Group Referrals & Assessment Manager

Help us create homes, not placements. At Nova Stars Group, our ambition is simple but important: wherever possible, we want to help prevent people with learning disabilities, autism and complex needs from experiencing unnecessary hospital admissions, placement breakdowns or inappropriate institutional care. We want to create safer, specialist and genuinely homely environments where people can build stability, relationships, independence and meaningful lives. As we continue to grow, we are looking for an exceptional Referrals, Assessments & Placements Manager who understands that vision and knows how to turn it into sustainable growth. About Nova Stars Group: Nova Stars Group is the umbrella and holding company for two specialist social care providers. Across the Group, we currently have 11 residential care homes, with six registered and a further five progressing through registration. We have also recently registered our Supported Living provision, creating another important branch of our services. Our specialisms include supporting people with learning disabilities, autism and mental health conditions, including individuals who may have additional and complex support needs. We provide a transitional model for young people aged 17–25, helping young people move towards adulthood in a planned and supportive way. Alongside this, our adult residential services support people aged 18–65. We are ambitious about growth, but our ambition is not simply to open more services. We want to create more homes where people can thrive. We believe that with the right environment, the right team and the right specialist support around an individual, people with complex needs can achieve positive outcomes within their communities. Referrals, Assessments & Placements Manager The Opportunity: * We are looking for someone with significant senior-level experience within social care referrals, assessments, placements, commissioning or business development, particularly someone who understands services for people with learning disabilities and/or autism. This is not a role where you will simply manage referrals that arrive in an inbox. We need someone who can create opportunities. You will take ownership of referrals, assessments, placements and occupancy across both providers within Nova Stars Group. You will understand where our vacancies are, what capacity is coming through registration and what needs to happen to develop a strong pipeline of appropriate referrals. * We are particularly interested in someone who already has connections within the sector and can build credible relationships with commissioners, social workers, brokerage teams, NHS and ICB professionals, transitions teams, case managers and other professionals involved in commissioning specialist care. Know the market. Build the relationships. Open the doors. * Occupancy across the Group will be an important measure of performance. However, we are equally clear that we do not want occupancy at the expense of quality. A successful placement is one where we can genuinely meet the person's needs, the funding reflects the support required, risks have been properly understood, compatibility has been considered and the placement has the foundations to be sustainable. Developing Our Referral Network: * You will become one of the key external faces of Nova Stars Group, developing relationships with existing commissioners while introducing our services to new commissioning areas. We want someone who is comfortable picking up the phone, arranging meetings, attending provider forums, visiting commissioners and explaining what makes our services different. Your network matters, but so does your ability to build new connections. * You will help us develop relationships both locally and out of borough, identifying where there is demand for the specialist services we provide and ensuring Nova Stars Group becomes known by the professionals responsible for sourcing those services. We want commissioners to understand not only where we have vacancies, but what we can offer the person behind the referral. Tenders, Frameworks & New Opportunities: * An important part of the role will be identifying opportunities for Nova Stars Group to join relevant local authority and out-of-borough frameworks, Dynamic Purchasing Systems, approved provider lists and other commissioning arrangements. We are therefore looking for someone with practical experience of tender writing, framework applications and commissioning portals. You will identify suitable opportunities, coordinate submissions and work with colleagues across the Group to produce high-quality tenders and proposals. * You will have the confidence to look beyond what we are currently doing and tell us where the next opportunity might be. If there's a better way of doing something, we want to hear it. We are a dynamic group and want someone who brings ideas. We don't expect you to simply inherit our existing approach we want you to help us improve it. From Referral to the Right Home: * Once a referral is identified, you will coordinate the journey from initial enquiry through assessment, compatibility, funding, transition and admission. You will need to understand complex needs and ask the right questions before recommending a placement. * That means understanding the person's learning disability or autism, mental health, communication, behaviours, health needs, risks, relationships, environmental requirements, staffing needs and the outcomes they want to achieve. You'll work with the wider team to determine whether we can genuinely meet those needs. * Sometimes that means thinking creatively about what needs to be developed around the person rather than simply asking whether they fit an existing service. We don't want people to fit into services. We want services that respond to people. Referrals, Assessments & Placements Manager You'll Have Specialist Support Around You: * One of the strengths of Nova Stars Group is that you will not be making complex placement decisions alone. Our Integrated Specialist Support Team (ISST) provides specialist multidisciplinary support across the Group. The team includes Therapists, Psychotherapists, a Learning Disabilities Nurse, an SEMH Educational Lead and a Wellbeing Practitioner, with the department overseen by our Head of Service for ISST. * This team can work alongside you during complex referrals and assessments, helping us understand what may be required to successfully support an individual. Their involvement can continue throughout transition and beyond admission, supporting placement stability and helping the people within our services achieve positive and meaningful outcomes. * This is particularly important to our philosophy. We don't simply want to secure a placement and move on to the next referral. Getting someone through the front door is only the beginning. We want placements to work. We want people to feel safe in their homes. We want to reduce placement breakdown and, wherever possible, prevent people reaching a point where hospital or more restrictive environments become their only option. Quality From the Beginning: * You will also work closely with our Quality & Compliance Team, who provide governance and oversight throughout our admission process. They help ensure our agreed admission procedures are followed, the necessary information has been obtained, risks have been considered and the right documentation and safeguards are in place. * Our philosophy is to get it right from the get-go. A rushed admission can create problems for the individual, existing residents and the staff team. We therefore want every admission to be properly considered and planned. Registered Managers Beside You: * Our Registered Managers will also play an important role in your work. When you are considering placing someone within their service, the Registered Manager will work alongside you to understand compatibility, staffing, environment, risks, transition requirements and whether the service can safely meet the person's needs. * You'll therefore have a wider team around you consisting of Registered Managers, ISST, Quality & Compliance, Finance, Training & Development and Senior Leadership. You will be expected to drive referrals and opportunities forward, but you won't be expected to do it in isolation. Bring the opportunity. We'll bring the team around it. Commercially Minded, Person-Centred: * You will also need strong commercial awareness. You'll work with senior colleagues to ensure packages are appropriately costed based on the individual's assessed needs. You'll contribute to funding proposals and fee negotiations and communicate confidently with commissioners where enhanced staffing or specialist resources are required. You should understand the relationship between quality, staffing, funding and placement sustainability. * We want someone who can grow occupancy while maintaining professional integrity. If an individual isn't right for a particular service, we expect you to say so. The wrong placement doesn't help the person, the service or the organisation. Referrals, Assessments & Placements Manager What Success Looks Like: * You will have clear ownership and accountability within this role, and occupancy across Nova Stars Group will be a key performance measure. We will also look at the strength of the referral pipeline, referral-to-placement conversion, new commissioner relationships, successful admissions, framework and tender activity, out-of-borough opportunities and the sustainability of the placements secured. * With five further residential services progressing through registration and our Supported Living provision developing, we need someone who can think ahead. We don't want to wait until a new service opens before asking where the referrals are coming from. We want the relationships being developed, commissioners engaged and potential referrals being explored before the doors open. Who We're Looking For: * You will already have substantial experience within social care and ideally have worked in a senior referrals, assessment, placements, commissioning or business-development position. You should have strong knowledge of learning disabilities and/or autism and understand the complexities involved in assessing and establishing specialist placements. * You'll know how commissioning works, understand how to generate referrals and be able to demonstrate how you have previously contributed to occupancy growth and successful placement conversion. We particularly want to hear from people who bring established professional relationships within commissioning and social care, while also having the drive to build new networks. * Experience with tender writing, frameworks, procurement portals, local authority commissioning and out-of-borough placements will be important. You'll be confident, organised and commercially aware, but also understand why safeguarding, compatibility, quality and person-centred decision-making must remain central to every admission. * Most importantly, we want someone with energy and ideas. You don't need to agree with everything we currently do. If you've seen something work better elsewhere, tell us. If there's technology we should be using, a commissioner we should be talking to or a different approach we should try, bring it to the table. What You'll Get from Us: * You'll join a growing organisation with an accessible and dynamic senior team. You'll have the autonomy to take ownership of your area while having specialist and operational support available when you need it. * The role operates on a hybrid working model, with three days on-site and two days hybrid working. There will also be travel between services, assessments, commissioner meetings and networking opportunities. The three days will be on – site at our central head office. * A full UK driving licence and access to a vehicle are therefore essential, and business mileage will be paid in accordance with our mileage arrangements. You'll also receive access to our Employee Assistance Programme, employee benefits and discounts through BrightHR, your birthday off with pay, and free parking. * But perhaps the biggest opportunity is the chance to join us while we're still growing and help influence what Nova Stars Group becomes. Referrals, Assessments & Placements Manager Recognition for Growing & Bonus: We believe that exceptional results should be recognised and rewarded. In addition to your agreed salary and benefits, you will be eligible for a £500 referral success bonus for each new placement generated directly through your own referral pipeline, payable once the individual has remained successfully placed with Nova Stars Group for more than 90 days. This is an additional incentive and is completely separate from your contractual salary it will not replace, reduce or be deducted from your normal pay. It is simply our way of recognising the additional effort involved in building new relationships, creating opportunities and securing appropriate, sustainable placements. For us, success isn't just bringing in a referral; it's helping create a placement that works. That's why the incentive is linked to the placement remaining successfully with us beyond 90 days, reinforcing our commitment to quality, compatibility and positive outcomes as well as growth. A little extra recognition for making a meaningful difference. More Than Occupancy: Yes, we want to grow. Yes, we want our homes occupied. And yes, we want someone who is commercially driven and understands the importance of delivering results. But behind every occupancy percentage is a person. Someone who needs a home. Someone whose previous placement may have broken down. Someone transitioning into adulthood. Someone who may have spent too much of their life moving between services. Or someone who could potentially enter hospital or a more restrictive environment if the right community support isn't available. Our ambition is to create more homes, more stability and more opportunities for people to live meaningful lives in their communities. If you have the connections, social care knowledge, commercial drive and determination to help us do that, we'd love to hear from you