Job Title: Head of Care

Contract: Permanent, Full Time

Location: Thatcham, Berkshire (RG18)- Due to rural location you must be a driver.

Salary: £65,000.00 per annum plus excellent benefits

Hours: Monday to Friday (Flexibility is essential and the ideal candidate will be expected to be on call)

About Prior's Court

Prior's Court was set up by Founding Patron Dame Stephanie Shirley, whose vision of a centre of excellence for children with autism became reality with the opening of Prior's Court School in 1999. We have since grown to support around 90 young people with autism aged between 5-25 years

Since opening, their support team has grown from around 20 to 500 and we have built a reputation as a leading edge educational, vocational, and residential facility for young people with complex autism. We are situated on 50 acres of parkland with various facilities including accommodation for our young people, a school with a wide range of specialist facilities, and staff offices.

About the job

As Head of Care, you will be the registered manager for the Children’s Home within their dually registered residential special school. The Head of Care will oversee all care managers and a team of home managers, As Head of Care you will also be required to be hands-on in your leadership style whilst being responsible for ensuring the following:

• Ensure the Children’s Home maintains good and outstanding Ofsted gradings, through delivery of the quality standards.  
• Ensure the Young Adult Provision maintains good and outstanding CQC gradings, through delivery of the fundamental standards of care

• Meet all key performance indicators as set by the Executive team.

At Prior’s Court, they pride themselves on their person-centred values and as Head of Care you will actively apply the organisation’s mission statement and values, being an ambassador for their values.

You will also be part of the operational team, work collaboratively with all partners to ensure the highest level of outcomes for young people is achieved and you will ensure the overall well-being and progress of the young people through the delivery of the Learning Framework, which prepares young people to access the work of work and live healthy, happy, independent lives after leaving Prior’s Court.

About You: The ideal candidate must have:

• Experience of providing care and learning for a broad range of young people
• Diploma Level 5 or NVQ Level 4 in Health and Social Care
• Experience of managing a diverse staff team
• Trained with experience in safeguarding vulnerable children and adults
• Understanding of SEN
• Ability to use own initiative and work autonomously
• Excellent organisational, planning, time management and prioritising skills
• Good analytical skills. Able to gather and process data to inform practice
• Good communication skills (written and oral)
• Effective decision making
• Commitment and enthusiasm
• Inspiring, leadership qualities
• Ability to hold others to account
• Ability to collaborate
• Negotiation and conflict resolution skills

Why work with us:

• 25 days holiday
• Pension (Employer contribution 5%, Employee contribution 3%
• Life assurance (2x basic salary)
• Health cash plan
• Employee Assistance programme
• Discounts and savings via the Sodexo benefits platform
• Eye tests
• Flu Vaccinations – free flu vaccinations arranged on site once a year
• Discounted gym memberships
• Cycle2work scheme
• Healthy you – this initiative supports staff and our young people, examples are – running club, on site fitness classes, HIT training sessions, craft sessions etc
• Financial wellbeing – we provide regular financial wellbeing seminars and workshops during the year
• Recognition Scheme

Prior’s Court aims to make all staff feel valued and supported with training and a competitive salary along with providing the knowledge and skills needed to do a great job