Lily Residential Services
Head of Quality, Care Standards & Compliance
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Salary package ranging from £76,500 to £86,500 Salary and Package Salary: £70,000 to £80,000 per annum, depending on experience and registration responsibility. The expected starting package is a £70,000 basic salary, with the opportunity for this to increase where the postholder formally holds Responsible Individual responsibility across more homes or takes on wider group oversight.
Role Purpose
The Head of Quality, Care Standards and Compliance will play a key leadership role across the organisation, supporting the continued development of high-quality, consistent, safe and child-centred care across all homes.
The role will provide strategic and operational oversight of care standards, regulatory compliance, safeguarding practice, quality assurance and service improvement. The postholder will work closely with the Responsible Individual, senior leaders, Registered Managers and the wider management team to ensure that each home is operating in line with regulatory expectations, internal standards, the Statement of Purpose, and the needs of the children and young people we care for.
This is a senior leadership role with a strong focus on accountability, improvement, consistency and professional standards. The postholder will be expected to provide both support and challenge to managers, helping to strengthen practice, identify risks early, and ensure clear action is taken where standards need to improve.
Key Responsibilities
Quality Assurance and Compliance
The postholder will lead and develop the organisation’s quality assurance framework, ensuring that systems are in place to monitor the quality, safety and effectiveness of care across all homes.
Responsibilities will include:
- Overseeing internal audits, monitoring visits, compliance checks and quality assurance activity across the group.
- Ensuring each home is operating in line with Ofsted requirements, relevant regulations, statutory guidance, internal policies and the home’s Statement of Purpose.
- Reviewing Regulation 44 and Regulation 45 reports, identifying themes, risks, learning and required actions.
- Ensuring actions from audits, inspections, safeguarding reviews, complaints, incidents and management reviews are clearly recorded, allocated, monitored and completed.
- Supporting homes to remain inspection-ready and able to evidence the quality of care, leadership and outcomes for children.
- Identifying areas of non-compliance or weak practice and working with managers to ensure timely and effective improvement.
Leadership and Management Oversight
The Head of Quality, Care Standards and Compliance will provide oversight, guidance and professional challenge to Registered Managers and the wider management team.
Responsibilities will include:
- Supporting managers to understand and meet expected standards of care, leadership, safeguarding and compliance.
- Providing structured oversight of management practice across the homes, ensuring consistency and accountability.
- Working alongside senior leaders to support the performance, development and effectiveness of Registered Managers.
- Challenging poor practice, drift, delay or lack of ownership where this may impact children, staff, compliance or organisational standards.
- Supporting managers to prepare for inspections, internal reviews, safeguarding meetings and senior leadership reporting.
- Helping to embed a culture of professionalism, reflection, learning and continuous improvement.
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Safeguarding, Risk and Children’s Welfare
The postholder will have a key role in ensuring safeguarding practice is robust, well-led and consistently applied across the organisation.
Responsibilities will include:
- Monitoring safeguarding practice across all homes, ensuring concerns are identified, reported, escalated and managed appropriately.
- Reviewing incidents, missing episodes, restraints, allegations, complaints and significant events to identify patterns, risks and required learning.
- Ensuring risk management plans are clear, current, proportionate and linked to the needs of each child.
- Supporting managers to maintain effective communication with social workers, families, placing authorities and other professionals.
- Ensuring children’s voices, experiences and outcomes are central to quality assurance and service improvement.
- Working with senior leaders to identify safeguarding themes and training needs across the organisation.
Operational Quality and Practice Improvement
This role will have a strong operational focus, working directly with homes and managers to improve standards in practice.
Responsibilities will include:
- Visiting homes regularly to review practice, observe standards, speak with staff and children, and support managers with improvement.
- Reviewing the quality of care planning, daily records, supervision, key work, placement planning and management oversight.
- Supporting homes to improve recording, evidence gathering and decision-making.
- Helping managers turn audit findings, inspection feedback and internal reviews into practical improvement plans.
- Monitoring progress against action plans and ensuring improvements are embedded, not just completed on paper.
- Supporting consistency across the group in relation to routines, expectations, staff accountability, care practice and management systems.
Strategic Development and Organisational Improvement
The postholder will contribute to the wider strategic development of the organisation, particularly in relation to quality, compliance, leadership and future growth.
Responsibilities will include:
- Advising senior leaders on quality, compliance, safeguarding and operational risk across the group.
- Identifying themes, trends and areas for improvement using data from audits, incidents, complaints, inspections, Regulation 44/45 reports and manager reporting.
- Supporting the development of group-wide improvement plans and quality priorities.
- Contributing to the development and review of policies, procedures, systems and quality assurance tools.
- Supporting organisational readiness for growth by ensuring quality systems, management oversight and compliance arrangements are robust.
- Promoting a culture of high expectations, accountability and continuous improvement across the organisation.
Training, Development and Professional Standards
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The role will support the development of managers and staff by identifying gaps in knowledge, confidence, practice and compliance.
Responsibilities will include:
- Identifying training needs through audits, incidents, supervision themes, safeguarding reviews and management oversight.
- Supporting managers to improve staff understanding of policies, procedures, safeguarding expectations and care standards.
- Contributing to management development, reflective learning and practice improvement across the homes.
- Ensuring learning from incidents, complaints, inspections and internal reviews is shared and embedded across the group.
- Promoting professional standards in communication, recording, leadership behaviour and decision-making.
Key Relationships
The postholder will work closely with:
- Responsible Individual
- Directors and senior leaders
- Registered Managers
- Deputy Managers and senior residential staff
- Quality assurance and compliance personnel
- Social workers and placing authorities
- Independent Regulation 44 visitors
- Safeguarding professionals
- External consultants, trainers and inspectors where required
Person Specification
The successful candidate should be an experienced, credible and professional leader with a strong background in children’s residential care, quality assurance, safeguarding, compliance and operational management.
They should be able to balance support and challenge, work confidently with managers, identify risk, raise standards, and help create consistent, high-quality practice across the organisation. The ideal candidate will have:
- Strong knowledge of children’s residential care regulations, Ofsted expectations and safeguarding requirements.
- Experience in a Registered Manager, Responsible Individual, quality assurance, compliance or senior operational role.
- The ability to review practice, identify risk and drive improvement.
- Strong leadership, communication and professional challenge skills.
- Experience of audits, inspections, action planning and service improvement.
- The ability to work strategically while remaining close to operational practice.
- High professional standards and strong credibility with managers, staff and external professionals.
- A child-centred approach and a commitment to improving outcomes for children and young people.
Overall Expectations
The Head of Quality, Care Standards and Compliance will be expected to strengthen quality, accountability and consistency across the organisation. They will help ensure that managers are well supported, standards are clearly understood, risks are identified early, and improvement actions are followed through effectively.
The role is central to ensuring that the organisation continues to provide safe, well-led, child-centred care and is able to evidence strong leadership, effective oversight and continuous improvement across all homes. The above is not an exhaustive list of duties, and you will be expected to perform different tasks as necessitated by your changing role within the organisation and the overall objectives of Lily Residential Services.
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