We're recruiting a Live Well Manager | Manchester Community Central

Purpose of the role

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: £38,945 per annum
Hours: 35 hours per week. Flexi-time system with core hours 10am-3pm
Location: St Thomas Centre but job offers some working from home flexibility
Contract: Fixed term to 31st March 2030
Reporting to: Chief Executive
Deadline: Rolling recruitment. As this is our second round of recruitment for this position, we will be running a “rolling
recruitment” process. This means that instead of a single closing date, we're reviewing applications in rounds as they come in. Applications received by received by Monday 26th October 2026 12pm, midday will be reviewed together, with interviews planned for Wednesday 11th November 2026.

Who we’re looking for

This 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 is a role which faces both internally and externally. 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, multistrand 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 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 use of public transport and active travel.

What Manchester Community Central offers

At Manchester Community Central, we are committed to being an inclusive and supportive employer. We believe in creating a workplace where everyone can thrive, and we offer:

Flexible working: We value flexible working and offer options such as adjusted working hours, hybrid or home working. We have office space at our St Thomas Centre base in Ardwick but our approach balances personal choice, building teamwork and the needs of the people we work with.
Wellbeing support: Our dedicated Health and Wellbeing team works to create a culture that supports everyone’s health and wellbeing at Manchester Community Central. This includes access to confidential, in-house mental health first aiders and regular team social activities. We also offer ‘Re-energise Afternoons’ – monthly sessions where staff can take time away from work to rest and recharge.
Carers support: We are committed to supporting carers in the workplace, and we offer five days paid carers' leave per year for those with ongoing caring responsibilities, along with other support.
Menstrual Health and Menopause friendly workplace: We are proud to be Menstruation and Menopause Friendly employers, providing a range of support to help staff to manage symptoms, as well as educating employees on these topics.
Professional development: Personal Development Plans (PDPs) and dedicated budgets for external training and growth.
Volunteering leave: Staff are entitled to up to 2 days per year (pro rata) with pay to engage in voluntary activities.
Active travel incentives: Support for public transport season tickets, a Cycle to Work scheme, and travel expenses for cyclists.

These benefits reflect our commitment to supporting staff while working together to strengthen Manchester's communities.

How to apply

If you’re excited by this role and believe you can bring to it the skills and passion we’re looking for, we’d love to hear from you! Here’s how our recruitment process works:

1: Application form
Attached with this pack is a short application form in which we ask you for some basic details and a few questions about your skills, knowledge and relevant experience. There is also an equalities monitoring form with simple questions and a privacy statement which we ask you to confirm you have read.

Once you’ve completed the form, please email it to: rabia@macc.org.uk

We acknowledge all applications by e-mail (or post if email is not available) within 2 working days of receipt. If you don’t receive an acknowledgement, please contact us as soon as possible: if you haven’t heard from us, we may not have received your application.

2: Rolling recruitment
As this is our second round of recruitment for this position, we will be running a “rolling
recruitment” process.

This means that instead of a single closing date, we're reviewing applications in rounds as they come in.

Applications received by received by Monday 26th October 2026 12pm, midday will be reviewed together, with interviews planned for Wednesday 11th November 2026.

If we do not appoint from this round, the vacancy will remain open, and we will continue to review applications every 10 working days until an appointment is made.

All applications are assessed against the same criteria, so you're always compared fairly against what we’re looking for – applying a bit later doesn't put you at a disadvantage.

The vacancy will close as soon as we appoint someone, which could happen before every round has taken place. If that happens while your application is still waiting to be reviewed, we'll let you know as soon as we can.

Our advice is if you're interested, don't wait – apply as soon as you're ready.

3: Interviews
We will review all the applications we receive and may choose to hold a short informal
conversation with shortlisted candidates. This is held online and helps us make the final decision about who to invite for a formal in-person interview.

In-person interviews are usually held at our offices at St Thomas Centre in Ardwick. The interviews gives us a chance to explore your application in more detail – and also for you to ask us questions about the role and our organisation. We may ask you to prepare a task in advance if that’s appropriate for the role.

If you are invited to interview, we’ll give you a copy of the questions when you arrive so you can have a few minutes to prepare your thoughts. After the interview we also give you an opportunity to share any feedback – or make a note of anything you forgot to mention.