Deputy service director jobs in home based
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About Kinship
We are Kinship. The leading kinship care charity in England and Wales. We’re here for kinship carers – friends or family who step up to raise a child when their parents aren’t able to.
Together, let’s commit to change for kinship families.
About the role
Kinship is undertaking a major feasibility Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) of Kinship Connected. This is aligned with recommendations set out in the Kinship Care Practice Guide published by Foundations (2024) and builds on evidence from the Kinship Navigator intervention of support for kinship carers in the USA.
This feasibility RCT is a complex, multi-partner programme involving:
- An active funding partner
- An independent evaluation team
- 5 participating local authorities (to be confirmed)
- Internal delivery teams and cross organisational services
- Kinship carers and lived experience subject experts
This role leads and supports the staff team delivering one-to-one navigator-style support to kinship carers as part of the Kinship Connected feasibility randomised controlled trial. You will ensure the team provides consistent, high quality, relational support that reflects Kinship’s values and trauma-informed practice.
You will work closely with the Mobilisation and Delivery Project Manager and will share responsibility for ensuring high quality performance across the feasibility trial. You will both work closely with the core project team and partners.
The Programmes Manager leads practice quality, staff development, safeguarding and relational delivery. The Mobilisation and Delivery Project Manager leads operational quality, systems, processes, data and compliance. Together you make sure the trial is delivered ethically, consistently and to a very high standard.
Key responsibilities include:
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Lead the day-to-day practice and relational delivery of the Kinship Connected (Navigator) support model.
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Support Kinship Family Workers to deliver high quality, trauma-informed and strengths-based support to kinship carers.
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Ensure clear case management, boundaries, risk management and reflective practice.
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Embed the delivery approach set out in the Intervention Protocol and Kinship Navigator Service Manual.
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Ensure equity, accessibility and inclusion in all aspects of delivery, with particular focus on minoritised ethnic kinship families.
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Maintain delivery tracking and operational dashboards.
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Provide high quality line management, reflective supervision and pastoral support to Kinship Family Workers
Essential knowledge and experience includes:
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Strong experience leading frontline delivery teams providing emotional, relational or social care support.
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Proven track record ensuring high quality casework, assessments, boundaries and risk management.
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Experience delivering strengths-based, trauma-informed and evidence-informed approaches.
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Substantial experience in line managing practitioners, delivering reflective supervision and supporting wellbeing.
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Experience leading high performing dispersed teams with confidence, consistency and compassion.
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Experience managing change and supporting staff through shifting delivery requirements.
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Strong background in safeguarding decision making, case discussions and organisational safeguarding culture.
What we’ll offer you
Kinship offers 30 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays (pro-rata for part-time). We have an excellent wellbeing offer including the Employee Assistance Programme and clinical supervision. We will invest in your professional development with training and career development opportunities.
Kinship is committed to championing equality, diversity and inclusion. We believe our work is greatly enhanced by the varied backgrounds, experiences and views represented within our teams. We aim to create inclusive teams, celebrate differences and encourage everyone to join us and be their true self at work. We therefore encourage applications from anyone who fits our values, whatever their religion or belief, sex, gender identity, race, age, sexuality or disability and are actively seeking candidates that can bring real innovation and commitment to us.
Key dates:
Application deadline: 11.59pm, Sunday 4 January 2026
First interview: Friday 9 January 2026 (online)
Second interview:Wednesday 14 January 2026 (in-person, London)
How to apply
Respond on CharityJobs to these 5 questions, along with your CV:
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What is it about Kinship’s mission and values that motivates you to lead the delivery of relational support for kinship carers, and how would these values shape your approach as a Programmes Manager?
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Describe a time you led or supported a team delivering emotional or relational support. How did you ensure consistent, high-quality practice?
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Give an example of how you have developed or supported practitioners through reflective supervision, coaching or managing difficult practice situations. What approach did you take and why?
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Describe a situation where you had to make or support a safeguarding decision. How did you balance risk, judgement and support for staff?
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Tell us about a time you worked with a local authority, commissioner or another external partner to resolve a challenge or improve delivery. What did you do?
We are looking to fill this role quickly and reserve the right to close a recruitment campaign earlier than the advertised where we have received sufficient applications so please apply early!
Some tips for your application:
• Make sure you’ve read the job description and the essential requirements – make sure your application reflects those points in the requirements very clearly.
• Tell us why you want to work for Kinship. We’re interested in working with people who share our values. You can read about our values above.
• Keep your response clear – use bullets points and short paragraphs if that helps. It will help the recruitment team to focus on your knowledge, skills and experience.
• Please do not use AI tools like ChatGPT to produce your answers. We use software to check, and your application will be rejected if you do.
We support kinship carers in their homes and communities, giving advice and helping them work through problems to find the best way forward.



The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Bid Writer
Service: Business Development Team
Salary: £32,635 - £36,158 + £480 homeworking allowance FTE per annum (£26,108 - £28,926.40 per annum for part time, 29.6 hours per week + £384 homeworking allowance)
Location: Homebased
Hours: 29.6 hours per week (part-time, 4 days) to be agreed upon successful appointment
Contract: Permanent
Family Action & the Role’s Impact:
At Family Action we support people through change, challenge or crisis. It’s what we’ve done for over 150 years. We protect children, support young people and adults and offer direct, practical help to families and communities.
We see first-hand the power of family to shape lives, for better or worse, so we speak up for the
importance of family in national and local policymaking, amplify family voices and represent the changing needs of families in the UK today.
Main Responsibilities:
The Business Development Team provides a specialist support function to enable the organisation to achieve its growth objectives. We promote the strategic growth of the organisation by supporting the retention of existing work and securing new contracts via competitive tender, trusts, grants and statutory fundraising.
This is an exciting opportunity for a Bid Writer or someone with equivalent writing experience/knowledge to join us and write applications that fully articulate Family Action’s offer. The post works closely with other organisational functions and the rest of the Business Development team to convey service models and content to funders.
Main Requirements (for details check the job description and person specification):
- Produce quality written material in easy-to-understand ways; convey ideas graphically and tailor documents to specific audiences
- Ability to establish effective working relationships at all levels, both internally and externally
- Experience relevant for your effectiveness in the role might be from various sectors and disciplines. If you are passionate about supporting us to submit high-quality tenders and applications, achieving success rates whilst engaging with our services to contribute and evidence the impact of their work for inclusion in submissions then we would like to hear from you
Benefits:
- an annual paid leave entitlement of 30 working days plus bank holidays pro-rata
- up to 6% matched-pension contributions
- enhanced paid sick leave and paid family leave provisions
- eye care and winter flu jabs vouchers
- cycle to work scheme
- investing in your professional development with ongoing quality training and career development opportunities
We are forward looking, ambitious and committed to continuous improvement. We are a people focused, can-do organisation, which strives for excellence in all we do and operates with mutual respect.
To Apply:
· Apply via our website by following the link and clicking the ‘Apply’ link to fill out our digital application form
· Closing Date: Monday 5th January at 9am
Interviews are scheduled to take place w/c 12th January virtually
All appointments with Family Action are subject to satisfactory Safer Recruitment checks.
Our commitment to Equality, Diversity & Inclusion:
We are happy to consider any reasonable adjustments that candidates may need during the recruitment process and you will be asked whether you require any adjustments if shortlisted for interview. We also make reasonable adjustments on the job, where required.
We are committed to Equality, Diversity & Inclusion in all that we do and welcome applications from all sections of the community. Intersectionality is important to us and we welcome applications from ethnically diverse communities, LGBTQIA+ candidates and disabled candidates. We are committed to increasing the representation of these groups at Family Action because we know that greater diversity will lead to even greater results for families and children and we strive for our workforce to be truly representative of the diverse communities we support.
All candidates with a disability are welcome to apply under the Disability Confident Scheme and request priority consideration for an interview, provided they meet the essential criteria for the role.
To help remove financial barriers to working with us, we will reimburse travel costs if you are invited to attend an interview in person.
*Ordinarily Family Action appoints new starters at the starting point of the salary scale (with subsequent annual pay progression), unless you have experience that would justify appointment further up the salary scale or there are any other exceptional reasons.
Family Action is an award-winning national charity working from the heart of local communities across England and Wales.



The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.