Department: Operations
Responsible to Operations Director / Managing Director (as applicable)
Responsible for Service / Branch Managers
Location: Home based but with regional / national travel
Hours: Hours of work 37.5 across the calendar week. As we provide support 24/7 over 365 days the role will involve some evenings and weekends On call Yes – as required
Main Purpose:
The role of the Operations Manager is to support and enable Branch Managers to deliver ‘excellence’ within their services with a focus on continual quality improvement to support the delivering of excellent care and support and commercial success leading by example. You will have responsibility for monitoring and analysis of home / service performance, good governance, meeting policy and procedural requirements and ensuring all teams in services in your portfolio are performing to a high standard and promoting our ETHOS values in everything they do. The role requires the Operations Manager to ensure the Registered Manager complies with all regulatory requirements alongside any contractual requirements set out by the funding agency for each person we support.
Core Duties
- Effectively manage and provide leadership to the Branch managers within the portfolio to create and maintain a workforce who embrace Voyage Care’s workplace vision, values and ethos, valuing our workforce by ensuring the provision of: effective recruitment strategies; comprehensive induction; required supervision and appraisal; governance standards; competence checks are undertaken and where required, performance manage staff.
- Ensure that an open culture within Branch managers teams, so that that everyone has as an equal voice, concerns and issues are recognised and reported in the spirit of honesty and transparency; that the managers behave in a way that they show respect to everyone within their service, ensuring that people we support have choice and control, their privacy and dignity respected at all times with a strong emphasis on respecting professional boundaries at all levels.
- Attend the registered services, Day services and DCA office a minimum of once per month and visit a minimum of 25% of schemes each 1/4, ensuring that Managers have completed the self-audit, and action plans are in place and are fit for purpose. Seek permission and visit people in their own homes ensuring the portfolio is visited over a 12 month period.
- The Operations manager is also responsible for ensuring that their own audits are conducted and reported as per prevailing company policy.
- Undertake activities that monitor and review the homes / services regularly to ensure that the services being provided are effective. This will include “getting to know” all the people we support, their families/representative and the staff members we employ acting as a positive role model to direct reports and other team members.
- Seek feedback from PwS, families, stakeholders and colleagues ensuring a holistic view of the portfolio is sourced.
- Ensure the feedback tool is utilised, action plans are created and completed.
- Effectively use the quality management systems (Service Risk Score Card, Quality Dashboard, Quality Questionnaire, Audit Portal) and data available to support the review of the quality of support provided, the identification and sharing of themes, to promote learning and support continual quality improvement.
- Provide on call out of hours support to your portfolio and wider region. You will also be expected to perform out of normal working hours ‘spot checks’ of all services throughout the year including day and night hours.
- Ensuring the effective implementation of policy and procedural requirements and dealing with any HR issues as they are identified within your team. You will be responsible for supporting disciplinary processes within the organisation including hearing disciplinary appeals or completing investigations.
- Keep up to date with changes in internal and external requirements, ensuring information is appropriately cascaded to all team members.
- Be a role model for the dissemination of best practice initiatives to all team members /services in your portfolio.
- Ensure that regular team meetings are held with the team of Branch / Service Managers; these meetings must be formally recorded, areas of best practice, continual quality improvement and company communications must be part of the agenda items.
- To attend formal supervision (1:1) and appraisal sessions as agreed with your line Manager and take personal responsibility for meeting Continuous Professional Development (CPD) objectives.
- Build excellent working relationships with group support teams and utilise the skills and services provided by these teams to support your portfolio.
- Ensure you are fully aware of the commercial performance in your whole portfolio. Regularly review viability of services and changes or concerns in any service that may impact the commercial success or reputation of the business and work with the Operations Director / Managing Director to identify and take appropriate action to ensure services are sustainable.
- Ensure that the occupancy or hours delivered in the homes and services within the portfolio are maximised by ensuring relationships with Care Managers and admitting bodies are maintained and that bedrooms are refreshed as soon as they become vacant. Attend Market awareness events, local conferences and provider forums building on knowledge to assist with tender presentations and the delivery of great care and commercial success.
- Ensure the homes / services within the portfolio team are in line with the budget and in relation to the home / service occupancy / hour’s growth. Ensuring that rota management and staff utilisation including managing the approval of agency [where required] is kept in line with budgetary expectations.
- Ensure the growth strategy is delivered through active participation in tenders and the acquisition process.
- Establish and maintain excellent working relationships with key stakeholders i.e. Commissioning Managers, Contract monitoring officers, safeguarding leads with the relevant key customers. Ensure recording systems are kept up to date with relevant contact details and referral information as this will offer future proof intelligence.
- Review and audit all finances within the portfolio in line with company requirements and Policy, Procedures requirements ensuring good practice of money management is embedded within the staff teams and the manager ensures accountability of financial activity within the home.
- Ensure that all records, systems and required documentation are accurately used, recorded, maintained and reviewed in line with policy and procedural requirements.
- Monitor and analyse the complaints, incidents and accidents reported on CMS from the Homes / services on a regular basis highlighting under reporting, trends and potential issues; ensuring that improvement opportunities are identified and progressed, and learnings are identified, shared and lead to a change in day to day practice and that the cases are closed.
- Be the Safeguarding lead and the Mental Capacity Act [MCA] and Deprivation of Liberties Safeguards [DoLS] subject matter expert for the portfolio. This will include the need to keep up to date with training, attending safeguarding meetings, taking the lead on safeguarding queries within the portfolio and being fully aware of all local safeguarding requitements within your portfolio area.
- Ensure that all managers registrations have been made upon commencement of employment apply for Registration to relevant regulatory body and have a confirmed registration within 3 months of employment.
- The Operations Manager is responsible for ensuring that each service is always covered by a Registered Manager, this may include holding the registration yourself if necessary.
- Ensure that Managers and homes/ services are practicing safely in line with laws, regulations, company policy and best practice through monitoring performance mechanisms.
- Ensure that all managers training is up to date and reflects the needs of homes / services.
- Ensure implementation of all infection control policies and liaison with public health bodies as required.
- Maintain Voyage Care at the forefront of quality care provision for people we support, promoting Voyage Cares’ values and standards internally and externally.
- To influence, implement and drive strategic change through participation in working groups, project pilots etc.
- To directly support the Operations Directors and Managing Directors to deliver company strategy.
Additional Duties
The post holder will be expected to:
- Take responsibility for their own health and safety and that of others in the course of their employment.
- Demonstrate that the Company’s Vision and Values are at the center of all you do.
- Comply with all company policy and procedural requirements.
- Undertake training and development deemed necessary for the pursuance of the post.
- Reach a good operating standard of I.T. competence to be able to use Company electronic systems effectively.
- Work positively towards anti discriminatory practice.
- Travel and overnight stays will be required as part of your role in line with business needs.
As a term of your employment, you may be required to undertake other duties appropriate to your post, and/or hours of work, as may reasonably be required of you, at your initial place of work or at any other of the company's locations. This is a description of the job as it is at present. The company may from time-to-time review and update employees' job descriptions to ensure that they continue to relate to the job or to proposed changes to the job. The company aims to reach agreement on reasonable changes, but if this is not possible, the company reserves the right to insist on changes to your job description after consultation with you.
Person Specification
The person specification should identify the essential and, in some cases, the desirable, qualifications, knowledge, skills, experience and other attributes that will be required by the post-holder to perform the duties of the role.
Qualifications
Essential/Desirable
- Recognised Professional Qualification in Social/Health Care Level? Or equivalent?
- GCSE ‘C’ or above in English and Maths
- Nursing Qualification if overseeing Nursing services
- Management Qualification
Knowledge & Experience
Essential/Desirable
- Experience of managing teams and an understanding of open cultures
- Excellent understand of regulatory requirements that covers the health and social care sector
- Experience of working in the health or social care sector, preferably with experience with the filed which applies to their portfolio e.g. Learning Disability, Brain Injury, Mental Health
- Models of care within social care settings
- Proven track record of achieving and maintaining compliance with regulatory standards
- Experience of managing teams within the Learning disability or social care sectors
- Knowledge of good practice within the provision of support to people with a LD/BI/MHE
Skills/Abilities
- Essential/Desirable
- Commercial acumen
- Analytical skills
- Excellent written and communication skills
- Good problem-solving abilities
- Good IT skills [Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Web-based apps]
- Full UK driving licence [The post requires extensive travel with the area covered along with travel to Group Support in Lichfield]
- Self-starting / pro-active attitude
- Ethical, honest and driven by ‘doing the right thing’
- Fit and able to undertake the role
