Volunteer and Community Programme Manager

We are looking to recruit an effective, resilient and highly motivated individual to join our Children and Families Service as part of our Best Start in Life Programme. This is an excellent opportunity to play a key role in delivering North Yorkshire's Best Start in Life vision, leading the development of volunteering, community engagement and neighbourhood-based support that improves outcomes for children and families.

North Yorkshire's Children and Families Service has developed a highly effective Strength in Relationships Practice Model, and you will lead your team in delivering strengths-based, relationship-focused practice that builds on family and community strengths.

Working closely with key partners (Children and Family Service colleagues, health partners, early years settings, schools, voluntary and community organisations), you will build and coordinate a high-quality volunteer offer that strengthens communities, increases resilience and supports families to access the right help at the right time.

You will also provide direct management and leadership to a team of Best Start in Life Family Navigators, ensuring families receive coordinated, strengths-based support through local networks and community services.

You will be willing to take on a challenge, and have proven leadership and management skills, experience of supervising and developing others, and a strong understanding of community engagement, partnership working and early intervention. You will be passionate about empowering communities and creating opportunities for volunteers to make a meaningful difference to children and family outcomes.

This role offers a unique opportunity to influence the development of Best Start in Life - Family Hubs and community-based services across the County, supporting the Council's ambition to empower communities, maximise social value and deliver effective support through strong partnerships and volunteering.

• Experience of managing and developing staff and volunteers.
• Strong leadership, communication and partnership-building skills.
• Experience of delivering programmes, projects or community initiatives.
• A commitment to strengths-based and relationship-focused practice.
• An ability to engage communities and develop innovative approaches to improving outcomes for children and families.
• Experience of working collaboratively across agencies and sectors to achieve shared goals.

It is an exciting time in Children and Young Peoples Services in North Yorkshire as we plan our approach in respect of the Families First Partnership Programme and how we will be responding to the social care reforms. Work is underway to plan our approach and implementations for 2027. As a result of this, some realignment may happen with job roles in the future, we want to be transparent about this in respect of this role.

Note – Based at County Hall Northallerton with community-based delivery across the county. We promote flexible working, including the ability to work remotely from a variety of locations as well as from home, wherever appropriate to support effective service delivery.

For an informal discussion about this opportunity, please contact Simone Wilkinson – Group Manager – Early Help on simone

Closing Date:
Sunday 2nd August