YEF Detached Youth Work Area Lead in Manchester

Relationships change lives. At M13 Youth Project, we believe every young person deserves trusted adults who believe in them, walk alongside them and help them discover who they are, what they have to offer and the difference they can make. For over 30 years, we've built those relationships through detached youth work - meeting young people where they choose to be, listening deeply and creating opportunities for belonging, belief and hope.

We're now looking for an experienced Detached Youth Work Area Lead to join our team and play a key role in one of the UK's most ambitious detached youth work research pilots. M13 is leading the Greater Manchester consortium delivering the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) Detached Youth Work Pilot. The Pilot aims to build a strong evidence base for detached youth work, combining outstanding frontline practice with rigorous evaluation to shape the future of youth work nationally.

Reporting to the YEF Detached Youth Work Project Lead, you'll lead detached youth work across two/three neighbourhoods within M13's delivery of the pilot. You'll be responsible for delivering high-quality detached youth work, modelling excellent relational practice, supporting less experienced colleagues through day-to-day practice, contributing to monitoring and evaluation, and building positive relationships with young people, local residents, community organisations and partner agencies.

This is first and foremost a frontline detached youth work role. You'll spend much of your week in parks, streets and neighbourhoods, building trusted relationships with young people through conversation, consistency and purposeful informal education. Alongside this, you'll help ensure high-quality implementation of the YEF Shared Practice Model within your neighbourhood patches, contribute to monitoring and reporting and work closely with the Project Lead and wider team to support the successful delivery of the pilot.

We're looking for someone who is an experienced detached youth worker, confident leading excellent practice and passionate about relational youth work. You'll be organised, reflective and proactive, with experience of taking responsibility for detached youth work within a neighbourhood, maintaining high-quality records, building effective local partnerships and supporting colleagues through encouragement, reflection and shared learning. Most importantly, you'll share our belief that relationships are the foundation for meaningful change.

This is a 22.5-hour per week, office- and community-based role (M13's full-time week is 37.5 hours). Your week will include six detached youth work sessions (three afternoons and three evenings), alongside planning, monitoring, partnership working and reflective practice. Some flexibility can be offered around when office-based work is undertaken, where operationally possible.

In return, we offer a supportive, reflective and values-led working environment, regular supervision, ongoing professional development, a generous employer pension contribution, TOIL for out-of-hours working, additional Christmas gift leave and the opportunity to contribute to nationally significant research that could shape the future of detached youth work.

If you're an experienced detached youth worker ready to combine outstanding frontline practice with leadership of detached youth work across neighbourhoods, learning and innovation, we'd love to hear from you.