Senior Strategic Project Lead – Place Partnerships

Department: Strategy

Reports to: Head of Strategy

Responsible for: Place Officer (with possibility of 1 more role)

Salary Banding: £35,500 - £36,500

Location: Flexible working with a dedicated office space in Winsford, Cheshire

Duration: Fixed-term contract for 12 months

About Active Cheshire

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.

Nature & Scope

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 ensure 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 foster an environment of trust on which collaborative relationships will be formed, with clear roles and commitments from key stakeholders
• Clarity of purpose – To swiftly and effectively communicate a unified vision and purpose with shared objectives, ensuring alignment across all involved partners. Understanding that each place will be different, solidify a Theory of Change for each place based on community needs.
• Conditions for change defined – articulate measurable indicators of conditions for change, providing a framework for ongoing evaluation, learning and impact
• Knowledge consolidation – Utilise and develop networks where insights from existing work will be integrated, reducing duplication and enhancing efficiency in future phases.
• Readiness for implementation – ensure a solid foundation in place so that the transition to the next phase will be well-structured, ensuring momentum is maintained, leading 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 easy, 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

• A natural leader (leading for cultural change and an ability to empower others)
• 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)
• Networking (ensuring new organisation are knowledgeable and involved)
• Training (organising and delivering leadership training)
• Prioritisation (understanding what’s important amongst competing influences)
• Resilient, adaptive and responsive (when navigating through changing, complex and sometimes uncertain environments)
• Can show strength and expertise in best practice ways (to share and connect learning and to support continuous improvement)
• Digital technology (proficiency with MS Office and other software).
• Ability to travel and work evenings and/or weekends.

Knowledge & Experience:

• Ability to build positive and sustainable stakeholder relationships at all levels
• Understanding and experience of whole system approaches
• Ability to bridge gaps between community partners and the local strategic landscape, with a focus on co-creation and co-design
• Managing strategic relationships and influencing at a strategic level – including utilising learning at a place level to influence strategy, policy and strategic investment
• Connecting local strategies and creating shared purpose/alignment of priorities
• Strategic planning, implementation, and delivery
• Project management, including projects involving multiple partners
• Knowledge of monitoring and evaluation principles in physical activity settings
• Reporting on evaluation, learning and insight to different audiences
• Drawing on insight and evidence to facilitate conversations and present recommendations for organisational and system level improvements
• Utilising learning and insight to expand successful models across places
• 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
• Understanding of how issues affect equity and inequalities in physical activity
• Working closely with colleagues within a multidisciplinary team, allowing for connectivity across workstreams and shared learning
• Understanding of barriers and enablers to physical activity for the least active groups
• Experience of managing budgets, resources and performance
• Experience of commissioning services
• Writing funding applications

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

How to Apply

Active Cheshire is a ‘Disability Confident’ and ‘Mindful Employer’ and as such we commit to offering an interview to disabled people who meet the minimum criteria for the job. Our recruitment processes comply with the Equalities Act 2010, and people who have or are experiencing mental ill health will not be discriminated against.

Should you wish to have a conversation with us about this vacancy prior to applying, please contact Mike Watson on mike.watson@activecheshire.org.

To apply for this role, please send a CV and covering letter detailing how your skills and experience make you an appropriate candidate for this role to recruitment@activecheshire.org and enter AC/SSPL/25 in the subject line. If you would like to submit your covering letter in a video format of you talking through your relevant experience, please do so. The video should accompany your CV, and be no longer than 5 mins long, and in an MP4 format.