Registered Children’s Home Manager
We are looking for a values-based and experienced Registered Manager to run our residential home for children aged 6-11.
Salary: £48,031 – £52,282 (depending on qualification and experience)
Post: Permanent. Full Time. 37 hours a week for full-time.
Location: Steps for Tomorrow – Blossom Keep – Keighley
Closing Date: Friday 4 September 2026
Interview Date: TBC with shortlisted candidates
Lead an exceptional home. Shape an extraordinary future.
Some Registered Manager roles are about turning services around. This one isn’t.
You will be joining a small, established children’s home with a committed team, strong foundations and a culture centred around one thing giving children the stability, relationships and opportunities they need to flourish.
We are incredibly proud of what has already been created at our Keighley home.
Now we are looking for an exceptional Registered Manager who can protect what makes the home special, bring their own leadership and ambition, and lead it confidently into its next chapter.
At Catholic Care, we believe that children move through life, not services.
That belief sits at the heart of Steps for Tomorrow, our approach to children’s residential care.
Our homes are intentionally small because we want children to experience something that feels like a home.
A place where they are known. Where relationships matter. Where adults are consistent. Where difficult days don’t define them.
And where everyone around them remains ambitious for their future.
Overview of Role
This is a brand-new role for someone to make their own! The home is a new addition to our range of services. You will manage the two bedded home working with children in a therapeutic manner, recognising the difficulties that children can experience when considering the impact of early life trauma, adverse childhood experiences and disrupted attachments. You and your team will help them to learn to thrive in their day to day lives. The successful applicant will support and manage a team of senior residential childcare workers and residential childcare workers, whilst acting as a corporate parent to the children we care for.
The Opportunity
As Registered Manager, you will take leadership of our established home in Keighley and its dedicated staff team.
You won’t be expected to come in and change things simply to make your mark.
Instead, we want someone curious enough to understand what already works, confident enough to challenge where things could be even better and emotionally intelligent enough to bring people with them.
You will have the autonomy to lead, alongside the support and challenge of an organisation that is deeply committed to children’s residential care.
This is about far more than managing rotas, audits and regulations.
Of course, those things matter.
You will understand the Children’s Homes Regulations and Quality Standards. You will be confident in safeguarding, quality assurance and regulatory oversight, and you will understand what excellent Ofsted practice looks and feels like.
But compliance is the foundation it isn’t the ambition.
We want a Registered Manager who asks:
What difference are we actually making to this child’s life?
The leader we’re looking for
We are looking for someone who leads with both their head and their heart.
Someone who can create strong relationships while maintaining high expectations.
Someone who is visible, thoughtful and calm.
Someone who develops people rather than simply manages them.
And someone who understands that the culture of a children’s home is created in the small things that happen every day.
You will:
- lead and develop a confident, compassionate and accountable team;
- maintain a warm, nurturing and aspirational home;
- ensure children feel safe, heard, valued and genuinely cared about;
- champion trauma-informed and relationship-based practice;
- maintain excellent safeguarding and regulatory standards;
- use quality assurance as a tool for learning and improvement, not simply compliance;
- build trusted relationships with families, social workers, schools and other professionals;
- develop your Deputy and wider team, creating future leaders;
- celebrate success while having courageous conversations when standards fall short; and
- work alongside our senior leadership team to contribute to the continued development of Steps for Tomorrow
What success will look like
Success won’t simply be an Ofsted judgement. We want you to be able to look at the home and know that:
Children feel that they belong.
They have adults around them whom they trust. Their experiences, achievements and progress are understood and celebrated.
Staff feel proud of the home they work in and understand the difference they make. Families and professionals have confidence in us. Practice is reflective, curious and continually improving.
And the home never becomes satisfied with simply being good enough.
About you
You may already be an experienced Registered Manager looking for an organisation where you can have greater influence.
You may be a strong Deputy Manager who is ready to take the next step.
What matters is that you have the knowledge, judgement and leadership potential to take responsibility for an excellent children’s home and the humility to recognise that exceptional leadership is always still learning.
You will need:
- significant experience within children’s residential care;
- experience of leadership or management within a children’s home;
- a strong understanding of the Children’s Homes Regulations 2015, Quality Standards and Ofsted expectations;
- excellent safeguarding knowledge;
- an understanding of trauma informed and relationship based practice;
- the ability to inspire, develop and hold teams accountable;
- confidence in making difficult decisions and exercising professional judgement;
- strong communication and partnership-working skills; and
- a Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Residential Childcare, or a commitment to achieving the required qualification within regulatory timescales.
Most importantly, you will share our belief that children who have experienced adversity should never have their futures defined by it.
Why Catholic Care?
Catholic Care has supported children, adults and families across Yorkshire for more than 160 years.
Our Tomorrow Strategy is built around a simple principle: People move through life, not services.
Steps for Tomorrow is an important part of that future.
You will work alongside an experienced leadership team who will give you autonomy to lead your home while providing support, challenge and opportunities for your own development.
We want our Registered Managers to think, question, innovate and grow. Because when our leaders flourish, our teams flourish.
And when our teams flourish, children do too.
Ready for the next chapter?
If you are looking for a Registered Manager role where excellent practice already has strong foundations but where there is still ambition to achieve even more we would love to hear from you.
Come and help us build tomorrow around the children who deserve it most.
What We Can Offer You:
Competitive salary
26 days annual holiday plus bank holidays (full time equivalent)
Additional 3 days annual leave after 5 years of service
Comprehensive Induction Programme with ongoing learning and development
Career progression opportunities
Regular supervision
Regular performance and development meetings to support your ongoing development
Investors in People and Mindful Employer
Group Personal Pension Scheme
Healthcare Cash Plan
Cycle to Work Scheme
Employee Referral Bonus Scheme
If you require any help or would like more information please email recruitment@catholic-care.org.uk
Catholic Care is an Equal Opportunities employer.
At Catholic Care we provide services to people of all faiths and none and also employ people of all faiths and none.