Deputy Head of Service

Are you passionate about making sure people have a voice and a choice when it comes to their care? Fancy a new role you can get your teeth into and make a big impact?

We’re on the hunt for a new deputy head of our Shared Lives service.

**What is Shared Lives?**

Shared Lives is a little bit like fostering, but it’s for adults who need some support to live as independently as possible. Someone who needs support goes to live with one of our ace Shared Lives carers and they support them to live their best lives, do all the things they love and be part of their communities. PSS invented Shared Lives back in 1978 and it’s now become a national model of care that lots of other social care providers run. We’re really proud of that. It’s the most brilliant, safe and cost-effective form of care there is (and we’re not just biased - in October 2023, _CQC rated 97% of Shared Lives schemes in England as good or outstanding_, in comparison to just 78% for the wider social care sector).

We have Shared Lives schemes in seven different places across England and North Wales - and we’ve got big plans to add to that.

**What do we need out deputy head of Shared Lives to do?**

Alongside the head of Shared Lives, your job will be to make sure each one of the services in Shared Lives is absolutely top-notch in every way:

- They provide excellent support to the people who use our Shared Lives service
- They support people to reach their goals
- Any issues that crop up are dealt with effectively and in line with our policies and procedures
- They run effectively and like clockwork (but are flexible enough to change things up when it’s needed - even if it’s how things have always been done);
- They’re performing well financially, they’re sustainable and they’re cost-effective
- Carers, PSS Shared Lives teammates and people we support all feel really well informed, motivated and part of a big family
- Our service is getting better all the time

You’ll be supported by a cracking team of service managers who will lead each of the seven individual regional services within Shared Lives. They’ll be looking to you to help them review and develop their services, looking at best practice and national/local strategic priorities together.

On a day-to-day basis, your work would involve things like:

- Getting behind our Shared Lives teams and offering them your support with Care Quality Commission (CQC) compliance, safeguarding reports and complaints
- Leading the way when we win new contacts in new areas of the UK (the plan is to grow our schemes)
- Deputising for our head of Shared Lives: maintaining the risk register for services, identifying, managing, monitoring and escalating risks appropriately when our head of Shared Lives isn’t around
- Helping keep our Shared Lives carers and supported people feeling happy, connected, motivated and part of our big Shared Lives family
- Finding out what our carers and supported people need and how they feel things are going by heading out on the road to meet them
- Supporting our Shared Lives communications and engagement manager with nailing any info and insights they need for their role by sharing what you know, and supporting them with maintaining and introducing communications and engagement initiatives

By 2029, we want to make PSS the most inclusive place it can possibly be, where everyone feels like they belong - and you’ll need to play your part, along with everyone else at PSS, to make it happen.

Check out the full job description on our website for more info about what you’ll need to do in this role.

**So what are we looking for?**

We’re on the hunt for someone who (amongst other things):

- leads teams brilliantly and especially through periods of change, has great people skills, communicates well and brings people along with them on the journey;
- is open-minded, determined, professional, big-hearted and genuine;
- understands and knows lots about the relevant quality and regulatory frameworks for health and social care;
- builds fantastic relationships with people;
- is self-aware and takes accountability for results whether they’re good or bad;
- loves driving continuous improvement strategies to make sure we’re getting nothing but excellent outcomes for the people we support; and
- has a degree in health or social care, or an equivalent qualification

Have a look at the person specification within the job description for more info about what we’re looking for.

**Before you apply, we just want to let you know some key information about our selection process**:
Once you hit that ‘apply’ button, you’ll be taken across to an online recruitment system called Applied. Applied is the only hiring software with diversity and fairness built into every step of the process and we’re very proud to partner with them to help us give you an unbiased recruitment experience.

If you still prefer not to answer, that’s no problem at all - there’s also an option to select ‘prefer not to say’. The