Director of Services

Childhood Matters delivers a highly regarded and effective, trauma-informed services for children, young people and families in Cork and beyond.

Childhood Matters’ Director of Services position is a senior strategic leadership role within Childhood Matters. The successful candidate will work as part of a dynamic executive team including CEO, Clinical Director, Director of Operations and Finance Director to further develop and implement Childhood Matters’s clinical, practice and governance frameworks across a range of mental health, parenting, family support and childcare services.

The role is suited to experienced managers having demonstrated a track record of working effectively with/in partnership with the statutory or voluntary sector.

This is a full-time, or minimum 4 days per week, permanent position based in Cork City.

Who we are:

Childhood Matters is a not-for-profit organisation aimed at improving developmental and life outcomes for children 0-18 years old. We also work directly with parents and foster carers to support and develop parenting in challenging contexts. As an organisation we strive to positive impact the wider professional network we operate within through external training, research and professional development opportunities.

We are committed to embedding an evidence-based culture of trauma-informed care and therapeutic practice and hold ourselves to high standards in all engagement with service users, colleagues and stakeholders alike. We are committed to research and evaluation and continually assess the effectiveness of our service through independent research and partnership with third level institutions. We strive to be a positive place to work, providing staff with reflective practice, regular supervision and a training budget.

With offices and services in Blackrock, Blackpool, Clonakilty and Farranree we employ 130 staff across all departments. We offer competitive salary packages as well as benefits including enhanced maternity leave; pension contribution scheme; health care plans; flexible working hours; internal and externally provided training opportunities, and competitive annual leave entitlement.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Reporting directly to the CEO, the successful candidate will play a lead role in ensuring effective and high-quality standards of service delivery in line with Childhood Matters’s Strategic Plan 2023- 2026.
• The successful candidate will play an active role as a member of the Childhood Matters Executive Team in contributing to the continued evolution of the Childhood Matters model, including implementation of new approaches and initiatives throughout Childhood Matters.
• Working directly in a line management capacity with service managers, they will ensure that all services and projects comply with contract, funding and service level agreement requirements. They will also have an innovation and service development mindset to ensure services are effective, maintain competitive advantage and positioned to engage with expansion initiatives.
• They will manage the designated staff resources, ensuring that staff levels and skill mix are appropriate and within agreed resources allocation. They will also actively work towards ensuring that staff are supported and empowered to fulfil their roles and responsibilities
• They will be actively involved in service narrative building and promoting services among wider stakeholder groups through actively monitoring outcome and impact.
• They will act as a strategic leader in ensuring seamless collaboration between the clinical and operational aspects of the Childhood Matters model and the implementation of Childhood Matters’s Polices, Procedures & Guidelines.
• They will demonstrate a positive and proactive approach to change, actively managing the changes required and ensuring all actions required to introduce, embed, and maintain change are taken by relevant staff.
• Fulfill obligations as per The Children First Act 2015, including oversight of the implementation of Childhood Matters’s Child Protection and Welfare Policy. Comply with responsibilities under the Data Protection Acts 1988, 2003 & 2018 (GDPR).
• Undertake any other duties as determined by Childhood Matters.

Essential Requirements:

• At least three years’ experience in a senior management position
• An undergraduate degree and demonstrated continued learning and professional development in the area of management and leadership

Desirable Criteria:

• Proven ability to work on own initiative within a flexible, co-operative, multidisciplinary / transdisciplinary team structure.
• Proven ability to lead by example and influence teams and individuals to attain high performance levels.
• Excellent team management, interpersonal and motivational skills.
• Ability to provide leadership and sensitively and effectively manage and negotiate difficult situations that may arise.
• Experience of using data to inform decision making and continuous quality improvement.
• Experience of leading mental health/social care projects from inception through to implementation and review.
• Ability to reflect on practice in order to facilitate personal learning, professional development and service improvement.
• Effective presentation and facilitation skills including the ability to present information in a clear and concise manner.
• Ability to organise a complex and varied workload and prioritise competing demands.
• Competent in Information Technology tools and applications, i.e. MS office, Office 365, Microsoft Teams and Zoom.
• Ability to manage and be adaptable in a complex and evolving work context, including managing change.

Personal Attributes

• Strong team player with proven track record of same
• Self-aware and calm
• Positive, consistent and ability to contain whilst remaining task focused
• Highly motivated with a commitment to deliver quality services to children and families.
• Committed, self-motivated and hard working.
• Flexible and adaptable.
• Ability to prioritise competing demands and to meet deadlines.
• Excellent problem-solving ability.
• Excellent communicator with a variety of stakeholders.

Benefits

Salary commensurate with qualifications and experience. Factors taken into account in determining an appropriate scale include the candidate’s knowledge, skills, experience and qualifications relevant to the job. The salary scale for this role is as follows €76,551, €77,238, €80,259, €83,292, €86,302, €89,325, €92,329.

Childhood Matters operates the following benefits for its employees

• Defined contribution pension scheme.
• Enhanced maternity and paternity benefit
• Annual leave 25 days.
• Comprehensive annual CPD schedule
• Financial support for further education

Please note

To apply please send your CV and a cover letter to hr@childhood-matters.ie. The closing date for applications is 5pm on Tuesday 3rd June 2025. First round interviews are scheduled to take place on 10th June 2025.

The above Job Description is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all duties involved and consequently, the post holder may be required to perform other duties as appropriate to the post which may be assigned to them from time to time and to contribute to the development of the post while in office.

The successful candidate will be required to obtain Garda vetting as a condition of their initial and continued employment.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, disability, age, gender expression or sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnic or national origin, marital or civil partnership status or culture. Childhood Matters is committed, where possible, to providing access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, its services, programs, and activities.

To discuss the requirements of the role, the location of the role or any reasonable accommodation you might require, please contact a member of the HR team by email at hr@Childhood-Matters.ie.

All documentation received by Childhood Matters will be processed in accordance with the Data Protection Acts, 1988 and 2003 and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR; 2018). The information will only be used by Childhood Matters in the processing of job applications and for ongoing administrative purposes with job candidates.