Chief Operating Officer

About Us

Heal Care Group is a trauma-informed specialist residential care provider for children and young people. We currently operate three children's homes in the West Midlands, with our established inspected services rated Good by Ofsted. We are growing deliberately, both organically and through acquisition, and are in the process of completing an acquisition expected to treble the number of homes operated by the group.

We are also developing our own care and operating platform, designed to improve compliance, care documentation, referrals, quality assurance and management information across the group.

The Role

The Chief Operating Officer is a newly created executive position reporting to the CEO. As the group grows, operational leadership is moving from the founder to a dedicated executive team, and the COO will lead that transition: building the group's operating infrastructure and leading its day-to-day business operations.

The successful candidate will take ownership of the integration of acquired services, the group's operating rhythm and performance reporting, the commercial processes supporting referrals and occupancy, the operational HR function, property and central services, and the implementation of our operating platform across the group.

The role works alongside the Chief Compliance Officer, who leads care standards, safeguarding and regulatory compliance. The division of responsibility is deliberate: care leadership defines the standards of safe, high-quality care, and the COO builds and runs the organisation that delivers them consistently. Commercial objectives never override care or safeguarding judgements at Heal.

This is a hands-on executive role. The central operations function is still being established, and in the first year the COO will build much of it personally: processes, reporting, meeting structures and the team itself. The role will suit an experienced operator who enjoys building, and who is comfortable moving between strategic planning and practical delivery in the same week.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Leading the integration of acquired services: people, systems, process and culture, while maintaining stability in homes that are performing well
• Establishing and running the group operating cadence: leadership meetings, KPI reporting and performance management
• Overseeing the commercial processes that support referrals, occupancy planning and fee management, with care leaders holding final authority on placement suitability
• Managing operational budgets and cost discipline in partnership with the CFO, including workforce deployment and agency reduction
• Leading the operational HR function, supported by a retained Strategic People Adviser for people strategy and complex matters
• Overseeing property, maintenance, procurement, insurance, health and safety, and business continuity and crisis planning
• Overseeing IT, data protection compliance and the group's central systems
• Maintaining corporate and statutory compliance, including Companies House filings, supported by external advisers
• Leading the implementation and adoption of our operating platform
• Overseeing marketing, employer brand and the group's external communications
• Working with care leadership on the identification and mobilisation of new homes
• Building and developing the central operations team

What We're Looking For

Essential:

• Senior operational leadership experience in a regulated, multi-site environment
• A track record of building operating infrastructure: processes, teams, reporting and commercial discipline
• Experience of integration, post-acquisition work or leading complex cross-functional change
• Commercial fluency, with confidence owning occupancy, cost and budget performance
• Comfortable operating at every level of the organisation, from individual homes to board and lender discussions

Desirable:

• Children's services or adjacent care-sector experience
• Experience working alongside regulated care leadership, including Responsible Individuals and Registered Managers
• An interest in using technology and data to improve how an organisation runs

What We Offer

• £100,000 to £120,000 base salary, depending on experience
• Annual performance bonus, structure documented separately
• Company pension
• A newly created executive role with genuine scope, reporting directly to the CEO

Benefits:

• Company events
• Company pension
• Work from home
• Work Location: Hybrid remote in Birmingham B3