Project Manager

Project Manager: Voices for Health Equity 

Job Description and Person Specification 

 

Job title Project Manager: Voices for Health Equity  

Hours 35 hours per week  

Salary Between £37,000 - £43,750. Placement within the band will depend on skills and experience, with the upper end reflecting significant, directly relevant expertise. 

Location Hybrid work between home and our Vauxhall office, as well as regular travel to in-person events across England. Please read more about our approach to hybrid working in the relevant section below.  

Reports to Director of Evidence and Improvement 

National Voices 

Making what matters to people matter in health and care 

National Voices is the leading coalition of health and social care charities in England. We have more than 200 members covering a diverse range of health conditions and communities, connecting us with the experiences of millions of people. We work together to strengthen the voice of people: patients, service users, carers, their families, and the voluntary organisations that work for them. 

 

Our Vision: 

People shaping their health and care. 

 

Our Mission: 

We advocate for more inclusive and person centred health and care, shaped by the people who use and need it the most. 

 

We do this by: 
 

• Understanding and advocating for what matters to people especially those living with health conditions and groups who experience inequalities. 

• Finding common cause across communities and conditions by working with member charities and those they support. 

• Connecting and convening charities, decision makers and citizens to work together to change health and care for good. 
   

The Role 

National Voices has been commissioned by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to deliver their work with the CQC Public Engagement Network. The Public Engagement Network is a group of 200+ charities with reach into communities experiencing health inequalities across England. By engaging with these organisations, the CQC’s aim is to ensure that local health and care services meet the needs and preferences of the communities they serve. 

For both organisations this is much more than just another engagement contract, it is a new partnership designed to make the voices the CQC hears from more than the sum of its parts. In our work with the Public Engagement Network, we are committed to: 

1. Ensuring meaningful participation of people and communities 

2. Championing accessibility and inclusion 

3. Valuing VCSE organisations as equal partners 

4. Ensuring insights collected lead to impact and action 

5. Investing in the long-term capacity and agency of VCSE organisations 

6. Being brave and principled – acting with courage and not shying away from difficult conversations    

The Voices for Health Equity Project Manager role is to: 

• Lead the delivery of the Public Engagement Network contract from inception through to delivery, learning and evaluation, including co-ordinating an integrated management team including representatives of our two partner organisations.  

• Build, manage and sustain the Public Engagement Network, creating a range of opportunities for members to participate, and ensuring relationships are meaningful, inclusive and mutually beneficial. 

• Ensure high-quality insight is captured from the network, analysed and translated into learning, improvement and influence. 

• Provide day-to-day project governance, quality assurance and risk management. 

The role is delivery-focused and externally facing, with significant responsibility for programme management, partner relationships and ensuring National Voices’ values are embedded in how CQC uses the insights generated. 

Responsibilities 
 

Programme and client management 

• Lead the end-to-end delivery of the Public Engagement Network programme, including co-ordinating an integrated management team including representatives of our two partner organisations. 

• Manage individual project plans, budgets, risks and dependencies, escalating issues appropriately and ensuring delivery remains on track. 

• Oversee subcontracted work, including agreeing briefs, managing performance, quality assuring outputs and approving invoices. 

• Act as the main point of contact for the commissioners, and lead on regular reporting obligations and on programme evaluation.  

 
Building and managing the Public Engagement Network 

• Take lead responsibility for engaging, stewarding, supporting and retaining a network of VCSE organisations with reach into marginalised communities and those experience inequalities. 

• Design and deliver engagement approaches with the network and those they represent that prioritises trust, long-term relationships and mutual benefit. 

• Oversee the delivery of learning events, sense-making sessions and other opportunities that support members to build confidence, skills and influence. 

• Ensure participants are appropriately supported, reimbursed and recognised for their contribution. 

• Ambitiously grow the Network, through participating in outreach events, ongoing communication activities and more. 
   

Co-ordinate and support activities capturing insight, learning and impact 

• Co-ordinate and support colleagues with projects that capture qualitative and quantitative insight from people with lived experience, including insight capture events, focus groups, interviews, advisory groups etc. 

• When needed, support the analysis and synthesis of insight into clear themes, findings and recommendations. 

• Work with colleagues to ensure insight informs National Voices’ wider influencing, improvement and learning activity. 

• Support effective feedback loops, ensuring participants understand how their input has been used and what impact it has had. 

 

Governance, quality and risk management 

• Provide day-to-day programme governance for assigned projects, operating within agreed frameworks and reporting arrangements 

• Contribute to internal management groups and partnership meetings as required 

• Maintain and review risk registers and quality assurance processes. 

• Ensure safeguarding, data protection, accessibility and ethical considerations are embedded in all activity. 

• Support preparation of regular performance and impact reports for internal and external audiences. 

 

Partnership and stakeholder management 

• Work closely with partner organisations to deliver programmes collaboratively, modelling National Voices’ values and ways of working 

• Build effective relationships with senior stakeholders across the CQC, VCSE organisations and delivery partners. 

• Represent National Voices at external meetings, events and learning forums as required. 

 
Line management and internal leadership 

• Line-manage the Voices for Health Equity Project Officer including overseeing day-to-day work, quality assuring outputs, holding regular 1-2-1s as well as setting annual objectives and completing appraisals.  

• Provide matrix management for other National Voices of colleagues including other Manager roles and other officers, as and when work requires.  

• Work in sync with other managers across National Voices, contributing to a joined-up, supportive team culture 

• Deputise for the Director of Evidence and Improvement, or other senior colleagues, when required. 

 

General 

• Take a proactive approach to including people with lived experience and members in all areas of work 

• Support the development of funding bids and proposals, including shaping delivery models and costing activity. 

• Follow organisational processes to measure, monitor and communicate the impact of our work 

• Support good project, financial and data management 

• Contribute to team planning activities and undertake other relevant duties as appropriate 

• Be prepared to take part in full-day events and, with sufficient notice, events outside core working hours 

 

Person Specification  

Values, attitudes and behaviours 
 

• Passionate about National Voices’ mission and the meaningful involvement of people with lived experience 

• Strong commitment to equity, inclusion and reducing health inequalities 

• Proactive, flexible and comfortable working in complexity 

• Calm under pressure and able to manage multiple priorities while maintaining quality 

• Confident in building relationships and constructively challenging where needed 

• Comfortable working collaboratively and taking responsibility for delivery 

• Energised by breadth and variety, able to work effectively across diverse topics and themes while spotting connections and opportunities for impact 

 

Skills and abilities 
 

• Strong project or programme management skills, with experience delivering complex, multi-stakeholder work 

• Demonstrable experience of working with people with lived experience and/or VCSE organisations in a meaningful and inclusive way 

• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to translate complex insight into clear, accessible outputs 

• Experience of managing partnerships, subcontractors or commissioned work 

• Strong organisational skills, with the ability to prioritise, plan and manage risk 

• Experience of quality assurance, reporting and working within governance frameworks 

• Excellent people skills, with the ability to lead, support and motivate others 

 

Experience, knowledge and understanding 

• Demonstrable experience in leading insight generation projects which have led to real-world impact and improvements. 

• Experience in engaging with people experiencing inequalities in a safe and meaningful way. 

• Experience of managing funder relationships and generating income. 

• Experience of facilitating and presenting at events and workshops. 

• Experience of managing and building coalitions or groups of VCSE or other membership organisations (desirable) 

• A understanding of qualitative and quantitative approaches to evidence generation and analysis (desirable) 

• Project management qualifications (desirable) 

 

Our approach to hybrid working 

We recognise the importance of coming together regularly, in-person, as a team, so we can share learnings and spend social time with each other. We also recognise that people need flexibility, and that homeworking enables focused work and can fit well in people’s lives.  

We ask all staff to take part in pre-arranged team meetings which take place every six weeks in our office space. We also might ask you to meet in-person with members of your team from time to time, or to be available for face-to- face meetings with clients and partners where this enhances the work.  

We assume that this would usually not amount to more than one day per fortnight for people who work full time. We are happy to discuss how this sits in your life. This can be agreed by your line manager. 

In addition, because this role involves engaging with and recruiting to a large network of VCSE organisations, the post holder will be required to regularly attend in-person events across England. These are likely to take place around once a month and may sometimes require overnight stays. Travel, accommodation and subsistence costs for events across England will be paid, however, travel to our London office will be at the expense of the postholder. 

Please note that our offices are fully wheelchair accessible and that we are committed to making our workplace fully inclusive. 

Application guidance 

Please submit a CV and answer the questions in the application form to apply.  

Applications should be addressed to our Director Evidence and Improvement, Sarah Sweeney, and submitted through CharityJob.  

Please specify any access or other requirements of which we need to be aware for the online interview.  

The deadline for applications is noon on 20th March 2026.  

The interviews will take place on Thursday 26th March on Microsoft Teams. Details of an interview task and interview questions will be emailed to you in advance.  

We are committed to diversifying our team in order to broaden the insight and experiences we can draw on, and to do our work more credibly. In particular, we would welcome applications from people from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds and men, who are both underrepresented in our team. Our offices are fully accessible and we are a Disability Confident and an LGBT+ friendly employer.