Service Manager - Northeast London

We are recruiting for a Service Manager - Northeast London

We are Forward, the social enterprise that empowers people to break the cycle of crime and addiction to move forward and live fulfilling lives .   

We deliver a range of MOJ Commissioned Rehabilitative services (CRS) directly for Probation in three key areas: Accommodation, Personal Wellbeing and Dependency & Recovery. Accommodation is delivered in Wales, Dependency and Recovery in London and Humberside, Personal Wellbeing in East of England, Sussex, Surrey and as a subcontractor in Kent and Cheshire.

These services work with Men 18+ who are under probation supervision, supporting them to navigate through their desired outcomes in order to achieve transformational change, break the cycle of offending and achieve long-term integration into society.       

Our services have supported thousands of people to make positive changes and build productive lives with a job, family, friends, and a sense of community. No matter what your past, we believe anyone is capable of lasting change.

Role Responsibilities

The Dependency and Recovery (D&R) Service Manager role integrates a joint strategic and operational approach to service and partnership management within our D&R Service, supporting adult males involved in the Criminal Justice system who have substance misuse issues.

The service is designed to improve engagement into treatment services and ‘bridge the gap’ between probation and substance misuse services in the community by offering practical assistance and ongoing support through a range of timebound, enforceable and motivational interventions.

Our services success is dependent on appropriate staff recruitment, development, retention and practice. You are responsible for ensuring that you and the Team Leaders who report to you are highly people focused, providing a vision of success, coaching and all practical supports that enable your team to thrive.

Overseeing the D&R Service in your designated London boroughs, you will ensure service delivery is compliant with our HMPPS contracts and performance targets. You will also contribute to wider CRS, and Forward Trust objectives, projects and aspirations. You will proactively develop D&R services and contribute to our wider learning and development of all CRS.

You will be responsible for line managing primarily two Team Leaders and Volunteer Framework across the Dependency and Recovery contract in North London, ensuring the effective running and development of these key areas.

You will manage and support teams who will be delivering a range of interventions within the D&R framework, within a hybrid model within the probation offices you are responsible for.

You are responsible for the development, maintenance and creation of key strategic and operational partner relationships and act as the single point of contact for all partnership engagement. This is key to enhancing referral pathways and develop joint working agreements to improve outcomes for our service users. These partnerships include and are not limited to: Probation Delivery Units, Senior Probation Officers, Probation Practitioners, named Prisons in your region, community projects / locations in your region, Subcontractors, Forward Connect, Forward Recovery services, Substance Misuse treatment and support services form all sectors in your region.

Your team will be delivering services in the boroughs assigned to you, they will provide a majority of in person support. Just like you, they will build and maintain positive working relationships with their probation practitioner colleagues and all stakeholders involved in their Service User’s care. You will provide visible leadership, travelling across the cluster of services you are responsible for, attending essential meetings and ensuring smooth project delivery so contractual targets and obligations are met, safely and the service is delivered to a high standard.

CRS Dependency and Recovery are in person services. You will regularly work from a PDU, Prison, community space or Forward Trust premises with your team. You may work from home where this meets a clear business need but should expect to spend at least three days a week meeting staff, partners, attending key mtgs and visiting probation/prison delivery units in your area.

You will be responsible for contributing to the targets set by Forward and the local commissioners. One of the key targets will be access into service and measuring outcomes, so co-operative working relationships with other partner agencies is vital to this role.

From a strategic perspective, you will work in conjunction with senior management and contribute to improvement plans, produce performance reports for commissioners and attend contract meetings. You will also be responsible for ensuring data accurately reflects output and is submitted within set deadlines which includes ensuring services are audit compliant.

The specific regions for which you have responsibility may be subject to change, depending on the needs and changes within the organisation at any given time.

All probation-based roles will require enhanced DBS and HMPPS security vetting. Please note this process can take up to 3-6 weeks. All offers are subject to receiving both HMPPS vetting and DBS clearances.

Checks will require you to provide information on the below:

• Yourself (personal information, financial information, police information, criminal history)
• Your family (parents, parents’ partners, siblings, partner(s), children)
• Co-residents
• Associations that may cause a conflict of interest with your role or the prison service.
• Background checks across police information systems on you, your family and other associates
• Credit reference checks
• Social media and Open-Source checks (these are checks on content about you that's publicly available on the internet to ensure there's nothing linked to you that could undermine public trust and confidence in the prison service)
• Other government and overseas agency or police checks

The Ideal Candidate

Please see below a list of skills and experience needed for this role.

• A thorough understanding and relevant experience of providing substance mis-use services in prison or community
• Demonstrable knowledge of Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC), National Probation Service (NPS) and Criminal Justice services in custodial or community settings.
• Understanding of Psychosocial interventions and community provision.
• Previous experience of developing and implementing service improvements.
• Demonstrable in the successful and effective management of people and performance, with evidence-based, tangible outcomes.
• Demonstrable ability to effectively lead and motivate teams, including through change processes.
• Experience of supervising and supporting staff to enhance their skills and enable them to work effectively.
• Experience of contract management, recruitment experience and data management
• Understanding of and sensitivity to equality, diversity and inclusion.
• Working knowledge of using Microsoft office packages.
• Experience and knowledge of database monitoring systems, including overseeing the collection, recording and collating of information, including statistical data, for audit, research and reporting purposes.
• Excellent organisational, time management and planning skills.
• Flexibility to meet the needs of the service as it develops.
• Ability to represent The Forward Trust in a positive and professional manner.
• A positive problem solving approach with the ability to focus on key issues quickly and clearly.
• Professional and collaborative, with effective negotiating and influencing skills.
• Relationship marketing, partnership building for service integration communication / information sharing, presentation skills.