5 Service manager jobs in Bristol, City of Bristol

The Belay Foundation supports adoptive, kinship and special guardianship families raising children who have experienced early developmental trauma, often alongside neurodiversity. Founded in 2020 from lived experience, Belay offers something many families struggle to find elsewhere: practical, in-home support and expert guidance that’s genuinely trauma-responsive, delivered by people who understand what these families are living through.

This is an exciting opportunity to join us at a pivotal stage in our development. Over the past year, we have strengthened our services, systems and organisational foundations and developed ambitious plans for the future. As we continue to grow our reach and impact, we're looking for a Services Manager to organise and deliver our services such as guidance on trauma responsive respite and disability benefit expertise to our families.

Working closely with our Services Director, you'll use your lived or professional experience of our adoptive and kinship families to develop and deliver valued, practical and trauma-responsive support to families across England and Wales. This is key role, working directly with parents and carers, and an opportunity to really make a difference in our families’ lives.

This is a home-based role for two days per week (0.4 FTE), offering flexibility alongside the opportunity to shape a growing national charity. There may be potential to increase the hours over time, subject to funding, making this an exciting opportunity for someone who wants to grow with the organisation. This is a home‑based role, but applicants must be permanently based, and have the right to work, in the United Kingdom. For legal, tax, and operational reasons, we cannot consider applications from outside the UK.

If you're someone passionate about making a difference to adoptive and kinship families with the experience of delivering family support, we'd love to hear from you.

Please see the Candidate Application Pack for further details, including the full job description, candidate requirements and the application/ interview process. Please note that we reserve the right to close applications one week early should we receive a very high number of candidates. 

Job Summary 
The Service Manager - Z House will provide operational leadership for Z House, Caring in Bristol’s emergency accommodation service for young people aged 18–25 experiencing housing crisis. 

The Service Manager will be responsible for ensuring that Z House is a safe, welcoming, well-managed and psychologically informed service, where young people are treated with dignity and supported to move towards greater stability and appropriate longer-term accommodation. 

You will lead the day-to-day operation of Z House, overseeing referrals and placements, safeguarding with support from our Safeguarding team and risk management, staff and volunteer practice, accommodation standards, partnership working and service development. 

The Service Manager role will combine operational management with a strong focus on relationships and practice. You will work closely with the young people using Z House, the wider Caring in Bristol team and partners across Bristol to ensure that the service responds effectively to individual needs while contributing to our wider ambition to prevent and reduce homelessness. 
 
The role will also have capacity to lead or contribute to the development and delivery of additional accommodation or youth-focused projects that sit within the scope of Z House and Caring in Bristol’s Support Services. This may include developing new provision, responding to emerging needs and opportunities, and working with partners to extend or adapt our accommodation offer. 

Reporting to the Head of Support Services, you will be part of the wider Support Services team and will contribute to the development of Caring in Bristol’s approach to accommodation, youth homelessness and early intervention. 

Key responsibilities 

• Lead the day-to-day operation of Z House, ensuring the service is safe, effective, welcoming and responsive to the needs of young people experiencing housing crisis.

• Manage the referral, assessment and placement process, making appropriate decisions about suitability and ensuring risks and support needs are identified and managed effectively.

• Oversee safeguarding practice within Z House, ensuring concerns are identified, responded to and escalated appropriately and in line with organisational procedures.

• Lead the development and implementation of effective operational systems, policies and procedures that support high-quality and consistent service delivery.

• Manage and support staff and volunteers involved in Z House, creating a positive, inclusive and reflective culture and ensuring people have the information, training and support they need to work safely and effectively.

• Build strong relationships with referral partners and organisations across Bristol, ensuring young people can access appropriate specialist support and move towards suitable longer-term accommodation.

• Develop effective pathways with the wider Caring in Bristol support offer, ensuring Z House guests can access appropriate support around housing, independent living and other areas of need. 

• Budget responsibility Manage the Z House budget effectively, ensuring expenditure is appropriately monitored, controlled and managed within agreed financial parameters. 

• Lead or contribute to the development and delivery of new projects and service developments within the scope of Z House and Support Services, responding flexibly to emerging opportunities, funding and identified needs 

Do you want to help shape the future of homelessness services across West London and West of England?

This post is offered as a fixed term contract until 2 December 2027, or secondment for internal candidates (maternity cover)

We have an exciting opportunity for a dynamic Service Development Manager to lead change and support teams across our West London and West of England Directorate.

You’ll work closely with the Regional Director and Regional Heads, supporting with new business development and contract mobilisation and implementation. Your role will involve gathering and analysing data across the directorate while also standardising internal processes and reporting systems. You will provide support to St Mungo’s services across the West Region, and support the implementation of some organisation wide pieces of work such as the new Rent Collections Procedure and hostel model service work.

A key part of your work will be engaging with communities, mapping referral pathways, and supporting conversations with stakeholders to ensure services are responsive and inclusive.

Training and development will be central to your role—you’ll support staff in understanding homelessness legislation and prevention strategies and assist in managing transitional changes.

Where you’ll be working

In this post you will be required to travel across the region to visit services, teams and partners. There will be opportunities for home working up to 3 days per week dependent on the needs of the region.

About You

We're looking for someone who combines strategic thinking with a hands-on approach and is motivated by making a real difference.

You'll bring:

• Experience in service development, project management or service improvement within housing, homelessness or a related sector.
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to build relationships and influence at all levels.
• Confidence analysing data and using insights to drive decision-making and service improvements.
• Experience supporting organisational change, service mobilisation or implementation projects.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to engage diverse audiences.
• Strong organisational skills and the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• A collaborative and solution-focused approach, with the initiative to turn ideas into action.

How to apply

To view the job description and guidance on completing your application form, please click on the ‘document’ tab on the advert page on our website.

To find out more and apply please go to the St Mungo’s careers page on our website.

Closing date: 10am on Wednesday 30 September 2026

Interview and assessments on: Tuesday 13 October 2026

We are working hard to create a diverse and fully inclusive culture where everyone feels valued and we welcome applications from all under-represented groups, particularly Global Majority candidates who are underrepresented at this level. 

What we offer

• Excellent Development and Growth Opportunities
• A Diverse and Inclusive Work Place
• Great Pay and Other Benefits

Do you want to make a real difference to the lives of people affected by kidney disease?

We’re looking for an experienced manager who wants to be part of work that genuinely transforms lives.

About Kidney Care UK

There are 7.2 million people with some form of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in the UK, equivalent to 1 in 10 people. There are one million people in the UK who have CKD but are not aware of it.

Since 1975, Kidney Care UK has been at the forefront of supporting people with kidney disease. From our early days when we campaigned to introduce donor cards in the UK, we have worked hard to support and represent the interests of everyone affected by kidney disease.

About the Patient Support Service

The Patient Support Service provides practical, emotional and financial support for anyone affected by chronic kidney disease. Whatever the need presented, we empower people living with CKD and their families and carers to understand their options and make informed choices to positively navigate their experience of CKD. We’ll walk alongside them for as long as they need us to.

About the role

We are looking for a passionate and inspirational individual to lead our Patient Support service across Scotland & Northern Ireland. You and your team will reach kidney patients at their point of need and ensure they are supported or signposted to the services that will improve their wellbeing and maximise outcomes in line with the objectives of the service as directed by the Programme Manager/Head of Service. 

Alongside our other Regional Managers, you will be the national face of Kidney Care UK patient support services, raising awareness of the service and the Charity and building strong relationships with the kidney patients, renal units, Kidney Patient Associations (KPAs), health professionals and other kidney stakeholder groups in your regions. 

Key Responsibilities

• Lead a team of five Patient Support Officer’s to deliver an accessible, valued and effective service across your designated region. Responsibility for the training, development and wellbeing of the regional team. 
• Lead the delivery of Kidney Care UK service and funder required outcomes into service delivery aligned with the Kidney Care Patient Support service strategy.
• Through in-person attendance at stakeholder events and meetings, build strong relationships with key decision makers and influencers in health and care commissioning and delivery in your region.
• Develop and maintain effective monitoring and measurement to demonstrate the outputs and effectiveness of the service and its impact on patient experience and outcomes. 
• Using data and insight, report internally and externally with updates on regional issues, needs and challenges to inform service development.
• Manage the budget designated for your region, keeping accurate records of expenditure and reporting.
• Act as an organisational Designated Safeguarding Person in accordance with policy and procedures.

About you

We’d love to hear from you if you have:

• Understanding of the workings of NHS patient care pathways.
• Experience of delivering patient support services in a kidney or related health condition environment.
• Understanding of kidney disease and the needs of people with kidney disease, their families and their carers.
• The ability to influence, inspire and effectively manage a team.
• Excellent interpersonal skills including the ability to listen, with experience in building credibility with senior external stakeholders and managing relationships with diplomacy.

Experience of working within an NHS charity or large health related fundraising environment is highly desirable,as is understanding of relevant UK benefits legislation and entitlements.

Please note: You must live within one of the regions (Scotland or Northern Ireland) and have the ability to travel within those regions independently and on a regular basis. There may also be some travel across the UK.

What we offer

Working at Kidney Care UK is incredibly rewarding and you will see the life-changing impact that the charity has on kidney patients and their families:

• Flexi-time – we are flexible about start and finish times, and flexible about your location.
• Annual and Christmas leave – we offer 25 days annual leave for full time employees plus bank holidays. We also close for three days between Christmas and New Year, and you don’t need to take this from your annual leave allowance.
• Pension – you’ll be eligible for and auto-enrolled into a pension scheme where your employer will contribute 8% of your salary.
• Health cashback plan – ability to claim back a wide variety of routine medical treatments.
• Employee Assistance Programme – access to a wide variety of support including counselling, health resources and advice.
• Cycle2Work scheme
• Learning and development – you’ll be able to access the full benefits of our membership of Fundraising Everywhere, Charity Comms and NVCO.

Apply today
If you feel the role is for you we’d love to hear from you.

Press Apply, where you will be asked to upload a recent CV which includes a cover letter. In your cover letter please demonstrate in no more than 2 sides of A4 how you meet the person specification within the job description.

CVs submitted without a cover letter will automatically be rejected.

Please note we will be reviewing applications as they come in and may choose to close the advert early.

We look forward to hearing from you.