Deputy Manager of Jigsaw Service

Team: Children’s Services - Jigsaw Service 

Salary:  Leadership Scale 4-6 dependent on experience (£53,602 - £56,316 per annum pro rata)

Hours: 25 hours per week (full time) Term Time Only

Location: You will be expected to attend a CBC office location as often as needed to carry out your role, which will be no less than once per month.

Contract Type:  Hybrid - Permanent  

Closing Date: 9th October 2025

Interview Date: TBC

About the role;

Are you a qualified teacher with SEND expertise who's ready to lead, balancing strategic oversight with direct intervention, to significantly impact children's social, emotional, and mental health? The Jigsaw Service are seeking a dedicated Deputy Manager to join our innovative team. This is a unique opportunity to make a significant impact on the well-being and future development of vulnerable children. 

About the Jigsaw Service

The Jigsaw Service is Central Bedfordshire Council's Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) Primary Alternative Provision Service. Our core mission is to deliver vital education and comprehensive support to children of statutory school age (Primary Years 1-6) who have been permanently excluded from mainstream settings, or who are at a high risk of suspension and permanent exclusion. The Jigsaw Service work closely with professionals from education, health, social care to comprehensively assess individual needs, identify the underlying drivers of challenging behaviour, break negative cycles, and develop supportive strategies in a flexible, nurturing environment.

We operate through two key capacities:

• In-Reach Provision: This involves delivering statutory education directly to children at one of our two established Jigsaw Centre hubs, located in Houghton Regis and Marston Moretaine. Here, we provide a nurturing and structured environment for children who have faced permanent exclusion.
• Outreach Support: We provide a crucial 'extra tier' of preventative support to Central Bedfordshire schools. This includes tailored training, coaching, and mentoring for school staff to better manage challenging behaviours. We also conduct direct work with children on a 1:1 or small group basis within their school settings. Where initial Outreach support doesn't yield the desired impact, we offer Nurture and Assessment Placements (NAPs). During a NAP, a child attends an allocated Jigsaw Centre for part of the school day or week. The goal of NAPs is to proactively prevent permanent exclusion, safeguarding a child's well-being and future development.

The Deputy Manager Role

As Deputy Manager, you will be instrumental in the strategic development and day-to-day operation of the Jigsaw Service. You will provide essential strategic support for the Jigsaw Service Manager and be responsible for managing staff across both our In-Reach and Outreach functions, ensuring seamless service delivery tailored to business needs.

You will play a hands-on role, providing comprehensive support to children, young people, educational settings, and professionals, particularly with regards to Outreach work. This will involve visiting education settings and directly working with children and key stakeholders. You will also maintain oversight and responsibility for one of our two In-Reach settings, ensuring high standards of education and care. A key part of your role will be to provide impactful training to educational settings and families, and to prepare detailed reports as requested, informing service development and stakeholder communication.

Key Responsibilities include:

• Providing In-Reach & Outreach support, including coaching, modelling, advising, and teaching.
• Acting as Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead.
• Establishing and maintaining a purposeful working atmosphere with high expectations for pupils’ behaviour and achievement.
• Ensuring effective and innovative teaching, curriculum coverage, continuity, challenge, and progression for all pupils.
• Ensuring the Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs of children are met, enhancing their self-esteem and confidence.
• Acting as an 'expert' in SEMH development, providing support, guidance, and training to schools.
• Working closely with parents/carers, offering regular updates and promoting family support.
• Reviewing, developing, and implementing curriculum policy and practice as a Curriculum Leader.
• Carrying out monitoring and evaluation activities to ensure high standards.
  
  

What We're Looking For

We're seeking a proactive, resilient and positive team member who can embody the Jigsaw Centre's ethos, implement highly effective working practices, and support the development of our provision.

Our Offer

We have a number of rewards and benefits available to our staff, to view these please visit our Rewards and Benefits page

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You will be expected to demonstrate how you meet the key accountabilities and competencies detailed within this Recruitment Pack  

Our Competency Framework and Qualification Guidance are to be read in conjunction with our Recruitment Pack.

For an informal discussion about this position, please contact: Justine McQuillan at justine.mcquillan@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk or call 0300 300 4111. 

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Safeguarding:

Central Bedfordshire Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all employees, volunteers and contractors to share this commitment. This post is subject to the disclosure of criminal records.  

To maintain a fair and consistent approach for applicants, it is Central Bedfordshire Council's policy to only consider applications made via our online application system and we therefore thank you for not submitting your application offline.

Our National Careers Service team offer a free monthly workshop covering CV writing and how to complete the statement sections of the Central Bedfordshire Council online application form. This MS Teams workshop is open to anyone from the UK and lasts around 1.5 hours.  Please book your place here.

More information about this service can be found here: Support getting into work or learning | Central Bedfordshire Council