Operations Lead - Education

At Salutem Care and Education, our aim is to empower people to live a life they choose, regardless of the care or support they need.

We are proud to provide a range of care and support across our schools, day centres, and residential homes for children and adults. Just like any strong community, we want the very best for the individuals we support.

We’re proud to be recognised by the Top Employers Institute as a Top Employer United Kingdom, reflecting our exceptional culture, care, and commitment to our people.

In addition, we’re honoured to be named among the 2025 Top 100 Global Inspiring Workplaces, and to have achieved Top 10 in the 2026 UK & Ireland Inspiring Workplaces Awards.

We’re passionate about developing and supporting colleagues for the future. Through a culture of continuous learning and reflective practice, we create opportunities for personal and professional growth — helping our people build meaningful and rewarding careers in care.

We are looking for an experienced and ambitious Operations Lead to join our Education Division and play a pivotal role in supporting our portfolio of specialist schools.

This is a high-impact leadership role where you will work in partnership with Headteachers, Principals and central support teams to drive operational excellence, improve performance and ensure our schools deliver outstanding outcomes for children and young people.

As Operations Lead, you will provide strategic and operational support across multiple sites, helping schools maintain the highest standards of quality, compliance, workforce performance and financial sustainability. You will be instrumental in ensuring our schools are inspection-ready, operating efficiently and equipped to achieve their full potential.

If you thrive in a fast-paced environment, enjoy building strong relationships and are passionate about improving educational services, we'd love to hear from you.

• Partner with Headteachers and Principals to support the effective day-to-day operation of schools.
• Drive consistency in systems, processes and operational standards across multiple sites.
• Monitor performance and identify opportunities for continuous improvement.
• Support schools through periods of growth, change and development.
• Provide operational leadership during inspections, audits and regulatory visits.
• Identify and mitigate operational risks, implementing practical solutions to support success.

• Work closely with school leaders and HR teams to strengthen workforce stability and performance.
• Monitor recruitment, retention and agency usage trends.
• Support workforce planning, organisational reviews and change programmes.
• Ensure compliance with supervision, appraisal and mandatory training requirements.
• Promote employee wellbeing and engagement initiatives.
• Support the implementation of HR policies and best practice across the division.

• Develop and maintain performance reporting systems and dashboards.
• Analyse key trends and provide recommendations for improvement.
• Monitor divisional metrics including:
• Occupancy
• Safeguarding
• Behaviour
• Complaints
• Recruitment and retention
• Staff turnover
• Training compliance
• Budget performance
• School improvement actions
• Produce reports and insights for senior leadership meetings and business reviews.

• Support schools to maintain compliance with Independent School Standards, Ofsted requirements and safeguarding legislation.
• Coordinate compliance audits and improvement plans.
• Monitor completion of actions arising from inspections and internal reviews.
• Ensure schools maintain robust evidence and remain inspection ready.
• Promote a culture of continuous improvement and accountability.

• Lead operational projects across the Education Division.
• Support the mobilisation of new services and expansion initiatives.
• Coordinate the implementation of organisational systems and improvement programmes.
• Monitor delivery against project plans and key milestones.
• Escalate risks and barriers appropriately to ensure successful outcomes.
• Work with school…