Regional Director & Responsible Individual
- Salary: Package circa £100,000 per annum (dependent upon experience), including bonus and senior benefits.
- Location: North East England with travel across services as require
- Contract: Full Time | Permanent
Outstanding Leadership Doesn’t Happen by Accident.
Neither do outstanding children’s homes.
At Sunbridge Childcare, we are driven by a simple ambition: to provide exceptional homes where children feel safe, valued and empowered to reach their full potential.
As an ambitious and growing children’s residential care provider, we are seeking an exceptional leader to join our Senior Leadership Team as Regional Director & Responsible Individual.
This is not a role for someone looking to maintain the status quo.
This is an opportunity for a child focused, visionary, relational and highly analytical leader to influence children’s lives, the strategic direction of a growing organisation, shape future expansion, further develop outstanding leaders and create a sector-leading approach to delivering excellent care for children.
Working directly alongside our Chief Executive Officer and senior leadership team, you will provide strategic oversight across multiple children’s residential services, ensuring every child receives exceptional care whilst driving organisational performance, innovation and sustainable growth.
For the right individual, this represents a unique opportunity to join an organisation where your expertise, ideas and leadership will make a tangible difference every day.
Why Join Sunbridge Childcare?
There are many Responsible Individual opportunities within the sector.
Few offer the opportunity to:
- Create meaningful and lasting change for children and young people
- Influence organisational strategy at Board level
- Drive innovation around outcomes for our teams
- Shape future growth, new home development and expansion plans
At Sunbridge Childcare, we are committed to creating an environment where talented leaders can thrive, innovate and make a genuine impact.
What Makes This Opportunity Different?
Unlike many larger national organisations, we are able to combine ambition with agility.
You won’t be navigating layers of bureaucracy.
You will have the autonomy, authority and support to:
- Ensure children and young people achieve the very best outcomes possible
- Support our teams to continue to develop outstanding, trauma informed practice
- Shape organisational strategy.
- Drive quality, safeguarding and operational excellence.
- Develop innovative performance and quality monitoring frameworks.
- Support the successful opening and growth of new services.
The Role
As Regional Director & Responsible Individual, you will:
- Act as Responsible Individual across designated children’s residential services.
- Deputise for CEO and strategic meetings & events.
- Provide strategic leadership and oversight across multiple homes.
- Lead and support our Registered Managers and develop our teams.
- Drive a culture of excellence, accountability and continuous improvement.
- Monitor quality, safeguarding, workforce and operational performance.
- Ensure compliance with the Children’s Homes Regulations 2015, Quality Standards and Ofsted requirements.
- Lead organisational quality assurance and improvement programmes.
- Oversee the estates management portfolio.
- Analyse performance trends and organisational intelligence to identify opportunities and risks.
- Develop meaningful reporting systems, dashboards and governance frameworks.
- Support future service development, acquisitions and growth plans.
- Maintain strong relationships with commissioners, local authorities, regulators and partner agencies.
- Report to CEO and Board on organisational performance and risk.
About You
We are seeking an exceptional senior leader who combines child centred practice, regulatory excellence, commercial awareness with innovation and strategic thinking.
You will be able to demonstrate:
- Significant senior leadership experience within children’s residential care.
- Experience operating as a Responsible Individual or senior operational leader overseeing multiple children’s homes.
- A proven track record of achieving Good and Outstanding Ofsted outcomes.
- Extensive knowledge of Children’s Homes Regulations 2015 and Quality Standards.
- Strong safeguarding knowledge and experience.
- Experience of developing and supporting high-performing Registered Managers.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management abilities.
- Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Residential Childcare (or equivalent).
And you will be:
- Ambitious and forward-thinking.
- Passionate about improving outcomes for children.
- Commercially astute.
- Curious and analytical.
- Inspirational in your leadership approach.
- Respected by regulators, commissioners and sector peers.
- Motivated by building something exceptional rather than simply maintaining what already exists.
Children deserve exceptional leaders. If that sounds like you, we’d love to hear from you.
Key Recruitment Dates
Closing Date for Applications
12:00 noon, Tuesday 10th November 2026
Technical Interviews
Final Interview and Assessment Centre
Thursday 26th November 2026
(In Person: Newcastle upon Tyne)
Our Commitment to Safeguarding
Sunbridge Childcare is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. We expect all employees to share this commitment. Appointment will be subject to enhanced DBS checks, satisfactory references, verification of qualifications, right to work checks and compliance with safer recruitment requirements.
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