Team Leader – Look Ahead Care and Support, Tower Hamlets

Team Leader

We’re looking for a kind, organised and resilient Team Leader to join our Mental Health Social Care Services in Tower Hamlets.

£33,130.60 per hour 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.

Please include a personal statement / cover letter.

The Team Leader is fully involved in the day-to-day management of Tabard Court, a specialist mental health supported accommodation service for men with significant offending histories who are progressing towards greater independence in the community. The role combines frontline leadership, staff supervision, customer oversight, forensic risk awareness, housing and operational responsibilities, and direct support when required.
The postholder line-manages relevant frontline staff, supports their competence and development, monitors casework and service standards, and works closely with the Service Manager to ensure safe, consistent and high-quality delivery. They may carry a caseload where required and will deputise for the Service Manager within agreed areas of responsibility.
The Team Leader is expected to know the customer group well, understand individual baseline presentation and current risk-management arrangements, and support staff to recognise small but meaningful changes in behaviour, mental state, routine, engagement or functioning. The role requires a balanced approach to boundaries, trauma-responsive practice, rehabilitation, relational security and positive risk-taking.
Tabard Court works closely with the Forensic Outreach Service (FOS) and wider multidisciplinary team. The Team Leader supports this partnership by ensuring concerns are acted on within the service's remit, information is accurate and timely, and clinical escalation is purposeful and accompanied by clear evidence of what the service has already done.

The working pattern for this role includes; 9 to 5 Monday to Friday, though where safe staffing cannot otherwise be maintained, the Team Leader should provide direct shift cover as reasonably required, including evenings, weekends, bank holidays and other out-of-hours periods, in accordance with contractual and working-time requirements.

This is a Fixed term contract for maternity cover - 9 months

What you’ll do:
1. Team Leadership, Supervision and Day-to-Day Management
• Lead and motivate the frontline team, maintaining a positive, accountable and solution-focused culture within the service.
• Deliver effective supervision, casework-management meetings, team meetings, reflective discussions and day-to-day practice guidance, ensuring information, reporting and communication meet high standards.
• Support the personal and professional development of staff through observation, supervision, feedback, coaching and identification of development needs and high performance, contributing to succession planning as required.
• Monitor staff performance, conduct, attendance and practice standards, addressing concerns promptly and escalating formal matters to the Service Manager in line with organisational procedures.
• Deputise for the Service Manager within agreed areas of responsibility, maintaining continuity of service leadership during periods of absence and escalating matters appropriately.
• Promote consistent practice across the staff team and ensure agreed plans are followed in practice rather than existing only in written records.
2. Rota, Staffing and Direct Service Delivery
• Support the Service Manager to plan and maintain an effective rota that provides safe staffing levels, appropriate skill mix and continuity for customers.
• Take reasonable and timely steps to secure appropriate cover for planned and unplanned staffing gaps, including use of available internal and approved staffing arrangements.
• Where safe staffing cannot otherwise be maintained, provide direct shift cover as reasonably required, including evenings, weekends, bank holidays and other out-of-hours periods, in accordance with contractual and working-time requirements.
• Recognise that the Team Leader role is not exclusively office-based and maintain sufficient presence across the service to understand how practice operates outside standard weekday management hours.
• Provide direct support to customers when operational need, risk, staff absence, incidents or complexity require additional senior involvement.
• Carry a customer caseload where required by the needs of the service and as directed by the Service Manager.
3. Customer Knowledge, Support Planning and Meaningful Activity
• Maintain a strong working knowledge of customers, including baseline presentation, communication style, routines, strengths, vulnerabilities, triggers, early warning signs, protective factors, support needs, legal or forensic conditions and current risk-management arrangements.
• Ensure staff know their allocated customers well and use direct observation, engagement, handover information and records to identify meaningful changes from baseline.
• Participate in and monitor initial and ongoing assessment of customer needs and ensure support planning reflects assessed need, current presentation, strengths, risks, goals and move-on plans.
• Quality assure keywork, support plans, risk-management plans, daily recording and customer outcomes, addressing gaps or generic practice with staff.
• Support customers with clear, respectful boundaries while recognising the impact of trauma, institutionalisation, mental illness and criminal justice involvement on behaviour and engagement.
• Ensure customers are supported to access purposeful, age-appropriate and individualised activities, education, volunteering, employment, physical activity, community participation and social opportunities that contribute to rehabilitation and independence.
• Promote customer involvement in the running of the service and ensure customer views inform support, risk management and service development.
4. Forensic Risk, Relational Security and Positive Risk-Taking
• Support the Service Manager to maintain strong day-to-day oversight of forensic and mental health risk and ensure staff understand how risk formulations translate into practical support and observation.
• Maintain a working understanding of structured professional judgement approaches used by the forensic team, including HCR-20 and START, sufficient to understand relevant formulations, dynamic risk factors, protective factors and management recommendations.
• Ensure staff understand the importance of relational, procedural and physical security and that relational security depends on knowing customers, noticing change, sharing information and responding early.
• Recognise and act on emerging patterns across incidents, medication adherence, self-care, substance use, absences, conflict, sleep, social withdrawal, activity, spending or other changes that may indicate increasing risk or deterioration.
• Support proportionate and defensible positive risk-taking that enables recovery and independence while maintaining clear safeguards and review arrangements.
• Use professional judgement to distinguish between situations requiring formal boundary-setting or escalation and those better addressed through support, curiosity, restorative conversation or increased engagement.
• Contribute operational evidence and observations to risk reviews, CPA/MDT meetings, placement reviews and other professional discussions as required.
5. FOS / MDT Working, Safeguarding and Incident Response
• Maintain effective and reliable relationships with FOS, care coordinators, social supervisors, clinicians, carers, commissioners and other relevant agencies.
• Attend and contribute to MDT, risk, safeguarding, discharge, placement and move-on meetings when required, ensuring Tabard Court provides accurate and relevant operational information.
• Ensure concerns are actively addressed within the competence and remit of the service before or alongside escalation, and that requests to external professionals are clear about what has happened, what action has been taken and what further input is required.
• Ensure safeguarding concerns are identified, responded to, recorded and reported in accordance with safeguarding protocols and escalated to the Service Manager / Head of Operations as appropriate.
• Support immediate and ongoing protective actions following safeguarding concerns, incidents, threats, violence, self-harm, exploitation, substance-related concerns or deterioration in presentation.
• Lead or support post-incident review, debrief and learning, ensuring agreed changes to support or risk-management arrangements are implemented and communicated.
6. Medication and Clinical Coordination
• Support safe and consistent medication practice, ensuring staff follow organisational procedures and customer-specific medication arrangements.
• Monitor the quality and accuracy of Camascope / eMAR use, medication administration records, stock processes, refusals, missed doses, medication errors and escalation of concerns.
• Complete or support medication audits and competency checks where appropriately trained and delegated, and ensure identified actions are followed through.
• Ensure clinically significant medication non-adherence, side effects, changes in mental state or discrepancies are communicated promptly to the Service Manager and relevant clinical professionals.
• Support the organisation and practical running of clinics and other clinical activity within the service, including customer attendance, information preparation and follow-up where delegated.
• Support customers to access physical and mental healthcare and ensure changes in physical or cognitive presentation are recognised and appropriately escalated.
7. Housing Management, Property, Health & Safety and Fire Safety
• Support the Service Manager with the day-to-day housing-management responsibilities of the service, including tenancy or licence conditions, accommodation standards, rent-related issues where relevant, antisocial behaviour, neighbour concerns and tenancy sustainment.
• Ensure concerns regarding cleanliness, property condition, damage, self-neglect or use of accommodation are addressed through appropriate support, clear expectations and escalation where required.
• Monitor repairs, maintenance, contractor access, communal areas, grounds and gardening, and ensure identified actions are followed through rather than left unresolved.
• Ensure Look Ahead health and safety policies, local protocols and fire-safety arrangements are followed at all times and that staff complete required checks accurately and within timescales.
• Support completion and follow-up of health and safety checks, fire checks, property inspections, environmental risk assessments and other premises-related actions.
• Escalate urgent property, security, fire or environmental concerns promptly and take immediate action within delegated authority to maintain safety.
8. Digital Systems, Quality, Performance and Finance
• Ensure competent and consistent use of relevant business IT systems, including Nourish and Camascope, and support staff to maintain accurate, timely and meaningful records.
• Audit, collate and update systems used to monitor customer files, outcomes, support delivery, incidents, actions and service performance.
• Use records and data to identify missed actions, recurring concerns, deterioration in engagement, medication issues, overdue reviews or patterns requiring management attention.
• Ensure Key Performance Indicators required by the contract are understood, met and recorded correctly, escalating risks to performance to the Service Manager.
• Contribute to audits, quality visits, commissioner requirements, action plans and continuous-improvement activity, ensuring agreed actions are completed and embedded.
• Manage petty cash and invoice payments where delegated, in accordance with Look Ahead procedures and financial controls.
• Develop and maintain effective relationships with relevant internal and external parties to support excellent service delivery and contribute to service development opportunities.
9. On-Call, Policies and Other Responsibilities
• Participate in the regional out-of-hours on-call service where required and in accordance with organisational arrangements.
• Adhere to all Look Ahead policies and procedures, service-specific protocols and relevant statutory requirements, and support staff to do the same.
• Carry out other reasonable tasks relevant to the service and role level as directed by the Service Manager, Head of Operations or other appropriate senior manager.

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:
• Approachable, respectful and able to build constructive relationships with customers, staff and professionals while maintaining clear boundaries.
• Calm and resilient, with the ability to think clearly and make proportionate decisions when faced with conflict, threat, uncertainty or competing demands.
• Practical, organised and able to prioritise effectively in a busy 24-hour service.
• Observant and professionally curious, with the ability to notice small changes in customers and understand why they may matter.
• Confident in challenging poor practice and inconsistent boundaries while remaining supportive and fair.
• Comfortable working as part of a multidisciplinary system and equally willing to take ownership of actions that sit within the service.
• Flexible and willing to work across the service rota, including evenings and weekends, and to provide direct shift cover when operationally necessary.
• Positive about rehabilitation, independence and appropriately managed risk rather than defaulting either to excessive restriction or unsafe optimism.
• Motivated towards high standards, continuous improvement and development of self and others.
• Willing to go above and beyond to support residents and stakeholders with a yes-can-do attitude

What you'll bring:
Essential:
 • Educated to degree level or equivalent qualification / relevant experience.
 • Experience of leading, supervising or coordinating staff within mental health, social care, supported housing, criminal justice or another relevant complex-needs service.
 • Experience of supporting people with significant mental health needs and/or histories of offending or criminal justice involvement.
 • Excellent communication skills, including clear written recording and confident professional communication.
 • Ability to supervise casework, maintain standards and provide constructive feedback and challenge.
 • Practical understanding of safeguarding, incident management and risk management in community services.
 • Ability to recognise changes in presentation and contribute to proportionate risk-management responses.
 • Understanding of professional boundaries, trauma-responsive practice, recovery and positive risk-taking.
 • Working knowledge of medication safety and the importance of accurate medication records and escalation.
 • Working knowledge of supported-housing responsibilities, health and safety and fire safety.
 • High level of digital confidence and ability to use electronic care-record and medication systems.
• Ability and willingness to work flexibly across a 24-hour service, including evenings, weekends, bank holidays and direct shift cover where required.

Desirable:
 • Relevant management / leadership qualification such as CMI, NVQ Level 3/4 or equivalent.
 • Experience within forensic mental health, secure care, forensic outreach or a forensic supported-accommodation pathway.
 • Working knowledge of HCR-20, START or other structured professional judgement approaches.
 • Understanding of restricted patients, conditional discharge, Community Treatment Orders, Section 117 aftercare and/or MAPPA.
 • Experience of Nourish and/or Camascope or comparable electronic care and eMAR systems.
 • Medication competency assessor or medication-lead experience.
 • Experience of housing management, tenancy sustainment, antisocial behaviour management or property compliance.
 • Experience contributing to MDT, CPA, risk-review or safeguarding meetings.
 • Other relevant professional membership or specialist qualification.

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.