Senior volunteer coordinator jobs in Manchester

Please Note: We do not accept applications via external sites or CVs via email. Please apply through our site.

The Senior Volunteer Coordinators play a vital role in ensuring an outstanding volunteer experience for these student leaders, as this creates the foundation for meaningful engagement with fellow students and the wider community.

As a Senior Volunteer Coordinator, you will lead on the volunteer experience across four key areas of student-led activity:

•Access All Areas – a volunteering programme that makes university education more accessible for over 500 young people each year.

•Student Action Volunteering – a community-based volunteering programme with around 18 projects tackling issues including homelessness and environmental sustainability.

•Student Fundraising – supporting students to raise money for local, national and international causes, with over £200,000 raised in 2023-24.

•Student Arts & Media – three award-winning media outlets plus a range of arts and performance-based student groups.

You’ll continue to advance the Union’s approach to volunteer management by recruiting, training and providing ongoing support for hundreds of student leaders, as well as coaching a team of full and part time staff to develop their own volunteer management skills. Recognising the impact of financial and time pressures on students, you will develop student leadership programmes that inspire them to build communities and develop skills to progress in their future careers alongside completing their studies. Working in partnership with external organisations, you’ll ensure that our student groups run activities that are beneficial to the wider community whilst providing an excellent experience for participating students. 

As a Senior Volunteer Coordinator, you’ll ensure that students are at the heart of all your decision-making, continually improving our student leadership programmes according to our impact data so that students become empowered community leaders and active citizens.

There are two Senior Volunteer Coordinators based in the team, alongside colleagues similarly focused on at-scale student engagement across a range of programmes. The team aims to create opportunities for students to build and participate in communities that are inclusive, sustainable, ambitious, and impactful, and the Senior Volunteer Coordinators will play a key role in achieving this vision for our student leadership programmes.

Ensuring that our student leadership opportunities are meaningful, developmentally beneficial, and have the interests of our student community at their heart is important to us, so if you’re eager to help students fulfil their potential and have a positive impact on the world around them, you will thrive in this role. You’ll always have the right support around you to do your job well and will see the positive impact you’re having on students and the wider community in real-time, directly contributing to an outstanding student experience.

Please read the full role profile before applying, as well as our guide to recruitment.

Details 

Salary: £27,013 - £30,237

Contract: Permanent / Fixed-Term until April 2027

Hours: 35 hours per week

Eligibility: Open to applicants with relevant skills and experience who are eligible to work in the UK, subject to a satisfactory DBS check.

Recruitment Timeline

Applications opened: 02/02/2026

Applications close: 02/03/2026

Interviews: 17/03/2026

Role Commencing: 06/04/2026

We may close applications early if we receive a high volume of applications. We recommend that you apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. Once the vacancy has closed, we’re unable to accept late applications to ensure a fair process for all candidates.

A rare chance to join an incredibly supportive and inclusive employer that values hard work, flexiblity and employee well-being, and recognised by the GM Good Employment Charter! We are a small but vastly experienced team of family support/volunteer Coordinators, delivering highly respected volunteer-led home visiting support to families in the early years. 

We are looking for someone to provide direct support to families and also recruit, train and support a team of local parent/carer volunteers who will provide weekly home visiting and community support to families.

You will work  with other professionals from universal and specialist services to provide a coordinated response to families’ needs. You will assess need and risk prior to carefully matching volunteers with families or offering direct support, working as part of multi agency support, ensuring information sharing and safeguarding is at the forefront of your work. This will include instigating Early Help assessments, preparing for and attending Child in Need and Child Protection meetings.

You will have an understanding of recruiting, carefully selecting and managing volunteers to ensure they feel supported and fully trained to offer effective support to families in order to get the best outcomes for the family and in particular the children. 

You will be experienced in working with families in their own home - skilled in recognising and responding to safeguarding concerns, be apt in completing strengths-based assessments and conversations and have a deep understanding of the issues families can face and the link with childhood development and difficulties they may experience later in life.

Learning Disability Community Leader, L'Arche Manchester

ABOUT THE ROLE

Hours of work: 37.5 hours per week (including some evening and weekend working, and regular on-call)

Salary: £47,946 per annum

Reports to: L’Arche UK Regional Leader

Place of work: L’Arche Manchester Community, Manchester M20 4AW. Some travel and overnight stays will be required within the UK

Contract type: Temporary 12-month appointment to cover maternity leave

Closing date: Monday, 2nd March at 12 pm.

Main purpose of the role

The Community Leader is responsible for ensuring that the Community is living the mission of L’Arche, by providing excellent and sustainable care and support services, support for  spirituality, and engaging with our neighbours and the wider community around us.

The Community Leader will:

• Lead the Community by responding to the needs, choices and context of our members while being faithful to the L'Arche UK Vision and Values, the L'Arche International Identity and Mission Statement, and to a co-created Community Mandate and plan;
• Maintain and enhance high-quality, person-centred care, support, and housing for people with learning disabilities, both at home and in our day services in partnership with the Registered Manager, the local and national teams, individual circles of support, and external partners. 
• Ensure the Community’s financial sustainability through robust financial planning and management. This includes setting budgets and controlling spending, maximising housing occupancy, supporting the negotiation of care contracts, growing our day services and spotting fundraising opportunities. 
• Foster a culture that maximises the voice and power for people with learning disabilities, and builds listening and collaboration between Community members. This will include working with an active Community Support Group, Community Gatherings, listening groups, and other forums. 
• Lead and manage a committed and engaged leadership team to achieve objectives, set a positive culture, and support the personal and professional growth of our teams. 
• Cultivate an open, creative, and inclusive spiritual life, inviting everyone in the Community to deepen their connections. 
• Model, advocate for, and embrace the L’Arche ethos of deep, long-term, and mutually transforming relationships between people with and without learning disabilities. Plan and lead a regular calendar of events that build community belonging and help keep people connected. 
• Contribute to the national work programmes of L’Arche UK, as part of the National Council, collaborating with Community Leaders of other L’Arche Communities, to share skills, best practice and resources. 
• Be a visible representative of L’Arche locally in the wider community, with stakeholders like local authorities, professional organisations, schools, faith communities, and L’Arche world wide.

Key essential criteria

• Senior leadership experience in support to adults with learning disabilities (or transferable skills and experience in a closely-related field). 
• Experience leading and managing an organisation or large teams to deliver results, maintain compliance and quality, and to respond to risks and opportunities. 
• Experience leading and developing diverse teams to flourish, individually and together. 
• Good financial planning skills and experience successfully managing a substantial budget. 
• Evidence of the ability to think strategically, and work collaboratively to develop and implement community plans. 
• Experience of living or working alongside people with learning disabilities and/or autistic individuals

This role is subject to an enhanced DBS criminal record check. 

You may have held these job titles in the past: Registered Manager, Service Manager, Head of Care, Senior Operations Lead, Community Director, Head of Community Services, Country or Regional Lead, Learning Disability Services Manager, Head of Mission and Community Life, Health & Social Care Manager, Local Authority Commissioning Lead;

You can find more details about L'Arche and the Manchester community on our website. 

Why join L'Arche?

As well as joining a friendly Community, where you will be well supervised and supported, and benefit from L’Arche’s mentorship programme, these are some other benefits you get by working for us:

• Joining shared meals since cooking and having a meal together is what we are all about
• Enhanced Maternity, Adoption/Surrogacy, Paternity Pay (depending on length of service, details available on request) 
• Enhanced sick pay
• Interest free loans and salary advances available
• Free DBS / PVG checks
• Free Employee Assistance Programme available to everyone
• Up to 5 days paid compassionate leave
• Up to 6 days paid (pro rata) for time off for emergency dependents leave
• Specialist bereavement counselling for employees and their family members
• Life Assurance
• Access to the Bike to Work scheme

Discover what makes L’Arche a rewarding place to work—explore  more of our employee benefits on our website.

A full job description and person specification can be found in the Recruitment Pack.

To apply, please submit your CV and answer the questions from our online application form. 

The closing date is: Monday, 2nd of March at 12 pm.

First interviews (online via Microsoft Teams) are expected to take place during the week beginning the 9th March 2026.

Second round interviews will take on the place week beginning 16th March 2026 and will take place within the Community.

We encourage you not to wait until the closing date to submit your application, as we may begin interviewing strong candidates before then.
We also reserve the right to close the advert early if we receive enough suitable applications.

Please also read our privacy notice for job applicants.