Knowsley Council is an award-winning Local Authority, named Local Authority of the Year in the Municipal Journal Awards 2024.

We are an Accredited employer under the Liverpool City Region Fair Employment Charter, demonstrating that we are committed to the principle of fair employment and we are dedicated to providing a healthy, fair, inclusive and just workplace.

Our local authority is in a strong financial position, with a balanced budget that ensures stability and growth. This is an excellent opportunity to be part of a Senior Leadership Team committed to making a positive impact in our community.

The Role

Knowsley Council are seeking an experienced Service Manager – CLA & Care Leavers to join our Children’s Services team on a 12 month fixed term basis.

The successful candidate will:

• Provide clear leadership within Children’s Services, specifically within the CLA and Care Leavers service area, ensuring that Knowsley Council meets its aims, core values and objectives
• Be accountable for the operation of the service, ensuring that welfare and safeguarding is paramount and that all statutory responsibilities are undertaken to a high standard.
• Encourage a continuous improvement environment to develop an outstanding service.

The successful candidate will be pivotal to driving forward our Children’s Services Improvement Agenda, working to significantly improve the difference we make to the lives of children and young people who access support from our service and their families.

As a pivotal member of our senior management team, the successful candidate will contribute to a sustainable and enduring turnaround of services; building a service offer for the future for all children and families in Knowsley.

Our Vision

Following our recent Ofsted inspection, our Children’s Social Care (CSC) services are on an improvement journey - one we would love you to join us on.

We have high aspirations for our children and young people and are determined to work together to make the necessary improvements to deliver outstanding services. This is an exciting time to join our service - improving CSC is one of the Council’s main priorities; there’s significant investment in the service, expertise on-hand and a real opportunity for you to make a difference; helping to shape the future delivery of our services for the benefit of our children and young people.  

If you choose to join us, you will be coming to an inclusive, supportive, and friendly team.  With a new, engaging and ambitious leadership team in place, we welcome you to join us at Knowsley and bring your experience and expertise to help us achieve the best possible outcomes for our children and young people.

The Person

As Service Manager – CLA & Care Leavers you will be an experienced and effective leader, with substantial experience of working with Children and Families within Children’s Social Care. You will have an excellent understanding of childcare legislation, statutory guidance and best practice research. You will be solution focused, with experience of driving forward change as well as the ability to use performance management and quality assurance information to support and develop staff.

If you enjoy working with passionate staff who truly care about what they do, a senior leadership team who work together to achieve a shared vision and a corporate team who wrap their support around Children’s Services to achieve positive outcomes - You may be the perfect candidate for this role.

Further Information

At Knowsley Council we will consider requests for flexible working. 

We promote applications from all sections of the community, regardless of background, belief, or identity, recognising the value that diversity brings to our organisation. We particularly welcome applications from individuals from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds and candidates with disabilities as we acknowledge their underrepresentation in our workforce.

See the benefits of working for Knowsley MBC https://www.knowsley.gov.uk/yes.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy earlier than the specified date should we receive sufficient applicants.

At Knowsley we value our applicants and want them to feel well-informed and welcomed. If you have any questions about this specific job role or what it is like to work at Knowsley, please contact:  shank.patel@knowsley.gov.uk

Key Dates

Closing Date – 03 August 2025

Please upload your CV along with a supporting statement as one document in PDF or Word format. Your CV and supporting statement should be tailored to reflect the competencies within the person specification and should be a maximum of 1-2 pages.

Please note if a CV and supporting statement does not reflect the person specification it is unlikely to be shortlisted.