Early Years
Children, Young People & Families Manager

As a Children, Young People and Family Manager you will ensure direction, alignment and commitment within your own practice, your team(s), your organisation and across partnerships to help children, young people and families aspire to do their best and achieve sustainable change.

You could be solely responsible for the management of a team or service, or be part of a management team. To deliver effectively on a wide range of outcomes you will work with multi-disciplinary teams from a wide range of backgrounds, as well as team leaders and managers from your own organisation.

Responsibilities include: building teams, managing resources and leading new approaches to working practices that deliver improved outcomes and put the child, young person or family at the centre of practice.

Who is this for?

Typical roles include: Manager in Children’s Residential Care or as a Children, Young People and Families Manager in the Community in a range of settings in local authorities, within health organisations, educational and early years settings or children’s centres, as well as a wide range of private voluntary and community organisations.

What is covered?

During the programme, you will be taught and assessed on the following knowledge, skills and behaviours, supporting your development to the Business Administration Level 3 Standard. Teaching is delivered through monthly two-hour-long workshops, supported with regular 1:1 coaching, self-led learning and assessments.

Behaviours 

 the values and behaviours expected of a Children, Young People and Family Manager Care: Respecting and valuing practitioners, encouraging and enabling them to deliver excellent practice Compassion: Consideration and concern, combined with robust challenge and support Courage: Having honest conversations and encouraging practitioners to offer their own

solutions to improving practice

Communication: Building relationships with practitioners, peers and partner organisations Competence: Knowing the business, knowing what good practice looks like in others and having a relentless focus on delivering improved outcomes

Commitment: Demonstrating a strong moral purpose, modelling the ethos and building the skills of others and retaining and maintaining and own practice skills through effective CPD

Core Requirements – knowledge and skills These are based on the kind of statements we would typically expect practitioners to make about their manager

‘You provided direction and ensured we worked as a cohesive team’

Knowledge and understanding of: 

• Current research and development in the health and social care sector
• Theories underpinning the learning, development and motivation of individuals and teams
• The role of the team and the internal and external environment in which it operates

Skills:

• Maintains and develops a leadership style that sets the ethos, aims and approach to the work
• Manages the application of professional judgement, standards and codes of practice
• Creates a strong sense of team purpose

You implemented a working environment which supported dignity and human rights’

Knowledge and understanding of:

• Values and ethics and the principles and practices of diversity, equality, rights and inclusion
• Approaches to dignity and respect

Skills:

• Models an ethos that actively promotes equality, resilience, dignity and respects diversity and inclusion
• Actively seeks the views of others 

‘You helped us work through the challenges that faced us and ensured we were safe’

Knowledge and understanding of: 

• The principles and practice of supervision with their staff
• The theories and up-to-date research and best practice that underpin practice decision making
• The working practices surrounding legislation, national and local solutions for safeguarding and risk management of children, young people and families
• A healthy, safe and stimulating environment that fulfils health & safety legislation and requirements
• The safeguarding requirements contained within mandatory local safeguarding training or nationally accredited equivalent

Skills:

• Develops and delivers good quality supervision practice and decision making
• Demonstrates evidence based practice and models the effective use of up to date research and theories
• Identifies and manages risk
• Monitors, evaluates and improves the working environment to ensure it is safe

‘You enabled us to focus on and achieve improved outcomes for children and young people’

Knowledge and understanding of: 

• The principles and practice of statutory frameworks, standards, guidance and Codes of Practice
• The quality assurance of health and social care in line with OFSTED, CQC and other regulatory bodies
• Approaches to developing and implementing improvement, including use of data
• The theories of intervention that meet the needs of children, young people and adults within the family

Skills: 

• Sets clear, measurable objectives
• Uses data to evaluate the effectiveness of outcomes
• Develops, facilitates and leads changes in working practices that deliver improved outcomes
• Actively encourages the participation of children, young people and families in service improvement
• Manages the quality assurance of the service provided and proposes improvements

‘You managed and made best use of the resources that we have’

Knowledge and understanding of:

• The practice and principles of resource management
• How to create engagement and innovation in the development of practice
• The commissioning cycle and its application

Skills:

• Manages and deploys total resource (e.g. people, finance, IT property) to maximise outcomes
• Mobilises collective action across service boundaries and within the community to manage resources
• Commissions and contract manages external providers

‘You built the relationships with others that ensured effective communication and partnership work’

Knowledge and understanding of:

• Inter-agency and multi-agency work and its role in ensuring positive outcomes
• Techniques to influence, persuade and negotiate with others

Skills:

• Collaborates with partner agencies and resolves complex issues to achieve best outcomes
• Builds an ethos of learning and continuous improvement across partner organisations

‘You ensured there was a culture of continuing professional development’

Knowledge and understanding of:

• Principles of: reflective practice; how people learn; effective continuing professional development
• Academic research, evidence-based data, policy developments, practice developments

Skills: 

• Evaluates practice of team members
• Assesses learning styles of self and team members and identifies development opportunities
• Listens to, challenges and supports practitioners
• Engages in reflective practice and develops a learning culture across the team

Children, Young People and Family Managers will need to supplement the CORE standard programme with specialist skills and knowledge, by choosing ONE of the following options:

OPTION 1: Manager in Children’s Residential Care

1a. Plays a leading role in developing the ethos of the home and creates a sense of purpose and clarity for the long term care and support of children and young people in residential care 

OPTION 2: Children, Young People and Families Manager within the Community

2a. Creates an environment that promotes partnership working within a specific working context (e.g. early years, youth, youth justice, family work, special educational needs and disability etc.) and builds consensus and support for improving outcomes together 

2b. Leads and supports practice development in the care and support of children young people and their families and carers, within contemporary society 

Qualifications: Apprentices without level 2 English and Maths will need to achieve this level prior to taking their end-point assessment.

OPTION 1 (Manager in Children’s Residential Care): Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Residential Childcare

OPTION 2 (Children, Young People and Families Manager within the Community): Level 5 Diploma in Leadership for Health and Social Care