Community centre manager jobs in Birmingham, west midlands
Senior Service Designer
Location: remote. This role can be based at any of Barnardo's national offices. Regular local and national travel will be required.
Help us design services that transform childhoods
At Barnardo's, we believe every child deserves a safe, happy and hopeful future. For over 150 years, we've been innovating to improve the lives of children, young people and families across the UK. Today, we run more than 800 services and are committed to making them excellent, inclusive and designed with the children, young people and families who use them.
As a senior member of the Service Design team, you will play a vital role in applying service design methods to deliver measurable improvements in service quality, efficiency, value and outcomes for children, young people and families.
We are continuing to strengthen how we design and improve services across Barnardo's, working across a complex and evolving portfolio that spans children's services, digital delivery and business development.
This role offers the opportunity to shape not only individual services, but how service design is used to support decision-making, prioritisation and innovation across the organisation.
This is a hands-on role as well as a strategic one – you'll be actively designing, prototyping and iterating services as well as shaping direction and decision-making.
As a Senior Service Designer, you will:
- Work across a portfolio of projects, balancing priorities and adapting to changing organisational needs
- Contribute to service development and proposals, working with business development colleagues to shape service models
- Influence decision-making and prioritisation, using evidence and insight to guide direction
- Identify opportunities to improve services in ways that deliver better outcomes, greater efficiency and value for money
- Lead the end-to-end design of services in complex environments, shaping user-centred, evidence-based solutions that respond to organisational priorities, and creating service maps, blueprints, prototypes and other design artefacts to bring ideas to life
- Test and iterate service concepts in response to feedback and learning, refining solutions to improve outcomes
- Ensure services are coherent and integrated across online and offline channels
- Work across functions including business development, digital, finance, operations, research and policy to engage stakeholders and support organisational change
- Mentor and support colleagues – developing confidence and skills, with the potential to provide line management support to junior designers where appropriate
- Develop practice and contribute to standards, frameworks and reusable design patterns
- Share learning internally and externally, contributing to professional communities of practice and helping raise the profile of service design at Barnardo's
This is a varied, hands-on and project-focused role that allows for autonomy, creativity and real impact. You'll be part of a warm, committed team that shares learning, supports wellbeing, and is united in a clear mission: designing for better outcomes for children and families.
You'll work with a high degree of autonomy, navigating complexity and ambiguity, delivering tangible improvements to services and contributing to a growing and evolving design practice.
What We're Looking For
We're looking for a Senior Service Designer who can:
- Work autonomously to lead the design of complex services
- Manage competing priorities effectively across projects, balancing time, focus and trade-offs
- Influence stakeholders and support organisational change beyond immediate project teams, communicating design decisions and complex ideas clearly to a range of audiences
- Understand how services operate within wider organisational systems, and use this to inform decision-making and support effective change
- Confidently use a range of evidence, including user research, service data and performance insights, to inform decisions and guide direction
- Conduct in-depth user research to generate actionable insights and guide decision-making
- Create and iterate prototypes and other design artefacts
- Integrate offline and online service delivery into coherent end-to-end services
- Design and facilitate collaborative workshops with a range of stakeholders and partners
- Evaluate and evidence the impact of service design work
Previous experience in children's services, health, education or related public/third sector contexts is desirable – but if you bring transferable skills, we want to hear from you.
What You'll Get in Return
- 26 days annual leave (rising with service) plus bank holidays
- Access to the Barnardo's pension scheme
- Flexible working and hybrid/remote options
- Wellbeing initiatives and Employee Assistance Programme
- Regular supervision and career development opportunities
- The opportunity to shape how service design is used across a national organisation
- The chance to work on services that support children, young people and families across the UK.
Inclusion and Belonging
We are committed to building a diverse workforce. We particularly welcome applications from disabled candidates, LGBTQ+ people, people from racially minoritised communities, and those with care experience. If there's anything we can do to support you through the application process, please let us know.
Ready to Apply?
Together, we can change childhoods and change lives.
When completing your application please refer to your skills knowledge and experience in relation to the Person Specification and Job Description.
Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
We are 4 Day Week employer
Purpose of the role
Brook is the UK’s leading sexual health and wellbeing charity, providing inclusive, confidential services and education to support people of all ages. We are committed to changing attitudes, challenging prejudice and championing equality.
We are seeking an exceptional, values-driven operational leader to join us as Assistant Director of Clinical Operations, providing strategic leadership and oversight across our national portfolio of clinical services. This is a pivotal senior role responsible for ensuring the delivery of safe, high-quality, innovative and financially sustainable services, while contributing to organisational strategy, growth and continuous improvement.
Reporting to the Deputy Chief Executive and working as part of the senior leadership team, you will lead operational performance, governance, service transformation and quality assurance across Brook’s clinical services. You will oversee an allocated portfolio of services and contracts alongside providing leadership to the Head of Clinical Operations.
You will drive operational excellence through robust performance frameworks and continuous improvement, lead the mobilisation of new services, and provide senior escalation for complex issues, ensuring strong risk management and full compliance with regulatory and contractual requirements.
With substantial experience of leading complex healthcare or public health services, you will bring strong strategic, analytical and leadership skills, alongside a commitment to delivering outstanding, person-centred care and fostering a culture of accountability and inclusion.
Essential criteria
- Significant senior operational leadership experience within healthcare, public health or related services.
- Significant experience of providing strategic operational leadership across complex, multi-site healthcare or public health services.
- Proven experience of delivering high quality services within complex contractual and regulatory environments.
- Experience of leading organisational change, service transformation and operational improvement programmes.
- Experience of budget management and financial oversight across multiple services.
- Demonstrable experience of working collaboratively with commissioners, partners and senior stakeholders.
- Experience of contract mobilisation, redesign and performance improvement.
- Experience of leading high-performing teams through periods of change and growth.
- Experience of accountability for organisation-wide operational performance, governance and service improvement.
- Experience of managing complex complaints, incidents and operational risk.
- Experience of supporting complex staffing and workforce management issues.
- Experience of developing and managing external stakeholder and subcontractor relationships.
To learn more about the role and person specification please read the attached 'role specification' which can be found on the application form.
About the role:
- Hours: Full-Time 37.5 Hours per week
(Upon completing your probationary period, you will be eligible to join the 4 Day Week program, which allows you to work 20% fewer hours without a decrease in salary)
- Contract: Permanent
- Location: This is a UK-wide role that can be primarily remote, with a designated base at the nearest Brook office or service.
- Salary: £72,000
- Closing date: 30th May 2026
- First stage interviews: 10 June 2026
Application Tip: Ensure your supporting statement refers to the person specification as this will assist in a successful sift through to the interview stage.
About Brook:
Brook is the UK’s leading sexual health and wellbeing charity. We are committed to changing attitudes, challenging prejudice and championing equality.
Our unique combination of clinical services and education programmes are designed to meet individual needs and instill positive behaviours that influence their whole lives. Our digital solutions help us reach even greater numbers of young people and professionals, and our expansion into all-age services ensures that whole communities can benefit from our inclusive, non-judgmental approach to sexual and reproductive health.
We are continuously listening to and learning from our service users and the communities we support. We amplify the voices of those who face barriers to access, ensuring that sexual health remains high on the political agenda and that law, policy and practice is aligned with what they need.
Benefits of working for Brook:
- 4 Day Week (Working 20% hours less without salary decrease)
- Annual leave – 28 days per annum, increasing up to 33 days plus 8 bank holidays
- Sick pay (from 3 up to 12 weeks fully paid)
- Flexible working
- Gratitude scheme
- Assisted purchase scheme
- Cycle to Work up to £1k
- Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)
- Long service awards
- Maternity and paternity pay
- Pension scheme – Employee pension contributions matched by Brook up to 4% of qualifying earnings
- Training and development opportunities
- Coaching
Please note - this role requires the successful applicant to undertake an enhanced DBS check. Candidates must be able to provide paperwork demonstrating their right to work in the UK.
Please note: internal applicants with live sanctions will not be considered for this role.
We reserve the right to close this vacancy when we are in receipt of sufficient applications. Should you wish to apply for this post you are advised to submit your application as soon as possible.
Due to the high number of applications for this post, it will not be possible to respond to every application. We will contact you within 4 weeks of the closing date if you have been shortlisted for the role.
Thank you for your interest in working for Brook.
Brook Safeguarding with Purpose
Working with People Safely. Safe Place, Safe People.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
An exciting opportunity has arisen to join RSVP’s well‑established ISVA Team. We are seeking a compassionate and motivated professional to provide specialist support to adults impacted by sexual violence.
This 24‑hour‑per‑week role, worked across three set days (Monday and Friday 9am–5pm, and Thursday 11am–7pm), offers the chance to make a meaningful difference in the lives of those who have reported, or are considering reporting, their experiences to the police.
As an Independent Sexual Violence Advocate (ISVA), you will provide practical guidance, emotional support and clear, empowering information to help adults understand their rights, options and choices. You will walk alongside survivors as they navigate their next steps — offering consistent support whether or not they choose to engage with the criminal justice process.
Our mission is to support people in Birmingham and Solihull to thrive and enjoy a future of hope and confidence after sexual violence.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.