SME Delivery - Child Protection Services (Residential Care)

Delivery SME – Child Protection Services (Residential Care)

Melbourne, VIC | Hybrid (3 Days Office | 2 Days WFH)

Full-time

At HCPA, we partner with organisations across Australia's highly regulated industries to establish, strengthen, and scale their services through practical governance, compliance, and operational consulting.

We're looking for an experienced Delivery SME – Child Protection Services to help Residential Care and broader Child Protection providers build safe, compliant, and sustainable services.

The Opportunity

This isn't a traditional frontline Child Protection or case management role.

Instead, you'll work as a trusted consultant, partnering with organisations to establish new services, strengthen existing operations, improve governance, prepare for audits, and implement practical operational solutions.

You'll work with organisations delivering:

• Residential Care
• Out of Home Care (OOHC)
• Foster Care
• Kinship Care
• Family Preservation
• Family Services
• Early Intervention
• Youth Services

If you've built your career leading Residential Care services, governance, compliance, quality, or operational improvement and want to apply that expertise across multiple organisations, we'd love to hear from you.

What You'll Be Doing

• Support provider registration and approval processes
• Assist organisations to establish Residential Care services and achieve operational readiness
• Conduct governance, compliance, and operational reviews
• Implement Child Safe Standards and safeguarding frameworks
• Develop governance frameworks, policies, procedures, and SOPs
• Support audit readiness, accreditation, and regulatory reviews
• Design quality management systems and operational frameworks
• Identify governance, compliance, and operational risks and implement practical improvement strategies
• Deliver consulting workshops and advisory sessions with clients
• Build scalable resources, templates, and implementation tools that strengthen HCPA's consulting capability

What We're Looking For

You'll bring experience in one or more of the following:

• Residential Care Operations
• Out of Home Care (OOHC)
• Child Protection
• Quality & Compliance
• Governance
• Service Establishment
• Operational Leadership

You'll also have experience with:

• Provider registration and approval processes
• Residential Care operational requirements
• Residential service establishment and operational readiness
• Child Safe Standards and safeguarding frameworks
• Governance, quality, and compliance systems
• Audit, accreditation, or regulatory readiness
• Policy, procedure, and SOP development
• Translating legislation into practical operational solutions

Ideal Backgrounds

We're particularly interested in candidates from roles such as:

• Residential Care Operations Manager
• Residential Services Manager
• OOHC Operations Manager
• Quality & Compliance Manager
• Governance or Compliance Manager
• Practice Manager / Practice Lead
• Child Protection Consultant
• Former State or Territory Child Protection leader with operational or governance experience

Why Join HCPA?

• Work with multiple providers across Australia's Child Protection sector
• Influence governance, compliance, and operational excellence beyond a single organisation
• Diverse consulting projects with real impact
• Hybrid Melbourne-based role
• Supportive, collaborative, and high-performing team
• Opportunity to help organisations establish and strengthen high-quality Residential Care and Child Protection services

This Role Isn't For You If...

• You're looking for a traditional frontline case management role
• You prefer carrying a client caseload over consulting with organisations
• You enjoy direct service delivery more than governance, compliance, operational improvement, and organisational development
• You don't enjoy policy development, quality systems, audits, or continuous improvement
• You're uncomfortable advising senior leaders and managing multiple consulting projects

Ready to Apply?

If you're passionate about improving the quality, governance, and sustainability of Residential Care and Child Protection services—and you're ready to apply your expertise in a consulting environment—we'd love to hear from you.

Apply via LinkedIn or send your CV to Sign in to view email or [email protected].