, standards and expectations for managers and staff.
• Plan, organise and prioritise operations to make effective use of staffing, resources and management capacity.
• Ensure services remain focused on customer outcomes, independence, recovery, inclusion and tenancy sustainment.
• Maintain oversight of operational risk, emerging pressures and service continuity, agreeing corrective action where required.
• Ensure service delivery reflects contractual requirements, local needs, organisational policies and relevant standards.
Customer Outcomes, Involvement and Casework
• Ensure customers are allocated appropriately to support staff and that casework is monitored effectively.
• Lead creative and ambitious customer-involvement plans across the contract and ensure agreed actions are implemented.
• Promote meaningful customer participation in support planning, service development and evaluation.
• Use customer feedback, complaints, compliments and outcome information to shape service improvements.
• Ensure support remains person-centred, strengths-based and responsive to mental health and complex needs.
Staff Leadership and Workforce Management
• Directly manage and develop two Team Leaders and provide leadership to two service teams, including the Therapist, Enhanced Support Workers and Support Workers, maintaining a positive culture across all three services.
• Set clear objectives and provide effective supervision, briefings, team meetings and performance oversight.
• Improve staff competence through induction, coaching, reflective practice, training and development planning.
• Address attendance, conduct, capability, conflict and performance concerns promptly and in line with organisational procedures.
• Report staff changes accurately to HR and Payroll, including starters, leavers, contractual changes and additional hours.
• Ensure communication and reporting flow effectively across teams and into senior management.
Safeguarding, Risk, Health and Safety
• Ensure safeguarding concerns are identified, reported and managed in line with organisational and statutory protocols.
• Maintain management oversight of incidents, risks and agreed actions, ensuring learning is translated into improved practice.
• Ensure health and safety requirements are implemented, reviewed locally and understood by suitably trained staff.
• Monitor premises, fire safety, lone working, infection control, emergency arrangements and business continuity responsibilities.
• Escalate significant concerns appropriately while ensuring actions within the contract’s remit are completed.
Medication Management and Clinical Coordination
• Maintain strong managerial oversight of medication practice across Hope Place and Hope House, ensuring staff comply with organisational medication procedures and each customer’s agreed medication arrangements.
• Ensure accurate oversight of prescribed medication, administration arrangements, self-medication, refusals, missed doses, stock, medication changes, errors and escalation actions.
• Ensure relevant medication systems and records are used accurately, consistently and within required timescales so that information is reliable and auditable.
• Identify patterns of non-adherence, medication-related deterioration or possible side effects and ensure timely escalation to the appropriate health professional, while maintaining clear boundaries around clinical prescribing responsibility.
• Coordinate effectively with GPs, community mental health teams, pharmacies and other health professionals, ensuring relevant information is prepared, shared appropriately and followed up.
• Support customers to access primary care, physical healthcare, secondary mental health services and specialist services, and ensure changes in physical or cognitive presentation are appropriately considered and escalated.
Support Planning, Recovery and Move-On
• Ensure support planning across Hope Place, Hope House and Doddsfield is current, individualised, outcome-focused and informed by each customer’s strengths, needs, risks, priorities and aspirations.
• Maintain managerial oversight of casework allocation across the two service teams and ensure customers are appropriately matched to staff while critical information is also held at management level.
• Ensure support plans, goals, reviews, daily records and risk-management information are completed to a consistently high standard and used meaningfully in day-to-day practice.
• Ensure the level and style of support reflects the different service models: high support at Hope Place, medium support at Hope House and flexible community-based floating support through Doddsfield.
• Promote purposeful opportunities for education, employment, volunteering, physical activity, social connection, community participation and personal development.
• Maintain active oversight of customer progression, independence and move-on readiness, identify barriers early and work with customers, commissioners, housing teams and partner agencies to resolve them.
• Challenge avoidable drift while balancing timely progression with safe, sustainable and person-centred move-on.
Housing Management, Property, Health and Safety
• Hold overall responsibility for housing-management practice across the accommodation-based services and ensure customers understand and are supported to meet the requirements of their tenancy, licence or occupancy agreement.
• Maintain oversight of rent or service-charge matters where applicable, property standards, access, neighbour concerns, antisocial behaviour, damage, cleanliness, inspections and tenancy or licence breaches.
• Use support, reasonable adjustments, relational intervention and multi-agency planning to prevent avoidable placement breakdown, while using formal housing action proportionately where necessary.
• Maintain oversight of repairs, contractor access, utilities, communal areas, security systems, equipment and grounds, ensuring actions are followed through to completion.
• For Hope Place, maintain an effective working relationship with the landlord, provide timely and accurate reports on property, repairs, health and safety and other relevant service matters, and follow up agreed actions through to completion.
• Ensure Look Ahead health and safety policies are implemented across all three services, reviewed locally and understood by staff, with staff competent and appropriately trained.
• Hold operational responsibility for fire safety, emergency procedures, environmental risk, infection prevention and control, lone-working arrangements and business continuity.
• Ensure the distinct health and safety requirements of accommodation-based and floating-support delivery are assessed, recorded and reviewed, including home visits, community working and staff travel.
• Ensure actions arising from fire risk assessments, health and safety audits, property inspections, quality visits and contractor reports are tracked through to completion.
Quality, Performance and Continuous Improvement
• Lead quality visits and audits using organisational indicators, commissioner requirements and relevant local or national standards.
• Set improvement targets, develop recovery or turnaround plans where required and track actions through to completion.
• Produce and submit accurate, timely management and performance reports, including monthly reporting and local KPI information.
• Analyse performance, quality findings, incidents, safeguarding, complaints and customer feedback to identify themes and priorities.
• Drive continuous improvement and share learning and good practice across the organisation.
Finance, Resources and Business Management
• Manage contract budgets and resources using sound financial and accounting principles.
• Deliver corporate and local financial targets and take timely corrective action where performance is off track.
• Monitor expenditure, staffing deployment and resource use to support efficiency and value for money.
• Manage petty cash and other service expenditure in accordance with Look Ahead procedures.
• Use business planning to set relevant objectives and maintain clear performance tracking.
Partnerships, Commissioners and Service Development
• Develop effective relationships with customers, commissioners, health and social care partners, housing partners and other external agencies.
• Represent Hope Place, Hope House and Doddsfield professionally and provide clear information about performance, outcomes, risks and improvement activity across the three services.
• Develop strong internal relationships with Look Ahead departments and functions to coordinate support and share best practice.
• Identify opportunities to strengthen services, local partnerships and future business within the designated patch.
• Contribute mental health and complex-needs specialist knowledge with other managers and senior leaders where appropriate.
Digital Systems, Information and Compliance
• Ensure competent and consistent use of relevant business IT systems across the contract.
• Maintain accurate, timely and auditable records that support service delivery, performance reporting and organisational assurance.
• Ensure staff understand and comply with information governance requirements and organisational frameworks.
• Ensure all relevant Look Ahead policies and procedures are translated into effective local practice.
On-Call and Wider Management Responsibilities
• Participate in the regional out-of-hours on-call service in accordance with organisational arrangements.
• Undertake other management duties commensurate with the role, including temporary responsibility for other contracts within the designated or an alternative patch where reasonably required.

PROFESSIONAL JUDGEMENT EXPECTED IN THE ROLE

The Service Manager will balance customer needs, operational risk, workforce pressures, financial controls and contractual expectations across multiple services. The postholder must gather and weigh information, distinguish urgent concerns from longer-term improvement needs and choose proportionate, defensible action.
Decisions should be evidence-informed, consistent with organisational policy and capable of being explained clearly to customers, staff, partners, commissioners and senior managers.

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:
• Ability to lead and motivate two Team Leaders and two service teams to deliver excellent services across high-support, medium-support and floating-support provision.
• Calm, resilient and able to maintain sound judgement in challenging or fast-changing situations.
• Practical, logical and well organised, with the ability to manage competing operational, staffing and financial priorities.
• Confident, respectful, articulate and sensitive in communication.
• Motivated by excellence, learning and continuous improvement, with a positive and solution-focused approach.
• Able to respond constructively to challenging and diverse behaviour.
• Warm, approachable and committed to meaningful customer involvement.
• Able to work collaboratively while remaining self-motivated, accountable and prepared to challenge appropriately.

What you'll bring:
Essential:
. Educated to degree level or able to demonstrate equivalent relevant experience.
. Experience of managing contracts and resources and delivering to budget and performance targets.
. Experience of delivering to housing-management performance targets.
. Experience of effectively managing and developing staff to achieve service and performance expectations.
. Experience of successfully managing external partnerships and contributing to effective multi-agency working.
. Strong understanding of safeguarding, risk management, health and safety and service-quality responsibilities.
. Sound financial awareness and experience of budget monitoring and resource management.
. High level of IT literacy and ability to maintain accurate performance and management information.
. Excellent written and verbal communication, including concise reports, action plans and performance updates.
. Experience of maintaining managerial oversight of medication practice, including administration systems, non-adherence, errors, self-medication and escalation.
. Experience of overseeing person-centred support planning, outcome monitoring, recovery and move-on across services with different support models.
. Strong knowledge of health and safety, fire safety, lone working and property-management responsibilities within supported housing and community-based services.

About us:

Look Ahead is a leading, not-for-profit care and support provider in London and the South East. Our vision is to build better lives through social care and housing in local communities. As an organisation we deliver over 100 services, providing support to thousands of customers each year. Our mission is to co-design and deliver services that offer innovative social care solutions and support people to thrive. We work across mental health, homelessness and complex needs, young people and care leavers and learning disabilities so there are plenty of opportunities to grow and progress your career with us.
We have a strong social purpose and we live and work by our values:
• We focus on Excellence and innovation.
• We are Caring and Compassionate.
• We are Inclusive and Trusted.
• We work in Partnership and are One-Team.
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.