Head of Healthy Active Neighbourhoods

Head of Healthy Active Neighbourhoods

Location: Kidlington, Oxfordshire, OX5 2DN
Salary: £48,000
Hours: 37.5
Job Type: Full time
Contract Type: Fixed Term Contract

This is an exciting opportunity to join Active Oxfordshire in a Senior Management position. You will be working with a fearless and passionate team and multiple partners across the county to increase activity levels for the people and places that need it most. This role is part of significant new investment into Oxfordshire for place-based working and will involve working with communities and key partners to help achieve lasting change in increasing activity.

About the role:

This new role is part of Active Oxfordshire s continued growth and will lead the strategic direction of our place-based work across the county as well as being formally involved in the Marmot Place work in Oxfordshire.

As a member of the Senior Leadership Team at Active Oxfordshire, the successful candidate will guide our strategy for our focused work in priority areas, build relationships with partners across the system and line manage the Healthy Active Neighbourhoods Manager. An overarching priority will be to ensure that our priority place programmes align and complement work across the rest of the organisation and system in Oxfordshire.

About you:

You will have experience in identifying strategic opportunities and the ability to develop and nurture relationships at a senior level in partner organisations.

As an experienced line manager, you will be able to bring people together around a specific agenda and create a sense of energy and purpose.

You will have experience in managing budgets and identifying clear priorities to manage an interconnected workload.

A strong enthusiasm for our cause is a must, as well as the ability to articulate a compelling case for why physical activity is important to embed at place-level.

What we offer:

This is a fixed-term contract, initially for 3 years. The role is a full-time position, working 37.5 hours per week.

You will receive a salary of £48,000 and benefits including a generous 10% contributory pension scheme, Cycle to Work scheme, 38 days annual leave inclusive of bank holidays (pro rata) and our new bespoke Employee Support and Wellbeing Programme.

Hybrid working is available, which means typically one day a week is in the office (Monday) with the rest of the week working remotely from home, within the community or with partner organisations. This role would likely involve regular working from County Hall (central Oxford) due to the direct link to Marmot Place work.

Active Oxfordshire welcomes applications from all sections of the community and actively encourages diversity within our team to maximise achievements, creativity and good practice. We know that people from certain backgrounds can be hugely under-represented in our sectors, and we want to change this. We are therefore genuinely keen, and particularly interested to receive applications from people from diverse ethnic communities, from disabled people, neurodivergent people, people who identify as LGBTQIA+ and people with experience of facing barriers to physical activity.

We want all candidates to have an equal chance to shine in this process please let us know if there s anything we can do to make sure the application process works for you (Further contact details can be found in the job pack).

How to apply:

Please refer to the job pack for further information on how to apply and closing dates.

Please note a satisfactory Enhanced DBS check will be required for this role.

By applying for this role, you are stating that you are eligible to work in the UK. Active Oxfordshire is unable to apply for a Certificate of Sponsorship for this role.

About us

Welcome to Active Oxfordshire

We are a registered charity () and part of a network of 43 Active Partnerships. We work alongside partners and local communities to break down barriers to physical activity.

Through our various programmes and partnerships, more children and young people in the county can learn to swim, ride a bike and enjoy being active together with their families. Our flagship activity programmes, which include a programme for families on lower incomes and a programme for adults with long-term health conditions, now reach more than 17,000 residents each year. Supporting Oxfordshire residents in most need to be more active is helping to prevent and manage health conditions, improve mental health and well-being and connect communities. Our work changes lives every day, and this role is an exciting opportunity to further our impact in areas of highest priority.

Our purpose at Active Oxfordshire is to empower communities, unify partners and challenge Oxfordshire s extreme health inequalities, with the overall outcome of significantly increasing activity levels to transform health and wellbeing. We do this by working with local partners across multiple sectors. We are a system partner of Sport England, and this role is part of significant new investment into Oxfordshire by Sport England through their Place Universal Offer funding.

Our recruitment principles

Underpinning our recruitment are the following 10 principles:

1) Successful applications will never be contingent on a driving license or access to a car. 25% of our current team do not drive and this has no impact on their capability to do their job.
2) Online interviews will always be available where that supports the accessibility of the process.
3) Salary transparency we will always advertise the salary of a role, including whether it is negotiable.
4) Regular language - we try to remove jargon and industry specific language as much as possible. If anything in the below does not make sense, then please challenge us on this.
5) Applications are redacted to remove certain information, so that potential unconscious biases are reduced.
6) Candidates will always be sent any interviews questions or tasks in advance.
7) Candidates can also bring notes to interviews. We would much rather you remember all your great examples and tell us about them, than remember them on the way home.
8) We will not ask for a degree unless it is absolutely the only way that someone can become qualified or experienced to carry out a specific role. Undergraduate Degree admissions are heavily dominated by White British students (e.g. 72.6% in academic year) and by specifying a degree as a requirement we narrow the opportunities of talented people who are part of the global majority.
9) We will never try to catch people out or make their life difficult in our recruitment processes but instead will be doing everything possible to create conditions where people can celebrate and demonstrate their talents.
10) Candidates will be encouraged to dress comfortably for interview. Our panel won t be dressed in business attire, and we very seldom would be in the course of our work.

Creating diversity at Active Oxfordshire

Active Oxfordshire welcomes applications from all sections of the community and actively encourages diversity within our team. Equity, Diversity and Inclusion is a core part of our work, we actively promote inclusive recruitment principles and in late 2024 were awarded a silver award for our focus on inclusive workplaces for neurodiverse colleagues by Autistica.

We know that people from certain backgrounds can be hugely under-represented in our sector, and we want to change this and will make adaptations to our recruitment practices to enable this. We are therefore genuinely keen, and particularly interested to receive applications from people from diverse ethnic communities, from disabled people, neurodivergent people, people who identify as LGBTQIA+, people with caring responsibilities and people with experience of facing barriers to physical activity.

We want all candidates to have an equal chance to shine in this process please let us know if there s anything we can do to make sure the application process works for you.

Benefits: Generous holiday of 38 days pro rata per annum (including bank holidays), 10% employer contribution pension, wellbeing support, learning, development and training opportunities and cycle to work scheme

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