Project Officer – Place Partnerships (Winsford)

Active Cheshire is a value-led organisation who lives and breathes our core values of: Inclusivity, Collaboration, Integrity, Passion, Innovation. Our vision is to see more people, more active, more often living longer, happier, healthier lives. We will connect sport, physical activity, and movement opportunities across Cheshire & Warrington to provide fairer and greater access for all, whilst tackling health inequalities.

In line with the Sport England Uniting The Movement strategy and Active Cheshire’s own strategy, we know that great things happen in local communities when people from that community are at the heart of their development. Building strong ‘place-based’ partnerships around shared purpose and utilising place learning to drive strategic decisions will enable long-term, sustainable change.

We are proud to be working in close partnership with Brio Leisure, Everybody Health & Leisure, NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, and Warrington Borough Council to deliver Sport England’s Place Partnership programme across Cheshire and Warrington. This collaborative approach is rooted in a shared ambition to reduce inequalities and enable more people to live active, healthier lives.

Together, we are building a strong strategic group to shape and drive place-based change, with a focus on how the system works, not just what it delivers. This group will continue to evolve over time, ensuring the right voices, skills, and experiences are at the table to create lasting impact and deliver a sustainable whole-system approach to tackling inactivity.

We’re looking for someone to lead our movement. Someone to galvanise partners, to enable change, to be focused on the long-term vision with a flexible approach to getting there.

In Cheshire & Warrington, 5 Middle Super-Output Area’s (MSOA’s) have been identified through Sport England’s Place Needs Classification: Ellesmere Port Town and Rossmore, Wolverham & Stanlow (Cheshire West & Chester), Hulme, Blackbrook (Warrington), Crewe Coppenhall and Underwood (Cheshire East). With a focus on enablers of change through asset-based community development principles, we’re looking to lay the foundation on which place expansion can anchor and grow. This isn’t a project; we’re changing the system. Success over the next 12-18 months will be defined as having a strong structure and approach in place, including identification of conditions for change to move forward into subsequent place expansion phases.

That next stage will be to work alongside Sport England and place partners to build a consensus for the future of place-based working in Cheshire Warrington. It will be to unlock the route to further investment based upon the voices of our communities. Our communities will tell us how collectively we can succeed in reducing inactivity, increasing activity, creating positive experiences for young people and tackling inequality.

Accountabilities (not exhaustive)

• Governance and leadership – to support sound governance and leadership exists with Sponsors for each place area appointed and governance structure embedded to mitigate risk and maximise impact
• Stronger partnerships – to support an environment of trust on which collaborative relationships will be formed, with clear roles and commitments from key stakeholders
• Clarity of purpose – To support communications of a unified vision and purpose with shared objectives, ensuring alignment across all involved partners. Understanding that each place will be different, support the development of a theory of Change for each place based on community needs.
• Conditions for change defined – support the measurement of indicators of conditions for change, providing a framework for ongoing evaluation, learning and impact
• Knowledge consolidation – support networks where insights from existing work will be integrated, reducing duplication and enhancing efficiency in future phases.
• Readiness for implementation – support the development of the ‘full-award’ application.

Relationships

Strong, meaningful and collaborative relationships will be the key to the successful delivery of this role. Key internal relationships include those with the Head of Strategy, the staff team, and the CEO. Externally, Sport England and the wider Active Partnership network, place Sponsors, strategic and community partners. All of which will be an integral network on which successful relationships will define the success or failure of place based working. The ability to create a network that doesn’t position any one single partner at its centre is key. The network will be a mesh of aligned, equal, and motivated organisations, each playing its part in developing a more active Cheshire and Warrington.

Impact

Success will not be easily, but when it is delivered it will be hugely impactful. Our identified localities in Crewe, Ellesmere Port and Warrington Central will have embedded leaders aligned to our mission, partner networks who collaborate and learn freely with each other to share good practice and reduce/remove duplication.

Person Specification

The skills and attributes outlined in this description are not exhaustive and we welcome candidates who can bring different relevant experiences to the role.

Skills & Knowledge

• Relationship building (at a local, sub-regional and national level)
• Strong initiative and finisher (seeing ideas through to successful delivery)
• Excellent communication (both verbal and written)
• Group leadership (leading conversations and driving actions based on shared priorities)
• Project management (developing and reporting upon progress)
• Networking (ensuring new organisation are knowledgeable and involved)
• Training (organising and delivering training)
• Prioritisation (securely understanding what’s important amongst competing influences)
• Resilient, adaptive and responsive (when navigating through changing, complex and sometimes uncertain environments)
• Digital technology (proficiency with MS Office and other software)
• Ability to travel and work evenings and/or weekends.

Knowledge & Experience

• Understanding of barriers and enablers to physical activity for the least active groups within society
• Knowledge of networks, community partners and local organisations in Cheshire & Warrington
• Ability to build positive and sustainable stakeholder relationships at all levels
• Ability to bridge gaps between community partners and the local strategic landscape, with a focus on co-creation and co-design
• Project planning, management and delivery (including projects involving multiple partners)
• Knowledge of monitoring and evaluation principles in physical activity settings
• Reporting on evaluation, learning and insight to different audiences
• Facilitation of partner discussions around learning and insight, with a few to improve ways of working and expand on success
• Utilising learning and insight to expand successful models across different communities and embed meaningful change
• Sharing local learning on a regional and national level, adding to connectivity of learning and further demonstrating value of the sport and physical activity sector
• Working closely with colleagues within a multidisciplinary team, allowing for connectivity across workstreams and shared learning
• Understanding of issues affect equity and inequalities in physical activity and communities
• Involvement with funding applications
• Experience of managing budgets
• Experience of commissioning services

What can we offer to you

• Competitive salary in line with market expectations, regularly reviewed and benchmarked
• 25 days annual leave and a hybrid working policy
• 5% contribution to Company Pension Scheme, and an extensive HealthShield Employee Assistance Program (EAP) providing 24/7 immediate support
• 4x Life cover for death in service
• Personalised development programmes for all members of staff