Service Manager - Assessment Service

Ready to lead and shape practice at the front door of children's services?

We're looking for an experienced, strategic and passionate Service Manager to lead our Assessment Service at Dudley Children's Services. This is a pivotal leadership role where you will oversee multiple teams at the front door, ensuring consistency, quality of practice, and strong decision making for children and families at the earliest point of contact. You will play a key role in setting the direction of the service, driving improvement, and ensuring children receive the right help at the right time.

Reporting to the Principal Service Lead, you will work as part of a strong leadership team to support delivery, manage demand and embed high quality, child centred practice across all assessment teams.

If you are a confident leader who thrives in a fast paced environment and is committed to making a meaningful difference-this could be the role for you.

As Service Manager, you will:

• Provide leadership and oversight to Team Managers across the Assessment Service
• Work closely with the Service Managers and Principal Service Leads in Family Help to manage demand across areas
• Drive consistency of practice, performance, and decision making across all teams
• Ensure the delivery of timely, high quality assessments that are analytical and outcome focused
• Maintain oversight of risk, thresholds and safeguarding decisions at the front door
• Lead on service development and continuous improvement, embedding best practice across teams
• Manage service demand and performance, ensuring resources are used effectively
• Support and develop Team Managers to deliver strong leadership and high standards of practice
• Work closely with partners to ensure a coordinated, multi agency approach
• Contribute to strategic planning and service direction alongside the Principal Service Lead

About you

You're someone who:

• Is a qualified and highly experienced social worker, with substantial leadership experience in management in children's services
• Has a strong understanding of front door services, thresholds, and assessment practice
• Brings experience of leading managers and driving service wide improvements
• Is confident making complex decisions in high pressure environments
• Has a track record of improving performance, quality and outcomes for children
• Is a strong communicator, able to influence, challenge and support at all levels
• Is committed to delivering consistent, high quality, child centred practice across services

Why join Dudley?

At Dudley Children's Services, we are committed to innovation, continuous improvement, and putting children first. In this role, you'll have the opportunity to:

• Lead a critical front line service, shaping practice at the earliest stage of a child's journey
• Drive consistency and excellence across multiple teams
• Work as part of a supportive and ambitious senior leadership team
• Influence service wide improvement and strategic direction
• Benefit from hybrid working, with an expectation of 3 in person office based days per week

This is your opportunity to lead at scale-shaping how Dudley responds to children and families at first contact, driving consistent, high quality practice, and ensuring the right decisions are made at the right time.

If you're ready to lead with impact, influence practice at scale, and drive meaningful change-we'd love to hear from you.

If you're interested in discussing the role informally, please contact one of the Principal Service Leads, Karen Johnson () or Donessa Gray ().

Application and diversity

We are committed to diversity and inclusion. Your personal data will be anonymised when you apply; please ensure you have removed your name and date of birth from any attachments before uploading your application. All applicants must provide documentation proving their right to work in the UK. Dudley MBC does not currently offer sponsorship for candidates without the right to work in the UK.

Our privacy and disclaimer statements can be accessed on the Dudley website.

Attached documents

• Service Manager G14 JDPS.pdf
• Employee Benefits List.pdf

Other information

We reserve the right to close this vacancy prior to the advertised date should we receive a large number of applications.