Manchester Community Central (Macc) is playing a central role in the development of Live Well Manchester – the city’s commitment to shifting investment from crisis response to prevention, building community resilience and strengthening the relationship between public services and communities. Alongside our existing funded programmes – the Live Well Communities Fund and the Spaces of Hope programme – Macc has secured Implementation Fund support to build the connective infrastructure that holds the city’s Live Well approach together.
The Live Well Manager will provide strategic oversight of all of Macc’s Live Well work, leading the Live Well Team and acting as Macc’s senior relationship holder with Manchester City Council and other public sector partners on Live Well. Working alongside the Chief Executive and within Macc’s wider influencing and sector leadership work, the Live Well Manager will ensure that the VCSE sector’s knowledge, relationships and community trust are embedded at the heart of Live Well Manchester.
The role also connects to Greater Manchester’s Live Well programme through Macc’s role within 10GM, the network of Greater Manchester’s Local Infrastructure Organisations.
Salary: £37,939 per annumHours: 35 hours per week. Flexi-time system with core hours 10am-3pmLocation: St Thomas Centre but job offers some working from home flexibilityContract: Fixed term to 31st March 2030Reporting to: Chief ExecutiveDeadline: 31st July 2026
Who we’re looking forThis is a new role and a new team, which means there are no established ways of working to step into. We’re looking for someone who’s excited by that opportunity and confident enough to help shape the role and the team as they go, rather than needing things fully mapped out in advance.
This role faces both internal and external challenges. An important part of this job is that of being a manager: leading a small team of staff who take forward a range of projects. You’ll need experience of supporting and developing people, maintaining priorities within the team’s workload and fostering a collaborative team culture. This team will be delivering a complex, multidisciplinary programme, so you’ll need to be confident overseeing budgets, managing risk, and keeping a clear line of sight on how different workstreams are progressing – staying close enough to the day-to-day to understand what’s really happening on the ground with the team around you.
Collaboration is central to this role: you’ll need to be someone who can build genuine partnership with public sector bodies. You’ll be holding relationships with the Council and other senior partners. Building trust is important to working with public sector partners, with VCSE colleagues and with the communities whose knowledge and lived experience this programme depends on.
We’re looking for someone who instinctively works in ways that embed community voice and community power, rather than someone who simply manages a programme on communities’ behalf. You’ll need to be able to challenge constructively and to hold honest conversations when partnerships get difficult, as well as being a good listener and a supportive colleague.
We’re less interested in how many years you’ve spent in a particular sector and more interested in whether you’ve got the right instinct for this kind of work – someone who can read a system, understand where power sits, and think clearly about how to shift it. A strong understanding of inequalities and the role of the VCSE sector will help, but we’re as interested in your potential and your values.
Above all, we’re looking for someone with a real commitment to creating change – someone who will use this opportunity to make sure the sector’s knowledge, relationships and trust are properly recognised and resourced, not just referenced as the Live Well work evolves.
You’ll need good general IT skills and a real willingness to keep learning. You’ll also need to be willing to work flexibly, including occasional evenings or weekends – time off in lieu will be given. You’ll need to be willing and able to travel around Manchester and occasionally further across Greater Manchester, though driving ability is not essential as we encourage the use of public transport and active travel.
Key Information
- Employer: Manchester Community Central
- Location: Manchester
- Role Type: Fixed term
- Working Hours: Full-Time
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