Head of Nursing and Care

Duties and Responsibilities

• Act as a key delegate for the Director of Nursing and Quality, deputising as and when required.
• Responsible for ensuring CQC and Ofsted Care standards are met, including National Minimum Standards for Children's Homes and CQC standards for the service, deputising for the registered as required.
• Provide positive, proactive, and visible leadership to nursing and care teams e.g. through regular one-to-one and team meetings.
• Support the registered manager to carry out an annual audit of CQC and Ofsted Care standards, producing and implementing necessary action plan(s) to address any gaps.
• Ensure suitable representation at annual reviews for children and young people in the School Houses.
• Promote a structured approach to nursing and care that ensures equitable, safe, and evidence- based practice, while also encouraging creative problem-solving.
• Ensure regular clinical supervision is provided for each team member and documented effectively.
• Work collaboratively across The Children's Trust to achieve positive clinical, educational, and social outcomes for all children and young people, and their families.
• Ensure children and families are involved in the evaluation and development of changes to service provision.
• Ensure there is a clear procedure for nurse documentation and record keeping, with regular audit to ensure compliance.
• Encourage personal development and provide appropriate opportunities by following up on identified training needs.
• Ensure effective processes are in place to monitor team members' compliance with NMC professional development requirements and revalidation.
• Ensure staff are aware of and adhere to the NMC standards for Medicine's Management.
• Lead on all relevant policy development and implementation.
• Develop and monitor systems which improve clinical effectiveness and quality.
• Communicate organisational messages to staff and provide feedback from team to senior managers
• Support the Director of Nursing and Quality and other clinical colleagues, to promote the development of evidence-based practice
• Participate in the senior site manager rota (weekends only)
• Undertake other or additional duties that are within your skills and abilities, as the organisation may reasonably require from time to time.

Resource and Performance Management

• Line manages the Business Support Manager, 3 x House Managers, Respiratory Lead Nurse and Senior Clinical Lead
• Regularly review and determine skill mix and staff budget, to provide a quality and cost-effective service, which safely meets the needs of the children, young people, and their families
• Be responsible and accountable for the budgets for the residential Houses
• Adopt a management style in accordance with The Children's Trust's Promises
• Proactive and timely management (or delegation of management) of performance and sickness absence issues
• Work with the People Team to ensure an effective recruitment strategy is in place to attract and retain high quality nursing and care staff
• Set and oversee non-staffing budgets, including capital expenditure for the residential houses
• Maintain effective systems to ensure that all equipment is well maintained and fit for purpose
• Build effective team performance
• Set SMART objectives with each direct report, to be reviewed on a quarterly basis
• Motivate teams and staff to achieve their individual and team objectives
• Openly encourage and recognise the contribution of others, ensuring a collaborative approach
• Provide constructive individual and team feedback on a regular basis

Direct work with children and families

• Ensure the child and their families views on their experience are actively sought and acted upon
• Meet with parents as part of the complaints process and the Duty of Candour Policy
• Lead on complaints and ensure that principles of good practice are adhered to
• Ensure relevant meetings are chaired and attended appropriately
• Provide advice and support for clinical practice issues

Interview Dates: 9 & 10 December 2025

If you would like to discuss the role, please contact the Recruitment & Compliance Team, on or email:

For more information, a copy of the candidate briefing pack please click here

Terms and Conditions

PLEASE NOTE: The Children's Trust Application Form MUST be completed and submitted, for your application to be considered. As part of the shortlisting process, gaps in employment will be examined and further explored during the interview process.

About Us

The Children's Trust is the UK's leading charity for children with acquired brain injury, providing expert rehabilitation, education, therapy, and care at our national specialist centre in Tadworth, and to children and their families across the UK, via our Brain Injury Community Service.

Boasting a beautiful 24-acre site in Surrey, we are located just outside of London, close to the M25 (accessible via Junction 8, A217 to Tadworth) and easily accessible via National Rail, by way of: Clapham Junction, Sutton, and Epsom.

Staff Benefits

The work we do is highly rewarding, and in addition to an attractive salary, we offer a valuable range of benefits on our staff flexible benefits platform, on-site nursery, free eye tests, enhanced Maternity and Paternity Pay, time out days for those experiencing menopause symptoms and time off for gender reassignment.

We also offer additional annual leave days for those with long service, with entitlements ranging from 35 to 41 days (including bank holidays) depending on your length of service.

Other benefits include free on-site parking; a staff shuttle service from Epsom and Sutton train stations to Tadworth Court, subsidised cafeteria, on-site staff accommodation (subject to availability), the ability to retain your NHS pension (where applicable), Teacher's pension (where applicable) or the opportunity to join an alternative scheme, and the opportunity to develop your career in a supportive and collaborative environment.

Rehabilitation of Offenders

Many roles at The Children's Trust are exempt from the provisions of Section 4 (2) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, by virtue of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2013 and 2020) and as such, are subject to an Enhanced DBS check. Successful applicants will be required to complete an Enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check, which will disclose all unspent convictions and adult cautions and any spent convictions or adult cautions that would not be protected. The exceptions to this are our retail roles within The Children's Trust shops, which are subject to Basic DBS checks which will disclose unspent convictions or adult cautions.

Equal Opportunity Employer

To help us achieve our ambition to give children and young people with brain injury and neurodisability the opportunity to live the best life possible, we want to accurately reflect the UK's diverse population. We want equity, diversity, and inclusion to be at the heart of everything we do, and our people, services, and culture to reflect the diverse needs of all. Through our diversity and inclusion strategy, we have made a commitment to increase the diversity of our charity and create an inclusive culture. We have networks across the organisation working to ensure that these aims are met - including an LGBTQIA2S+ group, Ethnic Diversity Group, and Spark – our broad EDI group. Read more about our EDI work here. We welcome applications from all who share our ambition regardless of background. We will strive to ensure that any reasonable adjustments are made in respect of interview and working arrangements.

Online Searches

In accordance with statutory safeguarding and child protection guidance, online searches will be conducted for shortlisted candidates before interview. The online searches will be conducted by a person who is independent of the interview and selection process and will focus on relevant information returned via searches of the candidate's name (and variations thereof). Social media searches will be limited to professional platforms such as LinkedIn. Any concerns relating to suitability for work with children and young people will be forwarded to the interview panel, for discussion during the interview.