Purpose of the role
Manchester’s Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector is made of thousands of organisations and individuals who use their time, skills, creativity and energy to improve the quality of life in the city. They have knowledge, insight and ideas to offer which can help shape policy and decision making locally, regionally and nationally.
Manchester Community Central’s Policy and Influence Team helps this happen by supporting a wide range of conversations and relationships at a strategic level on key areas of public policy including equalities, health and care, climate change, funding and commissioning and social value.
The VCSE Policy and Influence Development Worker helps to create and deliver a programme of activities to enable the local VCSE sector to be a strong voice on significant issues.
Manchester Community Central’s role is to work collaboratively with partners in the VCSE, public and private sectors to influence thinking, debate, planning and decisions, working strategically and with practical outcomes for local people always in mind.
Salary: £29,963 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: Permanent (subject to funding)
Reporting to: Policy and Influence Manager
Who we’re looking for
We're looking for someone who's organised, reliable and genuinely good at working with others.
This role sits within a small team, often juggling several projects at once, so you'll need to be confident managing your own workload, meeting deadlines under pressure, and keeping track of how activities are progressing against what they're meant to achieve.
Collaboration is central to this role. You'll be working with a wide range of partners — sometimes leading, sometimes supporting — and you'll need the ability to bring people's different skills and ideas together in creative ways. Facilitation skills are important and the ability to engage people, hold a room and inspire others to get involved. Whether that's a one-to-one conversation or a group session, you'll need to understand how to enable people to participate fully, particularly people whose voices aren't always heard in formal settings.
Building relationships is a core part of the job. We're looking for someone with a genuine ability to build trust across different social and cultural backgrounds - whether that comes from direct experience working with communities of place, identity or interest, or from lived experience and a strong instinct for this kind of relationship-building.
We're less interested in how many years you've spent doing policy work and more interested in whether you've got a good head for it — someone who can spot an emerging issue, understand why it matters, and think clearly about what response it needs. If you've got that instinct, we can help you build your knowledge. Some understanding of the VCSE sector will help, particularly the everyday challenges and opportunities it faces, but this role is genuinely open to people without a long track record in policy work.
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
On our website 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 email (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
We are currently recruiting for these roles through 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 14th October 2026 will be reviewed together as our first round. If we don't appoint from that round, we'll keep the vacancy open and review further applications every 10 working days thereafter.
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.
Key dates
First-round application deadline: Tuesday 14th October 2026 12pm midday
First-round interviews: Friday 12th November 2026
Please note that the vacancy will remain open after the first round as part of our rolling recruitment process, with further applications reviewed every 10 working days.
Need help or more information?
If you have any questions about the application process or to clarify any information in this Recruitment Pack, please email rabia@macc.org.uk