Registered Manager

At Barnardo's, we deliver excellent and inclusive services that help children feel happier, healthier, safer and more hopeful. As Registered Manager of Water Lane, you will play a vital role in turning this commitment into lived experience for children with learning disabilities and complex needs.

Barnardo's is looking for a compassionate, reflective, and values‑driven Registered Manager to lead Water Lane, a small residential children's home supporting children and young people with learning disabilities, severe learning difficulties, and complex needs.

Water Lane is a four‑bed home based in the London Borough of Redbridge that provides a safe, nurturing, and therapeutic environment where young people are supported to feel secure, understood, and able to grow at their own pace.

This role is about more than compliance or operational oversight. It is about creating a home where relationships are central, behaviour is understood as communication, and children experience care that is trauma‑reducing, not trauma‑inducing.

What Water Lane Offers Young People

At Water Lane, care is shaped around each child's social, emotional, and developmental age, not just their chronology. Young people are supported through personalised care planning, consistent relationships, and a strong focus on communication, emotional regulation, and wellbeing.

Our practice is relational rather than behavioural, recognising that children's experiences and needs sit behind what we see. The home is designed to feel calm, welcoming, and inclusive, a place where young people experience acceptance, routine, laughter, and genuine belonging.

As one colleague shared

"Water Lane is about slowing down and really understanding the child in front of you. When young people feel safe, everything else becomes possible."

What Children Tell Us Matters

Children and young people at Water Lane communicate in different ways, but their messages are clear.

"I want people to understand me."

"I feel sfeel safer things stay the same."

"I like my bedroom and the sensory room."

As Registered Manager, you will ensure children's voices, spoken and unspoken, shape the daily life, culture, and decision‑making of the home, helping children feel heard, understood, and genuinely safe.

Your Role

As Registered Manager, you will

Lead the home with warmth, consistency, and curiosity

Lead a home that delivers excellent, inclusive care, where children are supported to feel safer, healthier, and more hopeful over time.

Create a therapeutic, trauma‑informed environment where children can thrive

Ensure care is relational, strengths‑based, and child‑centred

Embed the home's values, ethos, and Statement of Purpose into everyday practice

Provide strong safeguarding leadership and regulatory compliance

Support and develop a skilled, reflective staff team through supervision and coaching

Promote inclusive practice and respect for each child's identity and communication needs

Work closely with families, social workers, education, and health professionals

A colleague described working at

Water Lane like this

"Working at Water Lane teaches you to listen differently, to behaviour, routine, and what isn't always said."

What We're Looking For

You'll be someone who

Has experience managing or leading within residential children's services

Understands learning disabilities, complex needs, and trauma-informed care

Leads with empathy, emotional intelligence, and calm authority

Holds (or is working towards) a Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management

Is confident with safeguarding, quality standards, and Ofsted requirements

Believes that strong relationships and predictable care help children feel safe and grow

Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme

Disability Confident

About Disability Confident

A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.