Head of community services jobs in manchester, greater manchester

The National Youth Agency is looking for a new Chief Operating Officer to join our Executive Leadership Team.

Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full-time - 37 hours per week
Salary: £85,000 per annum
Remote: This role is homebased (within the UK) with occasional to meetings, events and conferences.

What we do

As the national body for youth work, the NYA has a dual function. We are the professional statutory and regulatory body (PSRB) responsible for qualifications, quality standards, and safeguarding for youth work and services in England. In line with our charity mission and aims, we also champion youth work through research, advocacy, campaigns, and programmes.

We work in partnership and believe in collaborative leadership, listening to youth workers and the youth work sector so that we can understand their needs and respond to the challenges they face. We are ambitious for youth work and for young people and integrate youth voice and influence across our work

About the Role

Responsibilities will include:

• The COO leads the day-to-day functioning of the organisation to ensure smooth, efficient, and effective delivery of services. This is vital for maintaining operational stability and achieving strategic outcomes.
• They design and execute strategies that align with the organisation’s mission and long-term goals ensuring resources are used effectively and priorities are clear.
• They promote a culture of excellence, innovation, and continuous improvement through supporting employee engagement, productivity, and organisational success.
• The COO collaborates closely with the CEO/CFO and other senior leaders to drive strategic initiatives and business growth, ensuring unified leadership and coherent decision-making.
• They partner with the CFO to manage budgets, forecasts, and resource allocation. Financial oversight ensures sustainability and supports informed investment in strategic priorities.
• Strengthen governance and risk management frameworks, aligned to regulatory expectations and best practice while proactively managing reputational and operational risks.
• The COO cultivates strong relationships with partners, clients, and stakeholders to enhance service delivery and reputation. These relationships are key to influence, collaboration, and impact.
• They lead efforts to improve processes and adopt best practices across the charity to enhance efficiency and keeps the organisation competitive and responsive.
• They ensure that daily activities support the charities long-term objectives.
• The COO mentors other directors and departmental heads and fosters leadership capabilities across teams.
• They establish and track KPIs to identify inefficiencies and guide improvements through data-driven decision-making to enhance accountability and results.
• They evaluate and refine workflows to boost productivity developing efficient processes to reduce waste and improve service quality.
• They act as a bridge between departments and the CEO to ensure cohesive execution of strategic plans preventing silos and promoting organisational synergy.
• The COO serves as a senior figure in national and cross-sector forums, conferences, and strategic partnerships to strengthens the organisation’s voice and influence.
• They demonstrate commitment to Equality, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging in both internal culture and external programmes to foster a fair and inclusive organisation.
• They work with the CEO, CFO and Director of Growth to identify and pursue new revenue streams and strategic partnerships. This expands the organisation’s reach and sustainability.
• They engage in public speaking, media interactions, and external representation demonstrating clear communication, credibility, and stakeholder engagement.
• They develop and embed evaluation frameworks to assess progress against strategic goals. The measuring of our impact ensures accountability and informs future planning.
• They promote the organisation’s brand at events and through networking.

The COO takes on other responsibilities as needed to support the organisation’s mission.

About You

Essential competencies of the Chief Operating Officer:

• Extensive experience in senior leadership with a proven track record in operations, financial and risk management, and delivering high-performing teams, ideally in the charity sector.
• Strong understanding of business functions such as HR, Finance, Marketing, etc.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to think strategically and execute effectively.
• Strong problem-solving and decision-making abilities. Commercially astute, process-driven, and highly pragmatic in approach.
• Experience in driving performance and fostering a collaborative culture.
• Bachelor’s degree in business administration or related field; MBA preferred

Why Work for NYA?

• NYA operates as a people-first organisation, prioritising the well-being and needs of its employees.
• NYA offers an exceptional flexible working approach which encourages our team to balance professional responsibilities with their personal life.
• A remote based team, spread across England, fostering inclusivity and diverse talent. Despite geographical distances between team members, NYA maintains a highly motivated and connected team through the optimisation of digital tools.
• NYA is committed to supporting the continual personal and professional development of our team and helping them achieve their ambitions.
• We provide 25 days leave plus 8 days, life assurance scheme, 5% employer pension contribution and a comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme via Spectrum.life with unlimited specialist support available to all NYA employees.

How to Apply:

To apply, please submit the following via our online application platform by 11:59pm on Monday 29th September 2025:

A detailed CV setting out your career history, with responsibilities and achievements in line with the person specification in the About You section.
A covering letter highlighting your suitability for the role and how you meet the requirements in the About You section.
We will request data for our EEDI monitoring purposes, providing this is optional.

Please note: The covering letter is an essential part of the application process and will be assessed as part of your full application. We use AI detector software, so cover letters or CV’s with over 80% AI generated content will be disregarded. We understand that AI tools can offer support to candidates who have learning differences, which is why we will accept applications with some AI assistance. CV’s will not be accepted without a cover letter.

The National Youth Agency is an equal opportunities employer.

At NYA our inclusive culture means that we embrace individual differences and understand that we need a diverse team to achieve our organisations mission.

We wish to recruit candidates from all backgrounds to ensure our team reflects the rich diversity of the communities we serve. We encourage applications from anyone regardless of disability, ethnicity, heritage, gender, sexuality, religion, socio-economic background and political beliefs but we particularly welcome applications from global majority candidates and those from other minoritised ethnic groups in the UK as they are currently underrepresented in our team.

Youth Work changes lives

Which is why we’re committed to ensuring that as many young people as possible get to benefit from it.As the national body for youth work in England, the National Youth Agency (NYA) exists to champion its transformative power. We believe all young people should have the opportunity to benefit from the life-changing impact of extraordinary youth workers and trained volunteers.

We help to grow youth work provision in ways that keep it effective, relevant, safe and engaging, to help millions of young people reach their potential and thrive. We do this by providing guidance, support, advice, training and staff development opportunities for youth workers and youth work organisations. At the heart of everything we do are young people themselves. We work hard to ensure their voices are integrated into all our work, to develop provision that truly meets their needs.

REF-223747

Family Support Manager - Greater Manchester

£29,000 + Company Car and benefits (including 25 days annual leave and pension)

This post will cover the Greater Manchester region

Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity is going through an exciting time where we are growing, with the aim of reaching more families in need.

About the role:

We are looking to appoint a Family Support Manager to lead our Greater Manchester Family Support team, including volunteers and a small caseload.

Reporting to the Head of Care out of our Greater Manchester team base and working in partnership with health, education and social care professionals, you will take responsibility for delivering a high quality family support service: and will act as the local Registered Manager for the Care Quality Commission, providing management and leadership to the team in relation to all safeguarding issues.

Having worked in a stressful and emotional environment within the community, you have a commitment to working in partnership with children, young people and their families, developing, monitoring and delivering service outcomes and building and maintaining successful professional partnerships to ensure the service is accessible to relevant families.

What we’re looking for:

• An experienced child health, education or social care professional - applications will be particularly welcome from those who understand the impact of family dynamics of having a child/young person with a life threatening or terminal illness and those who have worked in bereavement support. 
• A poised and convincing communicator - you will maintain effective relationships with stakeholders including families, referrers, partners and other statutory, private and voluntary agencies.
• Practiced in child protection, information sharing and the rules around data protection - you lead by example, drawing on your own professional experience and working within established guidelines
• Comfortable with a changing environment - you will thrive working at a fast pace and controlling tasks form conception to completion and understand that quickly connecting with people is essential.
• A persuasive, inclusive approach to achieving goals quickly and correctly - with a warm and friendly working style.
• Strong networking skills and confident use of MS Office - educated to A-Level with a recognised childcare and management qualification (NVQ4 or equivalent).

What we offer:

We have a range of fantastic benefits that we offer our employees, including:

• Flexible working hours to balance home and working life
• Employee Assistance Programme with access to remote GP, counselling, physiotherapy, resources to support your mental health and financial wellbeing, as well as a 24/7 helpline via Help@Hand
• Company car for front line care posts
• 25 days of annual leave plus public holidays – rising to 26 days after 1 year, 27 days after 5 years and 30 days after 11 years, with an additional 5 years to use in your 10th or 20th year of service (pro rata for part time)
• Time off in Lieu
•  Access to the Blue Light Card Scheme, and other rewards and discounts
• BikThe option to buy/sell annual leave, as well as additional leave for your birthday, wedding/civil ceremony and an extra half day off for Christmas shopping
• Robust training and development programmes to support your learning and growth

As part of our learning and development Anne Harris skills development programme, we aim to provide a high level of training and development opportunities for all staff, so you are able to perform to the best of your ability, achieve individual and team objectives aligned to Rainbow Trusts strategic plan, supporting staff to be their best and feel a valued member of a high performing organisation.

Our Family Support Teams are given the opportunity to complete a number of diverse training courses in their first 12 months, including but not limited to: Mental Health First Aid, Makaton, counselling skills, introduction to play.

The programme aims to provide a building block for you to individually tailor your own learning and development needs.

About us:

Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity enables families who have a child with a life-threatening or terminal illness to make the most of time together, providing expert, practical and emotional support, where they need it for as long as it is needed. For families living with childhood illness, time is everything. Right now, there are too many families coping alone with no support, no time to think, no time to make memories and no time for each other. We believe that no family should go through this alone, so we are here to change that.

How to apply:

Please visit our website via the link and apply online.

Please disclose on your application form if you have used AI for any part of your job application.

Interviews will take place at our Manchester Care Team office with the dates to be confirmed. We will only contact those applicants who have been successful.

There will be a requirement for flexible working and a full current driver’s licence to accommodate team and family need. An enhanced DBS disclosure will be required for this post.

Rainbow Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all employees to share this commitment.

Rainbow Trust is an equal opportunities employer and we welcome applications from all backgrounds. We are a Best Companies One-Star rated organisation.

Urban Saints equips youth leaders to disciple young people in today’s changing world. Our vision is to see every young person given the opportunity to explore faith, wherever they are.

About the Role 

The Content Creator will play a vital role in helping Urban Saints communicate with clarity, creativity, and consistency across all platforms. From video editing and creating social media graphics, to designing resources, brochures, or branded assets, this role is responsible for creating visually engaging content that amplifies our message and inspires action.

You'll be responsible for:

• Designing and producing compelling visual content across digital and print formats.
• Filming and editing videos for campaigns, training materials and resources.
• Managing and editing visual assets, including team-supplied images.
• Contributing ideas and visual concepts to support campaigns and storytelling.
• Acting as a brand guardian for visual content, ensuring consistency across all channels.
• Working closely with other members of the Communications team to deliver content for campaigns, training, and wider initiatives.

Please note, this is predominantly a remote role, but with travel as the role requires. All full-time Urban Saints employees are required to attend two team residentials per year (3 days/ 2 nights each).

About You

You'll shape and deliver high-quality content that supports campaigns, promotes our training and resources, and strengthens Urban Saints’ brand both online and in print.

Key Skills and Experience:

• Strong design and video editing skills across digital and print formats.
• Proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite, Canva, and video editing software (Premiere Pro, Final Cut etc)
• Confident in video production – from filming to postproduction.
• Ability to develop content for a range of platforms including social media, web, email, and YouTube.
• Strong attention to detail and visual consistency.
• Proven experience in a content creation, multimedia, or graphic design role.
• Experience creating visual content as part of multi-channel campaigns (e.g. email, social media, website etc).
• Experience working with brand guidelines and visual identities.
• Understanding of digital content trends, platform specifications, and audience behaviour.

How to Apply

This post is subject to an Occupational Requirement that the post holder is a committed Christian under Part 1 of Schedule 9 to the Equality Act 2010.

Please visit our website to fill out an application form. We would love to see your creativity in action. After we’ve received your application we’ll be in touch asking for a link to your portfolio or examples of your work (graphics, videos, or other creative projects) that you’re most proud of.

The closing date for applications is Friday 26th September, midday. Please note, we will be actively reviewing applications ahead of the closing date and reserve the right to close applications before this date.