Head of Services (Accommodation & Day Centre Services)

Job Description: Head of Services

Reports to: Chief Executive

Location: Woking, Surrey

Hours of Work: Full time, 37.5hrs per week

Salary: £42,000 - £45,000 (DOE, pro rata)

About Us:

At York Road Project, we are dedicated to transforming the lives of individuals experiencing homelessness in Woking. We believe in harnessing the unique strengths and potential of each individual to create a pathway towards stability and independence.

The Role:

We are looking for a proactive and organised Head of Services,  providing full operational leadership across our Accommodation Services and Day Centre Services, ensuring safe, consistent and effective delivery across all frontline provision.

This includes:

• Direct Access Accommodation (10 beds)
• Move-on properties (14 beds)
• Day Centre Services
• Frontline staff across both services

The role holds full responsibility for day-to-day operational delivery and decision-making within services, ensuring they run safely and effectively, with only critical or strategic issues escalated to the Chief Executive.

The role also provides management oversight of property, compliance and health and safety functions delivered by the Facilities Manager and wider staff teams.

Key Responsibilities:

Service Oversight

• Provide operational leadership across both services, ensuring safe, consistent and effective delivery.
• Support and enable staff delivering day-to-day services, providing clear leadership, guidance and appropriate autonomy within agreed standards.
• Maintain service quality, structure and consistency, stepping in where required to resolve operational issues.
• Promote a collaborative, trauma-informed working culture where staff are empowered to deliver services effectively.
• Use service delivery data, client feedback and staff insight to support continuous improvement.
• Ensure accurate recording of service activity and outcomes is maintained.

Accommodation & Day Centre Services

• Provide management oversight of Direct Access Accommodation and move-on properties, ensuring safe and effective delivery.
• Ensure occupancy levels, allocations and housing processes are effectively managed by operational staff and administrative support functions.
• Maintain operational oversight of property standards, compliance systems, inspections, maintenance reporting and fire safety processes delivered by the Facilities Manager and wider staff teams.
• Ensure compliance with HMO requirements, supported housing standards and organisational procedures through monitoring and escalation where required.
• Provide leadership and support to staff responsible for housing management functions, ensuring systems are followed consistently.

Safeguarding & Risk Management

• Provide oversight of safeguarding across all services, ensuring procedures are followed consistently.
• Ensure safeguarding systems, risk assessments and incident management processes are implemented effectively.
• Monitor safeguarding activity and ensure appropriate action and escalation.
• Support staff in managing safeguarding concerns, complex needs and high-risk incidents.
• Ensure safeguarding concerns are escalated in line with organisational and statutory requirements.

Health & Safety

• Provide management oversight of health and safety across all services, ensuring safe and compliant working environments.
• Work alongside the Facilities Manager to ensure health and safety policies, risk assessments, inspections and safe systems of work are effectively implemented and maintained.
• Monitor operational health and safety activity within services, ensuring hazards, incidents and safety concerns are identified, recorded and escalated appropriately.
• Ensure safe systems of work are followed across services, including lone working procedures and site safety processes.
• Escalate serious health and safety concerns in line with organisational procedures.

Staff Leadership & Management

• Provide supportive leadership across both services, fostering a stable and positive working environment.
• Lead supervision, reflective practice and performance management conversations.
• Promote a trauma-informed approach across the team.
• Build a culture of accountability, openness and professionalism.
• Oversee recruitment, induction, training and development.
• Manage rotas and staffing levels to support service delivery and wellbeing.
• Ensure staff are supported in managing complex and challenging situations.

Reporting, Service Development & Operational Oversight

• Oversee referrals, allocations and engagement pathways across services.
• Maintain oversight of operational data, ensuring accuracy and reliability.
• Monitor service performance, demand, outcomes and operational pressures.
• Produce regular reports for the CEO covering activity, performance, risks and outcomes.
• Analyse data and feedback to identify trends and service improvement opportunities.
• Support development of effective client progression pathways.

On-Call & Operational Cover

• Participate in a Monday–Friday on-call rota.
• Respond to urgent operational incidents and staffing issues.

Professional Standards & Ways of Working

• Work in a trauma-informed, person-centred and non-judgemental way across all service delivery.
• Maintain confidentiality and comply with GDPR and organisational policies.
• Work collaboratively with partner agencies to support positive outcomes for clients
• Maintain clear and appropriate professional boundaries with clients, staff and external partners.
• Manage workload independently, prioritising competing demands effectively.

Knowledge and Skills:

Essential

• Significant experience leading frontline or community-based services delivering high‑quality, trauma‑informed emotional and practical support.
• Strong track record of supervising, developing, and supporting staff and volunteers, including performance management and professional growth.
• Demonstrable experience of safeguarding adults and/or children at risk, with confident use of safeguarding processes.
• Proven ability to oversee operational service delivery in complex or high‑pressure environments and make sound, independent decisions.
• Experience setting service aims, outcome objectives, and KPIs, and reporting performance to senior leadership, commissioners, or governance boards.
• Ability to reach, engage, and develop services for vulnerable or underserved groups.
• Experience working collaboratively with partner agencies and external stakeholders to deliver integrated support.
• Skilled in managing competing priorities while maintaining service quality and compliance.

Desirable

• Working within homelessness, supported housing or related sectors.
• Delivery of trauma-informed services.
• Involvement in service development, redesign or improvement projects
• Setting and monitoring KPIs or outcome frameworks
• Managing budgets or operational resources.
• Working with volunteers in service delivery.

Personal Attributes

• Ability to manage competing priorities under pressure.
• Resilient and confident working in complex environments.
• Commitment to supporting people experiencing homelessness.
• Positive attitude, maintains a positive attitude even in challenging situations.
• Future-orientated, has a forward-thinking perspective, anticipates future needs or issues and plans accordingly.
• Team worker, demonstrates a commitment to strong collaborative work by actively engaging with colleagues, volunteers, external partners and to be accountable for the outcome.
• Ownership, a willingness to take ownership of tasks and projects and to be accountable for the outcomes.
• Aligned with the values and mission of York Road Project.

Benefits:

• Holiday entitlement of 25 days per annum, plus bank holidays (pro-rata) 
• Pension Scheme.
• Birthday day off.
• Medicash healthcare plan,
• Flexible working and hybrid working opportunities.