Frontline services senior manager jobs

Partnerships and Best Practice Lead

Salary: £42,000
Contract: 36 hours per week, fixed term (12 months initially, with potential to extend subject to funding)
Location: Home-based, with travel for meetings, collaboration, and partnership work. You’ll be expected to spend time in person with colleagues and partners across locations including London, Sutton Coldfield and Hull.
Reports to: Director of Strategy, Partnerships and Advocacy

About the Role

Too many young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) face a sharp drop in support as they transition into adulthood. This role sits within an ambitious new programme, Ending the Cliff Edge, designed to change that.

As Partnerships and Best Practice Lead, you will play a central role in building a national, cross-sector alliance of young people, families, practitioners, organisations and service providers. Together, this alliance will drive meaningful reform and create better pathways into adulthood for disabled young people.

This is an opportunity to help shape a new initiative from the ground up—spreading best practice, testing innovative approaches, and building strong evidence of what works.

Key Responsibilities

• Build and maintain a broad collaborative partnership of cross‑sector organisations, providers, and experts to achieve collective ambition of driving improvement in transitions support.
• Refine, capture and share best‑practice models for supporting disabled young people into adulthood, ensuring they are evidence‑informed and accessible.
• Support partner organisations to design, adapt and deliver pilots that test innovative approaches and generate strong evidence of impact.
• Expand Kids’ national reach by growing the number of young people supported through improved transitions pathways, and increasing the number of businesses and providers engaged.
• Act as the central link between Kids’ direct delivery and wider national partners, ensuring learning is shared widely and consistently.
• Represent Kids externally as a champion for high‑quality transitions support, contributing to sector learning, collaboration and thought leadership.

About You

You are a confident relationship builder with experience of working across sectors and bringing people together around a shared goal. You’re comfortable working in a developing programme environment, able to take initiative, manage ambiguity, and turn ideas into action.

You are motivated by improving outcomes for disabled young people and have a strong understanding of the barriers they face.

Essential Criteria

• Proven experience of partnership development and cross-sector collaboration
• Experience identifying and sharing best practice, and translating learning into practical resources
• Ability to coordinate and support pilot projects, including stakeholder engagement and evaluation
• Excellent communication and relationship-building skills across a wide range of stakeholders
• Strong understanding of challenges faced by disabled young people transitioning to adulthood
• Ability to communicate complex ideas clearly to diverse audiences
• Experience supporting funder relationships and understanding funding environments
• Strong organisational and project management skills
• Ability to work independently, manage multiple priorities, and sustain partnerships
• Experience using data and insight to inform practice and demonstrate impact

Desirable

• Experience in disability, SEND, education, employment or youth sectors
• Knowledge of policy and practice related to transitions into adulthood
• Experience facilitating training, workshops or communities of practice
• Familiarity with co-production approaches
• Experience evaluating programmes and capturing outcomes

Why Apply?

This is a unique opportunity to help shape a national movement for change—working collaboratively to ensure disabled young people have the support, opportunities and outcomes they deserve as they move into adulthood.

Interviews will take place on 21st and 22nd May 2026

For further details, please see the full Job Description attached.

Fine Cell Work is a charity transforming the lives of people in prison and post-release through training in high quality, creative, commercial needlework. Handmade products are sold to public and to designers, artists, and heritage organisations, many of whom commission bespoke pieces. Customer demand for these products continues to grow. 

Our frontline services are delivered by a team of talented and dedicated volunteers across the country, making possible the transformational work that we do. Volunteers bring a wide range of experience, skills, and expertise. We offer a range of volunteering opportunities from teaching in prison to production and commissions support, to events, sales, and pop-up shops.

Core Job Purpose: 

Fine Cell Work is seeking a highly organised and people-focused Volunteer Coordinator to provide administrative support for a community of 100+ volunteers nationally. Based at our head office in Battersea, this role is central to ensuring a positive, efficient, and engaging volunteer experience - from recruitment and onboarding through to retention and ongoing support - and makes possible the realisation of our organisational mission.

Whilst acting as the first point of contact for general enquires about volunteering opportunities across the organisation, including with workshop, events, commissions, and production teams, the Volunteer Coordinator will act as the primary point of contact for volunteers working in prison, handling queries, maintaining up to date records, and triaging concerns to the appropriate members of the team.

This position requires strong administrative skills, excellent communication, and the ability to manage multiple priorities while maintaining a supportive and professional approach. 

Principal Accountabilities for the Core Job: 

Volunteer Recruitment & Onboarding 

• Coordinate end-to-end volunteer recruitment processes for all volunteer roles, including advertising, screening applications, and scheduling interviews 
• Manage all correspondence with prospective prison volunteers, ensuring a welcoming and professional experience 
• With the Senior Programmes and Impact Officer, support the creation of a regularly updated volunteer information pack and ensure all new prison volunteers receive it at least 7 days prior to their FCW volunteer training 
• Coordinate and timetable onboarding processes for prison volunteers, including induction administration, prison vetting, training sessions, and the distribution of materials 
• Maintain accurate records of all applicants and volunteers (across all roles) 

Volunteer Administration 

• Maintain and update all volunteer contact details
• Process all volunteer expenses
• Using Volunteero, track volunteer participation, hours, and engagement levels 
• Ensure all required documentation (e.g. references and vetting information for prison volunteers) is collected and securely stored 
• Using Volunteero, support scheduling and coordination of volunteer shifts in prison and across other activities including reflective practice; training; event attendance etc.

Volunteer Support & Retention 

• Act as the primary point of contact for Fine Cell Work volunteers working in prison, responding to queries in a timely and supportive manner 
• Build strong relationships with volunteers across all teams
• Coordinate regular check-ins, feedback collection, and recognition initiatives for volunteers across all teams e.g. for Volunteer Week 
• Lead on the coordination of the annual Fine Cell Work Volunteer Lunch 

Triage & Internal Coordination 

• Receive and assess volunteer questions, concerns, and feedback, via phone, email and Volunteero reports, determining the appropriate course of action
• Handle, escalate, or direct issues to relevant team members (e.g. Senior Programmes and Impact Officer / prison contacts / Production team / events or the Director of Programmes) as needed
• Any other ad hoc administrative or organisational tasks as required

The following knowledge and skills have been identified for the role: 

Essential knowledge, skills and experience:

• Experience in volunteer coordination, administration, or a similar people-focused role 
• Strong organisational skills with attention to detail and ability to manage multiple tasks 
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills 
• Ability to handle sensitive information with confidentiality and professionalism 
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to triage and prioritise effectively 
• Proficiency in standard office software and database systems 
• Proactive and solution-oriented 

Personal attributes: 

• Collaborative, empathetic and approachable, with a genuine interest in supporting volunteers 
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written 
• Friendly and approachable
• Detail oriented 
• Authoritative, calm, flexible and adaptable 
• Able to work with an experienced and established team
• Commitment to aims and ethos of Fine Cell Work 

This post is covered by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare: All unspent cautions and/or unspent convictions. 

South West Community Chaplaincy (SWCC) aims to provide effective care and community support for people going through the Criminal Justice System, including prison. This includes work such as advocacy, mentoring and holistic support to assist the integration of people with convictions into their communities, through a team of volunteers, within the counties of Cornwall , Devon and West Somerset. 

We are looking for a committed and motivated individual who will be responsible for the recruitment, training, support and retention of the volunteers: someone who has the ability to think outside the box in the approach to this task, and to attract volunteers to be part of something incredible - the changing of clients’ lives.

Volunteers provide a cornerstone of the work that SWCC achieves. They allow the organisation to have a substantially more positive impact due to the greater number of clients they are able to support. To this end, it is imperative that we recruit the right people as volunteers and that they feel fully supported and valued for all they bring to the organisation.

SWCC aims to provide a professional focus and resource for faith communities in the area to establish new and innovative ways of helping participants address their offending behaviour.  We do this by providing a network of support that can challenge and promote a positive attitude to change. This role (in conjunction with the chaplains) would fully explore church networks across the area as a potential source for volunteers. Utilising our training resources, we can offer to upskill congregations in safeguarding and also identify possible safe communities for our clients to be able to join.

There is an occupational requirement for applicants to actively embrace the faith ethos and values of SWCC and the successful applicant will have the ability to build positive relationships with a wide range of people. Some occasional weekend work will be involved.

Closing date: Friday 15th May 2026

Interviews: Week commencing 18th May 2026

Terms & Conditions:

Start date: ASAP

Salary: £27,383 per annum (inclusive of £3,990 Southeast Weighting)

Location: Hybrid with 3 days in the London office (Patshull Road)

Working hours: Full time: 35 hours per week

Contract: Permanent

Job Description:

We are seeking a meticulous and proactive Finance and Office Administrator to assist with our financial transactions and ensure the smooth running of our office operations. The ideal candidate will be interested in learning  and finance and administrative functions and skills, have good organisational skills and the ability to multitask in a dynamic environment. 

Key Responsibility Areas 

1. Finance Administration
2. HR Administration
3. Office Administration 

For the full job description, please download the recruitment pack.

Person Specification:

Skills and Experience 

• Education: Minimum of GCSEs in Mathematics and English or equivalent
• Experience: Some demonstrable administrative experience 
• Software Skills: Microsoft Office Suite. 
• Organisational Skills: Good multitasking abilities and attention to detail. 
• Communication Skills:  Good written and verbal communication skills. 
• Problem-Solving: Ability to identify issues and implement effective solutions. 
• Confidentiality: Maintain high levels of discretion and confidentiality. 

Personal Attributes and Other Requirements 

• This role has been designed for someone who wants to learn and develop new skills and includes training. We would encourage applicants who align with this to apply. 
• Commitment to the core values and ethos of Women in Prison, including social justice and feminism. 
• Commitment to anti-discriminatory practice and equal opportunities and an ability to apply awareness of diversity issues to all areas of work.