Senior Manager - Area Leaders Programme

The Youth Endowment Fund  

Senior Manager - Area Leaders Programme  

Reports to: Area Leaders Programmes Change Lead 

Salary: £51,300 

Location: Central London, Hybrid 

Contract: 2-year fixed term  

Application Deadline: 12pm on Tuesday 29th April 2025   

Interviews: commencing the week of 12th May 2025 

About the Youth Endowment Fund 

We’re here to prevent children from becoming involved in violence. We do this by finding out what works and building a movement to change things.  

In recent years, violent crime involving children has increased. This is a tragedy. Every child is an important member of our community and society has a duty to protect them.  

The Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) is a charity with a £200m endowment that exists to prevent children from becoming involved in violence. We’ll achieve this by finding out what works and building a movement to put this knowledge into practice. We do this by funding, evaluating and then spreading the very best work on reducing youth violence across England and Wales.  

The Area Leaders Programme (ALP) is central to this mission. The ALP will transform how areas identify and support young people and places most vulnerable to violence, collaborate effectively, and deliver impactful interventions to better protect children from being drawn into violence. We are seeking an exceptional senior manager to help drive the next phase of the ALP, scaling from a successful pilot in four Local Authorities to broader implementation across England and Wales. 

Key Responsibilities 

The Senior Area Leaders Programmes Manager will be an essential part of the YEF Change team and will support the expansion and delivery of the Area Leaders Programme, ensuring its effectiveness in increasing evidence-based decision-making, commissioning, and multi-agency collaboration. You will provide direct operational oversight and stakeholder engagement to support local areas in reducing youth involvement in violence.  Approximately 0.4fte of the role will be presenting YEF Toolkit evidence in both the ALP and across wider violence prevention networks supported by the YEF.  

This will include: 

Programme Management and Delivery 

• Support the management of the expansion of ALP from four pilot areas to 10 new local authority areas from spring 2025. 
• Support the development and refinement of frameworks, tools, and resources to support effective identification of the people and places most vulnerable to violence, evidence-based commissioning, effective case management, and multi-agency collaboration. 
• Commission and manage contractual arrangements with external consultants secured to support ALP development and delivery. 
• Manage robust monitoring and evaluation processes to assess the impact and inform continuous improvement of the programme. 
• Manage programme resources effectively, ensuring projects are delivered on time, within budget, and to high standards. 

Stakeholder Engagement and Collaboration 

• Build and maintain strong relationships with local authorities, safeguarding partnerships, community safety partnerships, and other stakeholders. 
• Represent YEF in discussions with partners and policymakers. 
• Help facilitate collaboration across diverse stakeholders to align priorities, overcome barriers, and promote evidence-based approaches. 

Capacity Building and Support 

• Provide strategic and operational support to multi-agency teams, empowering them to embed effective violence prevention practices. 
• Lead capacity-building activities, including workshops, coaching, training, and peer learning opportunities for local partnerships. 

Presenting Toolkit evidence.  

• You will present Toolkit evidence in talks and workshops and speak clearly and persuasively about Toolkit evidence, so that insights from our research lead to positive change. You’ll work with key stakeholders to identify areas of policy and practice that should be informed by Toolkit evidence.  

About you 

You are this sort of person:  

• A passion for making a difference by keeping children safe from involvement in violence. You want to play a significant part in reducing the level of youth violence and see the value in an evidence-informed approach. You’ll know about the key issues and debates in preventing children and young people becoming involved in violence.   
• You believe in the importance of using evidence to prevent violence and enjoy sharing evidence to inform others. You have a keen interest in learning from research, identifying key findings and sharing these insights with people working in various sectors and organisations. You tailor your style and content to ensure evidence is understood and used. 
• Knowledge of crime or violence prevention. You might have worked closely with, or been a practitioner in, a youth offending team, policing, children’s services or youth work and might have previous experience of supporting a local partnership to develop their violence reduction strategy or reflect on and adopt evidence-based practice. You are aware of the current context, issues or challenges facing some of these sectors or agencies.  
• You are fascinated about change and are experienced in making it happen. You understand why people find change difficult. You come alive talking about how people make decisions and why they do the things they do. 
• You are comfortable with complexity and ambiguity, whilst being excellent at bringing clarity and structure. This may have been in the context of helping to develop/grow a new programme. 
• You’re a critical thinker. You critically assess the quality, reliability and relevance of information and evidence. You consider different viewpoints, identify problems and make well-reasoned decisions.  
• You write in a way that people easily understand. You have that rare skill of writing in plain English. You can summarise long or complicated reports and write in a way that everyone can understand.  
• Excellent project and time management skills. You have the ability to deliver high-quality work in a fast-paced environment. You can work independently and to a high standard.  
• You’re good with people. You’re comfortable working with a wide range of people, including research experts, policymakers, practitioners, children and their families. You’re able to provide constructive challenges when required.  
• You learn fast but remain humble. You are very quick at getting your head around things. You like learning and are good at synthesising information. You know how much you don't know. You know that you can learn more. You know that it's easy to assume you know when you don't. You care more that good things happen than who gets the credit. You are a great and supportive team player.  
• A commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. You believe and act in a way that celebrates and encourages a range of experiences, views and values.  

While it’s not a criterion, we’re especially interested to hear from applicants who have lived experience of youth violence. 

It’s also important to us that the people we hire do not discriminate. We believe in being inclusive and giving everyone an equal chance to succeed. Applications are welcome from all regardless of age, sex, gender identity, disability, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, race, sexual orientation, transgender status or social economic background.  

All appointments will be made on merit, following a fair and transparent process. In line with the Equality Act 2010, however, the organisation may employ positive action where candidates from underrepresented groups can demonstrate their ability to perform the role equally well. 

Hybrid Working  

The office is based in Central London. Those living in and around London are expected to be in the office a minimum of 2 days per week. If you live outside of London and work remotely, you’ll be expected to work from the London office 2 days per month.  

Travel  

Due to the nature of the programme there is some national travel required within England and Wales. This is likely to be around twice a month, all travel costs can be reimbursed with flexibility for overnight stays if preferred.   

To Apply  

To apply, please send a CV and cover letter, and complete the monitoring form click on ‘Apply for this job’ button. Please submit your application by 12pm on Tuesday 29th April.   

Interview Process  

This will be a one interview process. Interviews will take place the week commencing 12th May 2025. 

We do not sponsor work permits and you will be required to provide proof of your eligibility to work in the UK. 

Additional Benefits Include 

• £1,000 professional development budget annually 
• 28 days holiday plus Bank Holidays 
• Four half days for volunteering activities 
• Employee Assistance Programme – 24hr phone line for free confidential support 
• Volunteering days - 4 half days per year 
• Death in service - 4 times annual salary 
• Flexible hours. Core office hours 10am – 4pm 
• Financial support including travel and hardship loans 
• Employer contributed pension of 5% 

Your Data 

Your personal data will be shared for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes our HR team, interviewers (who may include other partners in the project and independent advisors), relevant team managers and our IT service provider if access to the data is necessary for performance of their roles. We do not share your data with other third parties, unless your application for employment is successful, and we make you an offer of employment. We will then share your data with former employers to obtain references for you.  

We do not transfer your data outside the European Economic Area. 
The people we are looking for do not discriminate and we believe in being inclusive and giving everyone an equal chance to succeed. Applications are welcome from all regardless of age, sex, gender identity, disability, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, race, sexual orientation, transgender status or social economic background.