Registered Manager

Registered Manager – Children's Residential Home  

Location: Water Lane Children's Home, Redbridge. Salary: From £45, 510 - £61049.65 (Pay Grade B) at time of writing

Additional allowances are paid for on-call duties.

Contract Type: Full-time, Permanent

Registered Manager – Water Lane 

Changing Childhoods. Changing Lives. 

At Barnardo's, we deliver excellent and inclusive services that help children feel happier, healthier, safer and more hopeful. As Registered Manager of Water Lane, you will play a vital role in turning this commitment into lived experience for children with learning disabilities and complex needs.

Barnardo's is looking for a compassionate, reflective, and values‑driven Registered Manager to lead Water Lane, a small residential children's home supporting children and young people with learning disabilities, severe learning difficulties, and complex needs.

Water Lane is a four‑bed home based in the London Borough of Redbridge that provides a safe, nurturing, and therapeutic environment where young people are supported to feel secure, understood, and able to grow at their own pace.

This role is about more than compliance or operational oversight. It is about creating a home where relationships are central, behaviour is understood as communication, and children experience care that is trauma‑reducing, not trauma‑inducing. 

What Water Lane Offers Young People 

At Water Lane,  care is shaped around each child's social, emotional, and developmental age, not just their chronology. Young people are supported through personalised care planning, consistent relationships, and a strong focus on communication, emotional regulation, and wellbeing. 

Our practice is relational rather than behavioural, recognising that children's experiences and needs sit behind what we see. The home is designed to feel calm, welcoming, and inclusive, a place where young people experience acceptance, routine, laughter, and genuine belonging.

As one colleague shared:

"Water Lane is about slowing down and really understanding the child in front of you. When young people feel safe, everything else becomes possible." 

What Children Tell Us Matters 

Children and young people at Water Lane communicate in different ways, but their messages are clear.

• "I want people to understand me."
• "I feel sfeel safer things stay the same."
• "I like my bedroom and the sensory room."

As Registered Manager, you will ensure children's voices, spoken and unspoken, shape the daily life, culture, and decision‑making of the home, helping children feel heard, understood, and genuinely safe.

Your Role 

As Registered Manager, you will:

• Lead the home with warmth, consistency, and curiosity
• Lead a home that delivers excellent, inclusive care, where children are supported to feel safer, healthier, and more hopeful over time.
• Create a therapeutic, trauma‑informed environment where children can thrive
• Ensure care is relational, strengths‑based, and child‑centred
• Embed the home's values, ethos, and Statement of Purpose into everyday practice
• Provide strong safeguarding leadership and regulatory compliance
• Support and develop a skilled, reflective staff team through supervision and coaching
• Promote inclusive practice and respect for each child's identity and communication needs
• Work closely with families, social workers, education, and health professionals

A colleague described working at Water Lane like this:

"Working at Water Lane teaches you to listen differently, to behaviour, routine, and what isn't always said." 

What We're Looking For 

You'll be someone who:

• Has experience managing or leading within residential children's services
• Understands learning disabilities, complex needs, and trauma-informed care
• Leads with empathy, emotional intelligence, and calm authority
• Holds (or is working towards) a Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management
• Is confident with safeguarding, quality standards, and Ofsted requirements
• Believes that strong relationships and predictable care help children feel safe and grow

Why Join Barnardo's? 

At Barnardo's, values are lived every day, not just written down.

• "There's a real focus on doing the right thing for children and for staff."
• "You're trusted to lead in a hat that feels human."

You'll join an organisation that invests in its people, values reflective leadership, and believes that when staff feel supported, children experience better outcomes.

Ready to Apply?

If you're ready to support with purpose and lead with compassion, we'd love to hear from you.

If you want to speak with a manager, please email tony.sleight@barnardos.org.uk, who will be more than happy to answer your questions regarding this role.

Please note that due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible.

We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values.  We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people. 

For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo's and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay. 

Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band – this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours.  More details on Barnardo's pay framework can be found upon application. 

Workplace Offer: What it means for you

Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, in the community, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or depending on the role any combination of these. Please read through the advert carefully to understand the remits of hybrid working that will be specific to the role.

Barnardo's require colleagues to be UK residents, based in the UK and to complete their roles from within the UK (with the exception of colleagues providing Barnardo's services in Jersey and colleagues who live in the Republic of Ireland providing services in Northern Ireland)

• Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
• Annual Leave entitlement for full-time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo's service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo's service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo's service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata
• The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our Buy Your Leave scheme
• A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
• Service related sick pay from day 1
• Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
• Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
• Cycle2work scheme
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
• 20% discount at Barnardo's stores
• Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
• Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
• Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer

*T&C's apply based on contract

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minoritised Ethnic and/or disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce. For disabled applicants, we offer reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

• Reference number:22937
• Job Title:Registered Manager
• Location:London
• Locality:London
• Contract type:Permanent
• Hours:37
• Salary:£45,510.11 -£61,049.65
• Closing Date:22 May 2026
• Interview Date:TBC