Deputy Registered Manager

Organisation	Maar Haven Ltd
Location	Corby, Northamptonshire
Reporting to	Registered Manager
Direct reports	Residential Support Workers (practice supervision)
Salary	£30,000 – £34,000 per annum
Contract	Full-time, permanent
Working pattern	Mixed shift pattern including days, evenings, and planned weekend cover. No sleeping nights for EBD provision.

Key Responsibilities

Operational Leadership

• Assume full responsibility for the home’s quality, safety, and staffing during periods when the RM is absent, making all necessary operational and safeguarding decisions with authority and without unnecessary delay
• Lead daily staff handovers, ensuring information is communicated clearly, risks are escalated appropriately, and each shift begins with a shared therapeutic focus
• Manage agency and bank worker deployment, ensuring agency workers are never allocated to key worker roles and are therapeutically inducted before their first shift
• Complete end-of-shift quality checks: records, incident documentation, medication administration records, and home environment standards

Safeguarding in the RM’s Absence

• Act as Designated Safeguarding Lead in the RM’s absence, making MASH referrals, initiating LADO processes, and escalating to the RI where required, all within the timescales required by regulation
• Understand that the DSL function does not go on leave when the RM does: safeguarding accountability is continuous, not contingent on who is in the building
• Ensure all safeguarding concerns are documented accurately and contemporaneously during the shift in which they arise
• Monitor the home’s safeguarding log and alert the RM to emerging patterns, repeating themes, concerns across multiple children, or staff practice concerns, without waiting for a formal review

Staff Wellbeing on Shift

• Hold active attention to staff wellbeing on every shift they lead, noticing when a colleague is struggling and creating space for that to be named, not managed away
• Debrief difficult shifts with the team using the PACE framework as the reflective lens, separating the child’s experience from staff performance, and supporting staff to process what they have held
• Escalate staff wellbeing concerns to the RM promptly: a team member who is experiencing secondary trauma is a safeguarding concern, not just a welfare one
• Model appropriate self-care and self-awareness: the Deputy who never shows difficulty is not resilient. They are unavailable.

Therapeutic Practice and Key Working

• Hold a key worker role for 1–2 children, maintaining the depth of relational understanding that the role demands
• Provide day-to-day practice coaching to RSWs, debriefing difficult interactions using the PACE framework and supporting staff to understand behaviour as communication
• Contribute to care plan reviews and risk assessments with observations grounded in direct, sustained knowledge of the child
• In working with families: support RSWs to navigate family contact with the same therapeutic intentionality as direct work with children, holding the complexity where families are part of the presenting risk

Staff Development and Supervision

• Provide formal supervision to RSWs, monthly one-to-one and reflective group supervision, under the RM’s oversight
• Identify development needs and act as an internal coach for junior staff, modelling the standard of practice expected and naming it when it falls short
• Maintain your own development plan toward Level 5 qualification and RM registration, taking your development as seriously as you expect others to take theirs

Leadership & Accountability

The Deputy is accountable for the standard of practice on every shift they lead. Records completed during your shift reflect your professional judgement. Decisions made during your shift are yours to own and to explain.

Formal success measures: no adverse quality findings attributed to Deputy-led shifts in RI monitoring reports; supervision records for all RSWs completed monthly; PACE coaching embedded in at least one team meeting per month; key worker session records completed within 24 hours; active progress toward Level 5 and RM-readiness milestones; and staff wellbeing concerns escalated promptly rather than absorbed silently.

Person Specification

Qualifications, Essential

• Level 3 Diploma in Residential Childcare or equivalent, essential
• Working towards Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Residential Childcare, expected within 12 months of appointment (funded by Maar Haven)
• Current enhanced DBS with children’s barred list check
• Safeguarding training to Level 3, refreshed within 2 years, essential; this is a DSL-competent role

Experience, Essential

• Minimum 2 years’ experience in a children’s residential setting with demonstrable progression in responsibility
• Experience in a senior RSW or team leader role
• Experience of managing safeguarding concerns as a senior practitioner, MASH referrals, incident escalation, DSL function in an RM’s absence
• Experience of leading shifts and managing a team in a regulated care environment

Values and Mindset

• Genuinely curious about behaviour: asks ‘what is this child communicating?’ before asking ‘what should we do about this behaviour?’
• Comfortable holding staff to account respectfully and directly, including around safeguarding, does not avoid difficult conversations
• Actively interested in staff wellbeing, not just children’s: understands that the two are connected and that a depleted team is a compromised one
• Understands that Integrity means standards on every shift, not just the ones with an audience

What Makes This Role Different

At Maar Haven, the Deputy is a genuine second-in-command: consulted by the RM, challenged by the RI, and expected to lead with their own authority. You will be supported by monthly clinical supervision, a Therapeutic Consultant accessible for practice support, and a Registered Manager who is investing in your development toward their own role.

Crucially: this role takes staff wellbeing as seriously as child wellbeing. You are not expected to absorb everything the home throws at you. You are expected to notice when you and your team are struggling, and to do something about it.

Culture & Expectations

The Deputy at Maar Haven is expected to be a practitioner of high standard and a leader of genuine authority. We expect professionalism in documentation, punctuality, communication, and practice. We expect development. We fund that growth. We expect you to take it seriously, and to take care of yourself and your team seriously as well.