Head of Active Ipswich

Ipswich is a town with a rich heritage and an exciting future. As a regional centre, we play a vital role in Suffolk’s economic success. This is the perfect time to join us. We have developed a new corporate strategy and operating model that maximises the many opportunities available to us and defines our core purpose to champion our community and revitalise our town.

We are on an exciting journey as we look to champion our vibrant communities, prioritise the revitalisation of our county town, Ipswich and focus on best supporting the wellbeing of our residents. As part of this, we are looking for a proactive and positive Head of Active Ipswich to lead the Council in its ambition to improve the health and wellbeing of our residents and communities.

Reporting to the Council’s Assistant Director, Communities and working closely with our Director of Place, you will lead the experienced and passionate teams which run our well-loved pools and sports centres, our health and wellbeing offer, and deliver our exciting partnership work on Feel Good Suffolk.

You will passionately champion physical activity and wellbeing, making our town a place where people find it easy to be active and stay well. As a critical link into our local NHS and Public Health, you will enjoy working closely with external partners to unpick difficult issues and come up with innovative ways to engage people in our services.

You will inspire our staff and engage our members and customers to make a tangible difference to the health of our town, in partnership with our health colleagues, all Suffolk councils and our thriving VCFSE sector. Our new Community Engagement Strategy will embed co-design into our services to ensure they meet the needs of our residents. You will be passionate about how you will ensure our activities meet the needs of our diverse communities and actively listen for what we can do better.

You will join at an exciting time for the future of our Sports Facilities, with an ambitious strategy in place to develop new assets which offer great choice and services to our residents. You will relish the challenge of working with local businesses to encourage their staff to be active and look forward to supporting a host of local clubs and teams who use our facilities to stay fit and build their communities.

This is a great opportunity, to contribute to Ipswich Borough Council’s future achievements, as well as being part of the corporate management team driving delivery of our new Corporate Plan.

This is a role for a passionate innovator who will bring a wealth of enthusiasm, supplemented with experience of working in a complex, multi-faceted physical activity leadership role. We will give you the support and opportunity to develop and grow.

Please download the Job Description and Person Specification to find out more about this role: Job Description and Person Specification

Documents to consider:

Corporate Plan

Sports and Physical Activity Strategy

Suffolk Physical Activity Strategy

Sports Facilities Strategy

Community Engagement Strategy

Digital strategy

Disability Confident

About Disability Confident

A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.

As well as a good salary, we offer a career average pension scheme, generous holiday and sick pay entitlements, subsidised parking for work and leisure, public transport discounts, free swimming and gym membership, cycle purchase scheme, plenty of personal and professional development opportunities, flexible working, hybrid working opportunities, Employee Assistance Programme and the opportunity to work with great colleagues.

For a confidential discussion, contact Kate Price, Assistant Director, Communities on kate.price@ipswich.gov.uk, TO APPLY: Applications must be made by sending a current CV, Supporting Statement of not more than 3 A4 pages and Monitoring Form to activeipswichrecruitment@ipswich.gov.uk by 9am Monday 3rd February 2025.