Senior client involvement and programmes manager jobs

Abbey Community Centre is a vibrant, long-established community charity at the heart of Kilburn, North West London. Every day, we bring people together, reduce isolation and improve health and wellbeing through inclusive activities, services and community support.

We're now looking for an experienced Centre Operations Manager to play a key senior role in ensuring our busy community hub runs safely, smoothly and effectively for the thousands of people who use it each year.

About Abbey Community Centre

Abbey Community Centre works with people of all ages and backgrounds, with a particular focus on older residents and low-income families with young children. We deliver a wide range of activities, services and support including children’s stay-and-play sessions and drop-ins, fitness and wellbeing activities, befriending schemes, digital inclusion support, community meals, warm space provision, food support, volunteering opportunities and specialist outreach.

Alongside this community delivery, we manage a busy public building and a programme of room hire that helps generate income to sustain our work. With a small staff team, over 100 volunteers and many partner organisations, our operations need to be reliable, well-coordinated and people-centred.

The role and its impact

As Centre Operations Manager, you will be the organisation’s senior operational lead on the ground. Working closely with the CEO, you will hold delegated authority for the day-to-day running of the Centre — ensuring the building, people and systems all work together to support high-quality community activity.

This is a hands-on leadership role combining practical problem-solving with people management. You will line manage and help develop operational staff, oversee facilities and contractors, lead on health and safety and operational compliance, support volunteering, and ensure organisational systems and processes function reliably.

Your work will directly enable staff, volunteers and partners to deliver activities and services safely and confidently, and will help ensure Abbey remains a welcoming, accessible and well-run space for the local community.

What you’ll be working on

In this role, you will:

• Oversee daily building operations, maintenance and contractor management

• Lead on health & safety and related compliance, including risk assessments and training

• Line manage & develop operational staff and support a positive, consistent working culture

• Ensure operational policies and procedures are applied effectively in practice

• Support and coordinate volunteering within the centre

• Manage operational budgets and contracts within agreed limits

• Act as a senior member of the management team, deputising for the CEO on agreed matters

Key details

• Location: Abbey Community Centre, Kilburn (NW6 4BJ, London Borough of Camden)

• Hours: 24–28 hours per week (fixed hours agreed at appointment), worked over a minimum of four weekdays

• Core hours: 11.00am–4.00pm (flexibility outside these hours by agreement)

• Contract: Permanent, part-time

• Salary: £40,000–£42,000 per annum, pro rata (depending on experience)

• Annual leave: 30 days pro-rata, rising to 35 days after 5 years’ service (plus bank holidays, pro-rata)

• Pension: NEST pension scheme (if eligible)

• Some evening and occasional weekend working is required

This role could be right for you if…

You are an experienced operational manager who enjoys combining leadership with practical delivery, thrives in a public-facing environment, and wants your work to make a visible difference to a local community. You don’t need to tick every box — we’re interested in your experience, judgement, approach and motivation.

Abbey Community Centre is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion, and we welcome applications from candidates from a wide range of backgrounds. Reasonable adjustments will be offered throughout the recruitment process.

Job Title: Senior Manager: Specialist & Outreach Services

Reports to: Director of Services

Location: Nankeville Office & Women’s Support Centre, Woking (Hybrid)

Hours: Full time (35 hours per week), to be worked flexibly for needs of business

Salary: £41,000 - £45,000 p.a.

Please note that this post is open to women only under Schedule 9, Part 1 of the Equality Act 2010, due to the nature of the services delivered within the Women’s Support Centre and the needs of the service users.

Who we are

Catalyst Support is a leading Surrey charity dedicated to championing wellness across communities, transforming lives by addressing mental, physical, and emotional health needs. Guided by the belief that wellness is a right for all, we empower individuals and communities with innovative, accessible services. Our values are kindness, integrity, and commitment.

About the role

This is a senior, hands-on leadership role with immediate operational responsibility and strategic outreach portfolio leadership.

As the Senior Manager: Specialist & Outreach Services, you will provide strong, visible leadership to Catalyst Support’s specialist and outreach provision, with an initial core focus on the Cuckooing Assertive Outreach Service. Managing the cuckooing team, you will provide direct operational oversight while developing and leading the service, ensuring safe, trauma-informed, high quality delivery and effective partnership working across Surrey.

You’ll support and guide a team of staff, helping them stay motivated, work well together, and deliver meaningful support, while holding accountability for performance and practice. Building a positive team culture will be key, encouraging collaboration, learning, and shared responsibility. You’ll also manage key relationships with commissioners, partners, and stakeholders, and work closely with the Director of Services to help shape and deliver strategic priorities.

You will work closely with, and be based regularly within, Catalyst’s Women’s Support Centre, supporting services working with women affected by domestic abuse, on their journey of recovery and living with complex trauma.

Alongside this, the role is designed to grow into the strategic and operational leadership of Catalyst’s wider Specialist & Outreach portfolio, bringing coherence, quality and sustainability across services working with people experiencing multiple disadvantage.

The role is line managed by the Director of Services and you will play a key role in shaping the future operating model for specialist and outreach services.

About you

We are looking for candidates with:

• A relevant professional qualification in mental health, substance use, criminal justice, social care or a related field and/or substantial equivalent professional experience, with a strong applied understanding of trauma-informed and outreach-based practice.
• Significant experience working in specialist, outreach or community-based services, supporting people experiencing multiple disadvantage, including exploitation, domestic abuse, substance use, mental ill-health and criminal justice involvement.
• Proven experience of managing staff and services in complex environments, including line management, supervision, and leading programmes or projects within operational settings.
• Strong Safeguarding knowledge and sound professional judgment with experience of holding safeguarding decisions in multi-agency contexts.
• Demonstrable ability to combine hands-on operational leadership with strategic thinking, including service development, performance improvement and change.
• High level of emotional intelligence, resilience and integrity, with the ability to hold complexity, lead others through change, and work in partnership with a range of stakeholders and partners.

Benefits

• 26 days annual leave plus bank holidays (rising with service)
• Pension scheme and access to Simply Health (including optical, dental, counselling sessions)
• Birthday leave, employee discounts, and flexible working where possible
• Supportive probation, sick pay after probation, and wellbeing/EAP resources

Catalyst Support is an equal opportunities employer. We celebrate difference and are committed to fairness, accessibility, and inclusion throughout recruitment and employment.

Please refer to the Job Description for further information about this role.

At Outside the Box we make a real difference, positively changing the lives of the people with learning disabilities/autism. To build on our success, we are now looking for someone special to lead our ‘day’ services (OTB Choices).

OTB Choices provides a dynamic portfolio of education, skills, creative and work experience opportunities, from cooking, art and craft to printing, computing, music and customer service, and much more. We are at an exciting stage in our delivery and development and are seeking an exceptional person to lead and manage our services, ensuring consistently high quality provision that really does make a difference.

You will play a pivotal role in our work, proactively leading a diverse team and multi-site operations to achieve targets and outcomes. You will be solution-focused, have the strength, vision and evidenced track record of an experienced manager and shared passion for enabling and empowering people with learning disabilities and/or autism to have their best lives.

Chief Executive - Help & Care
Location: Home-based within easy reach of Dorset (regular travel across the region)
Salary: circa £85,000 per annum
Contract: permanent, either full-time basis (37 hours per week) or part-time (30 hours per week). We are happy to discuss flexible working arrangements for part-time hours, including how these are worked across the working week.

Are you an innovative leader who will put communities and social justice at the heart of transforming how health and social care is delivered in Dorset and the south of England?

Help & Care has been supporting communities across Dorset and the south coast since 1985. We deliver person-centred services that promote dignity, independence and connection - from dementia coordination and health coaching to our award-winning Roots gardening programme and social prescribing partnerships. Working with over 25 partners across health, housing and the voluntary sector, we co-produce services that make a real difference to older people, those with long-term conditions, carers and people at risk of isolation.

As our new Chief Executive, you will collaborate with a dedicated Board and a strong, highly motivated team focusing on the following key areas of responsibility:

• Strategic leadership: Define an ambitious, values-led strategy and deliver it, securing long-term impact alongside sustainable financial growth.
• Values leadership: Place Help & Care’s values - social justice, innovation, personal and collaborative - at the heart of decision-making and model them through visible leadership.
• Growth & income diversification: Lead business development to diversify income streams, winning commissioned contracts and developing social-enterprise opportunities to reduce reliance on public commissioning.
• Partnerships & advocacy: Strengthen and sustain senior-level relationships across the NHS, local authorities, commissioners and the voluntary sector; represent Help & Care across systems, media and stakeholder networks.
• Service quality & impact: Embed rigorous monitoring and evaluation so outcome evidence drives commissioning decisions, improves financial performance and enhances the organisation’s reputation.

• People leadership: Inspire, retain and develop a high-performing, compassionate leadership team and workforce, focused on talent development, wellbeing and accountability.
• Governance & financial stewardship: Provide the Board with timely, high-quality reporting, oversee financial recovery or sustainability plans as required, and ensure robust risk, compliance and governance arrangements.

Who you are:

• An experienced CEO or senior director from complex, multi-service health, social care or community organisations, with experience of developing and delivering multi-agency contracts.
• Proven track record of securing commissioned contracts, leading tendering and contract oversight, and developing income diversification, including social-enterprise opportunities.
• Comfortable driving strategic transformation and financial sustainability, with demonstrable expertise in strategic financial management.
• A values-led, collaborative and visible leader with high emotional intelligence and resilience, committed to social justice, person-centred practice and co-production; an effective public representative and mentor.

Why Help & Care?

• Lead a highly respected regional provider with an outstanding track record of co-production and innovation.
• Shape an organisation poised for growth and greater regional influence.
• Hybrid, home-based working, regular travel across Dorset, and the chance to safeguard vital services for local communities.

For full details of the role including how to apply, please download the full appointment brief. For an informal and confidential conversation about this position, please contact Jenny Hills at Harris Hill via apply button with times to speak and (optional but appreciated) a CV or professional profile which will be treated with the strictest confidence

Closing date for applications: 9am, Monday 23rd February 2026. Interviews and assessments on 3rd, 4th and 5th March.

As leading charity recruitment specialists and a certified B Corp, Harris Hill is committed to high and ever-improving standards of equitable and inclusive recruitment. We actively welcome applications from all sections of the community regardless of age, disability, gender, race, religion, sexuality and other protected characteristics.

Rinova Ltd is an established and successful Employee-owned company, with headquarters in central London and a branch in Malaga, Spain. Rinova is a key deliverer in both UK and EU funded provision. This role is an opportunity to join an innovative, fast-growing company that offers the right applicant the chance to develop their career aspirations. This new key role will support a range of projects across the company, with the option for occasional international travel.

About the job

Rinova Ltd are currently seeking an Employer Liaison and Engagement Lead Officer to support delivery across a range of funded projects in skills, employability and training. Initially, the role will be focused on two key sectors - hospitality and the creative industries, and both projects will be delivered in the London Borough of Southwark. There will subsequently be an opportunity to support other projects related to skills and requiring employer engagement across London.

For the hospitality project, the candidate will work with existing and potential hospitality employers, driving engagement and forging pathways for potential job candidates in the borough of Southwark for opportunities in hospitality roles. The candidate will explore job opportunities for local residents in subsectors such as travel and tourism and the expanding experience economy. In addition the candidate will seek out opportunities for up-skilling local residents who are already in employment.

For the creative and cultural programme, the successful candidate will be expected to support the development of a network of a wide range of employers across the creative sector, including but not limited to film, music, literature, theatre, performance, gaming, fashion, arts & crafts. This will require strong stakeholder engagement skills, encouraging participation from employers in steering groups, networking events and contributions to skills and training initiatives.

This role would suit someone with experience in employer relations, careers advice, work placements or arranging apprenticeships. We need a committed, enthusiastic, and positive individual to join our fantastic team of professionals - empathy, great communication skills and a passion for helping people achieve their potential are must-haves. The successful candidate will be able to identify and engage potential employers, broker and establish ongoing dialogue and good relations with them and find ways for them to assist in forging clear pathways for participants identified within the programmes. They will be expected to present to external partners and stakeholders.

The role will be offered on a full-time basis mainly working within the Rinova office and across the Southwark borough, with the opportunity to work remotely on occasions.

About us

Rinova Ltd is an employee-owned company and a social enterprise operating in the fields of social, economic and cultural development. We specialise in the design and delivery of projects in employment, learning and skills, enterprise, arts and culture and regeneration - in London and internationally. Whilst this role is focused on our UK delivery, there may be opportunities to be involved in our international work and in European travel. Our work includes project development, project management, research, evaluation, funding development, training and capacity building. The client is at the heart of everything we do; our success depends upon partnership working and forging positive and productive relationships with our partners and stakeholders.

This is an ideal opportunity for someone that can broker successful partnerships between employers and potential employees and loves supporting individuals to achieve their employment, education and personal goals.

Please apply with your CV and a supporting statement, which should address all points on the person specification. Applications without the required documents will not be considered for shortlisting.

Start date: We would like the successful candidate to start as soon as possible. Please let us know when you would be available to take up the position if you were to be successful.

Interviews: Successful candidates will be advised when the interviews will take place.

Job description

Employer Engagement, Outreach, & Representation

• Build, manage and sustain a diverse network of employers across hospitality, (including tourism and the experience economy sector) and creative industries (including film, music, theatre, gaming, fashion, arts and crafts) across the capital. For the creative sector there is a particular emphasis on engaging employers from the London Borough of Southwark.
• Identify, approach and engage new employers, promoting participation in funded skills and employability programmes.
• Work with individual employers to identify employment opportunities and provide a brokerage service between local residents and participating employers
• Broker meaningful opportunities for programme participants, including job vacancies, work experience, placements, mentoring, site visits and employer-led activities.
• Support colleagues in the provision of quality information, advice and guidance to match local residents to suitable vacancies.
• Act as the main point of contact for employers, maintaining regular communication and strong working relationships.
• Encourage and support employer involvement in steering groups, networking events, panels, workshops and training initiatives.
• Represent Rinova professionally at employer meetings, industry events and stakeholder forums.
• Deliver presentations to employers and partners to promote projects, explain benefits of engagement and support buy-in.
• Work closely with internal project teams to align employer engagement with participant needs and programme outcomes.
• Support employer onboarding, ensuring clarity around expectations, safeguarding, data protection and funded programme requirements.
• Maintain accurate records of employer engagement, opportunities created and outcomes achieved.

Values, Inclusion & Professional Practice

• Demonstrate empathy, professionalism and cultural awareness when working with employers, participants and partners from diverse backgrounds.
• Actively promote equality, inclusion and accessibility, ensuring employer engagement supports inclusive recruitment, retention and progression.
• Work flexibly across the London Borough of Southwark, including occasional evenings or weekends, and occasional remote working.
• Contribute positively to Rinova’s employee-owned, collaborative culture, sharing learning and supporting team objectives.
• Uphold Rinova’s values and mission, ensuring a participant-centred, partnership-led approach to delivery.

Person Specification

Please address all points in your supporting statement and give examples

Essential Skills, Knowledge and Experience

Employer Liaison & Brokerage Skills

· Experience in recruitment, job brokerage skills, employer engagement, employer liaison or business development within employability, skills or training contexts.

· Proven ability to identify, approach and build relationships with employers, encouraging sustained engagement.

· Experience brokering opportunities such as jobs, placements, apprenticeships, work experience or employer-led activities.

· Ability to manage multiple employer relationships and maintain clear communication and follow-up.

Experience of Creative and/or Hospitality Sector

· Knowledge of, or experience working with, the hospitality, tourism and experience economy and/or creative industries.

· Understanding of employment pathways, roles and recruitment practices within these sectors.

· Ability to speak confidently with employers about skills needs, workforce challenges and progression routes.

Partnerships, Outreach & Stakeholder Engagement

· Experience of outreach activity, including engaging employers, partners or stakeholders from diverse backgrounds.

· Confidence representing an organisation externally and building trust with senior stakeholders.

· Ability to work collaboratively with partners to achieve shared outcomes.

· Experience supporting or contributing to employer forums, networking events or stakeholder meetings.

Communication, Administration & IT

· Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to produce professional reports, evaluations and presentations.

· Strong organisational skills with the ability to prioritise a varied workload and manage competing demands.

· High level of IT competence, including Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and digital collaboration systems.

· Experience of managing confidential data and records in line with GDPR requirements.

Professional Practice & Values

· Empathetic, professional and culturally aware when working with diverse participant groups.

· Strong commitment to equality, inclusion and accessibility in programme delivery.

· Flexible approach to working, including willingness to work occasional evenings or weekends and travel across London boroughs.

· Ability to work independently while contributing positively to a collaborative, employee-owned organisation.

· Strong alignment with Rinova’s mission, values and partnership-led approach to social impact.

Desirable Skills, Knowledge and Experience

· Experience working on publicly funded programmes.

· Background in careers advice, job brokerage/recruitment, employability support or IAG.

· Existing employer contacts within the Southwark or London hospitality and/or creative sectors.

· Experience contributing to events, employer forums or sector-based initiatives.

· Experience working across multiple boroughs or projects simultaneously.