Service Manager (Disabled Children’s Team)

Job description

Contract Terms

Starting salary: PO8 (£63,966 – £67,575)
Contract type: Permanent
Hours per week: 36 per week, Full-time
Closing date: 06th September 2026
Interviews: 17th September 2026

About Haringey

Haringey is a fantastic place to live and work – the world in one borough. A place brimming with creativity, personality, radicalism, and community. It is a place where we stand up for each other. A place that is proudly distinctive. We’ll be celebrating all this and more as the “rebel borough” when we are the 2027 London Borough of Culture.

Our history champions change-makers and everyday rebels; revelling in our differences, battling discrimination, championing equality, and doing things our own way. Haringey’s people are a huge asset, with knowledge, expertise, and passion. Our staff members embody our organisational values: Caring, Creative, Courageous, Collaborative and Community-focused. These values keep us looking forward, ambitious for the future, and continuously striving to do our very best for all of our residents

About the Role

We’re looking for an experienced and passionate Service Manager to lead our Disabled Children’s Team, ensuring some of Haringey’s most vulnerable children and families receive the right support at the right time.

The Disabled Children’s Team provides a specialist service to children and young people with severe and permanent disabilities, as well as children whose mental health and wellbeing are significantly impacted by severe autism. The team delivers a comprehensive social work service from assessment through to long-term intervention, supporting children in need, children requiring protection, and families requiring complex packages of support.

As Service Manager, you will provide strategic and operational leadership to a multidisciplinary service, overseeing Team Managers, Practice Managers, Social Workers and wider support staff. You will ensure high-quality social work practice, effective risk management, strong performance management and regulatory compliance, whilst championing positive outcomes for children and young people. You will work closely with the Head of Service and partners across health, education and social care to deliver a seamless and holistic response to need.

About the Team

The Disabled Children’s Team is a dedicated specialist service that works with children and families facing some of the most complex challenges. The team is made up of highly skilled and committed professionals who are passionate about safeguarding children, promoting independence and helping families access the support they need.

You’ll join a service that values collaboration, reflective supervision, professional curiosity and continuous learning. We are committed to developing our workforce, encouraging innovation and creating an environment where managers and practitioners feel supported to deliver outstanding practice. Working alongside experienced colleagues and partner agencies, you’ll have the opportunity to influence service development and contribute to the continued improvement of outcomes for children and young people across the borough.

About You

You are an experienced and qualified social work leader with a strong track record of managing children’s social care services, particularly within services supporting disabled children and young people with complex needs.  You’ll be a strategic thinker who can lead, motivate and develop staff, creating a culture of high performance, accountability and continuous improvement. You will have substantial experience overseeing complex safeguarding and child protection work, making sound decisions under pressure and effectively managing risk within a multi-agency framework.

To be successful, you will have:
•    A recognised Social Work qualification and registration with Social Work England.
•    Significant post-qualification experience within children’s social care.
•    Experience of leading and managing teams delivering high-risk and high-complexity work.
•    Strong knowledge of safeguarding, child protection and relevant children’s legislation.
•    Experience of performance management, workforce development and quality assurance.
•    A commitment to Signs of Safety and strengths-based practice.
•    Excellent communication, leadership and partnership-working skills.

Working for Haringey

At Haringey Council we are committed to creating a workplace culture where all our people feel valued, included, and able to be their best at work, and we recognise the benefits of a diverse workforce so welcome applications from all ethnicities and communities so that we continue to make a difference to our residents and community.

Our benefits package includes a leave entitlement of 31 days + bank holidays, potential hybrid working opportunities, health and wellbeing support, a generous local government pension scheme and a range of discount schemes across leisure and culture that provide both financial and money-saving discounts.

Please note: we reserve the right to end this advert before the noted deadline if we receive sufficient applications. If you wish to apply for this role, please ensure that you do so as soon as possible.

Additionally, we are aware that automated emails may be diverted through to junk email folders. Please continue to check these through the application process. If you have any questions about the status of your application, please contact ResourcingHub@haringey.gov.uk.