Our Leadership Strength

The Responsible Individual for Vitality Healthcare Services provides strategic leadership, governance oversight and regulatory accountability for the home. This role ensures that the service operates in full alignment with statutory requirements, organisational values and the expectations set out within the Vitality Healthcare Services Statement of Purpose.

The Responsible Individual is a highly experienced qualified social worker with over 14 years of professional practice across statutory children’s services, independent social work and national improvement programmes. This extensive background brings a strong foundation in safeguarding, quality assurance and service leadership, supporting the delivery of safe, effective and well-governed residential care.

Registered with Social Work England, the Responsible Individual holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work and has worked across a broad range of frontline and leadership settings. Professional experience includes Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs (MASH), Assessment Teams, Children in Care, Court Teams, Leaving Care, Asylum Services, Early Help and senior management roles within local authorities. In addition, the Responsible Individual has delivered specialist independent social work services, including court-directed assessments, viability assessments and complex risk analysis within family proceedings.

Earlier professional experience within respected national organisations focused on children’s rights and advocacy has provided a strong grounding in anti-discriminatory practice, ethical decision-making and relational work with vulnerable young people. This experience continues to inform a child-centred, rights-based approach to leadership and governance.

The Responsible Individual also brings significant experience in local authority improvement and quality assurance, including strengthening safeguarding systems, addressing legacy case issues and embedding effective governance frameworks. A strong working knowledge of the ILACS inspection framework and experience contributing to improved Ofsted outcomes ensure that the home operates with clarity, accountability and continuous improvement.

Key Responsibilities of the Responsible Individual

The Responsible Individual’s responsibilities include:

• Providing strategic oversight and ensuring full compliance with the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the Quality Standards
• Supporting, supervising and monitoring the Registered Manager to ensure effective leadership and day-to-day management of the home
• Overseeing safeguarding practice, risk management processes and clear escalation pathways
• Promoting effective multi-agency collaboration with local authorities, health and partner agencies
• Ensuring high-quality care planning, case recording and monitoring systems are in place and consistently applied
• Leading on governance arrangements, internal audits, service reviews and continuous improvement activity

• Ensuring staffing levels, recruitment, training and supervision meet regulatory requirements and organisational expectations

• Championing a trauma-informed, relational and child-centred culture across the home
• Upholding the values of respect, safety, partnership working and consistency as set out in the Statement of Purpose

Leadership Impact

The Responsible Individual’s extensive frontline, managerial and improvement experience provides strong professional credibility and robust safeguarding leadership. This ensures that Vitality Healthcare Services is well governed, reflective in practice and consistently focused on achieving positive outcomes for children and young people. Through clear leadership, accountability and partnership working, the Responsible Individual supports the creation of a safe, nurturing environment where children feel valued, respected and supported.