Quality Assurance Practitioner (Children's Residential Homes)

Our Children's Residential Service provides a range of care and support to some of the most vulnerable children and young people in our communities, aged 7-18. Our 7 homes deliver a variety of services including full-time care, short breaks, short term emergency care and outreach.

We are committed to ensuring that every child in our care is safe, happy, healthy, and able to thrive. We listen to children, place their voices at the centre of everything we do, and work relentlessly to achieve the best possible outcomes for them.

Our service is built on strong values - trust, support, honesty, and putting children first - and we are proud of our inclusive, supportive culture where staff are valued and empowered to make a difference.

Please feel free to review further details of Children's Residential Homes here: Children's residential care careers

Salary: £39,862 - £42,839 per annum

Contract: Permanent

Working Pattern: Full time, 37 hours per week (Monday to Friday)

Location: Working across our multiple homes in Crawley, Haywards Heath, Worthing and Shoreham-by-Sea.

We are seeking a highly motivated and detail-focused Quality Assurance Practitioner to support our Children's Residential Homes in maintaining and continually improving the quality of care provided.

Working closely with Registered Managers and the wider leadership team, you will:

• Lead on audit and quality assurance activity across multiple homes
• Review children's records and operational documentation to ensure compliance with regulations and standards
• Produce clear, analytical audit reports and identify areas for improvement
• Provide constructive, strengths-based feedback to managers, teams, and individuals
• Support homes to prepare for Ofsted inspections and regulatory visits
• Develop and review practice guidance in line with legislative and organisational change
• Deliver training workshops on key themes such as case recording, language, and practice standards.
• This is a countywide role, requiring regular travel between our children's homes. You will need to work both independently and collaboratively, managing your workload effectively to meet the needs of the service.

This is a unique opportunity for an experienced children's residential professional to step into a service-wide improvement role, using your expertise to influence practice, shape standards and drive positive outcomes for children across multiple homes.

Required Experience and Skills

We are looking for someone with a strong background in children's residential care and a passion for driving high-quality practice. Some of our qualifications, key skills and experience required are as follows:

• A relevant qualification in Residential Childcare at Level 4 (Practitioner) or Level 5 (Manager) (or equivalent) is essential
• Recent experience working in a Children's Residential Care setting
• In-depth knowledge of:
• Children's Homes Regulations
• Ofsted Quality Standards
• Relevant legislation and safeguarding frameworks
• Experience of auditing, reviewing, or quality assuring practice and records
• Excellent attention to detail with strong analytical and critical thinking skills
• Ability to demonstrate professional curiosity and interpret incomplete or complex information
• Confident in delivering clear, constructive feedback to a range of audiences
• Strong communication and facilitation skills, including delivering training sessions to our residential teams
• Ability to review and develop practice guidance
• Good working knowledge of bespoke recording systems and IT systems
• Ability to work independently, prioritise workload, and manage competing demands
• You must be able to travel independently across the country

For a full list of required key skills, qualifications and/or experience please review our job description attached, and reference these in your application form.

Rewards and Benefits

As an employer we recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive and dynamic working environment where you can achieve your full potential and are rewarded for the work you do. For example you will receive:

• an excellent local government pension scheme
• generous holiday entitlement
• access to a wide selection of retail discounts and savings such as groceries, shopping, travel and more through our West Sussex Choices benefits platform.
• a range of commuting and business travel discount and initiatives
• maternity, paternity, dependency and adoption leave
• health and wellbeing benefits including access to our Employee Assistance Programme
• financial wellbeing support including access to educational tools and webinars, loans or debt consolidation options and savings scheme
• training and development opportunities, including coaching and mentoring

For a full list of the benefits offered to you as a West Sussex County Council employee you can find them on our Rewards and Benefits page.

The reference number for this role is CAFHE06465

To apply, upload your CV and complete our application form, explaining how you meet the key skills and experience required for the role, ensuring that any gaps in employment are covered in your CV. Feel free to view our application guide here: How to create the best CV, Application Form or Cover Letter

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults.

This post is subject to an enhanced DBS check, 5 years referencing and an occupational health check. A full employment history will be requested and covered for this role.

Equity, inclusion and accessibility is very important to West Sussex County Council. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, as this helps us build a diverse and talented workforce, that reflects the communities we serve. We ensure our approach to recruitment is flexible and supportive to enable all applicants to be at their best and to ensure they have the best possible chance of success.

We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that have a disability, are a veteran or are a care leaver. More information can be found on our application help page.

Note for Recruitment Agencies: We prefer to hire people directly, but we do have a supplier list for when we need a helping hand. We'll be in touch directly if we need you!