Assistant Director (Early Intervention & Prevention)

Town Hall Extension, Albert Square,
Manchester, M60 2LA

£91,985 - £101,692 per annum

Manchester

About the role

Assistant Director (Early Intervention & Prevention)

Manchester prides itself on being a warm and inviting city with something to offer to everyone. We are committed to bringing about a more inclusive city, where people have access to top-class education and training, and where the economic opportunities that such a vibrant city creates are accessible to all.

We have a whole-city approach to building a safe, happy, healthy and successful future for all children and young people. We have made great strides in our progress and impact for inclusion in the UNICEF programme for accreditation of child-friendly city status. In Children and Education Services, we are recognised for our reforms and innovation, and this has contributed towards delivering excellence.

We are looking for an inspirational Strategic Leader to continue our effective work and to meet new requirements outlined in the Families First for Children Programme.

As Assistant Director (Early Intervention and Prevention) you will lead the strategic development and delivery of early intervention and prevention services across the city. This includes the expansion of Family Hubs, and wholescale transformation aligned with the Families First programme and delivery of the Best Start for Life Strategy. You will play a key role in shaping this work to ensure the services we offer to families are timely and accessible to all. Success will rely on further developing multi-disciplinary and partnership working to ensure services wrap around the needs of families at the right time to improve outcomes.

We are looking for someone who, like us, has high aspirations for children, can work as part of a team and has a well-developed leadership skill set. The role is pivotal to our neighbourhood and placed based working arrangements and you will ensure strategic priorities are delivered. You will make a distinct contribution to our commitment to ongoing, fast paced improvement drawing on your experience of continuous improvement, quality assurance, change management and innovation.

Manchester’s ethos is to ensure that all the people in our city can thrive and are able to benefit from the opportunities that our economic growth brings. Our workforce is at the heart of this – and we have created the conditions, whereby colleagues have the skills, knowledge and ability to allow their careers to flourish. Working in Manchester gives you the chance to do things that you wouldn’t get to do in other places, and it is a hugely exciting place to live and work.

We are looking for an experienced leader who will bring passion, drive and can forge strong relationships with children and their families, colleagues and partners, and exert influence across the city, and more importantly deliver high standards of practice. In return we will offer you plenty of challenges as well as opportunities to innovate and personally develop, working alongside a dedicated and talented set of colleagues who work collaboratively to deliver our vision and ambitions for the children and young people of Manchester.

It is through true partnerships that children and young people can truly thrive in Manchester.

TO APPLY

To find out more information and to apply please visit: Assistant Director (Early Intervention & Prevention)

TIMELINE

Closing date: 6th November 2025
Interview date: 18th November 2025

Apply Now

Useful links

Associated Documents

Role Profile

Message from Julie Heslop –Deputy Director Children’s Services

Children and young people are the future of Manchester, and it is vital that we invest in the next generation to build a successful, vibrant city that is full of opportunities. The role of Assistant Director (Early Intervention and Prevention) is pivotal to that success.  If our city does well, our people need to feel the benefits too and our vision is to place children and young people at the centre of everything we do. As part of this, our Making Manchester Fairer and Anti Poverty Strategies are tackling inequalities and we are on the way to being a Unicef Child Friendly City. 

It’s an exciting time for Manchester. We are looking for inspirational leaders to deliver the requirements outlined in the Families First Partnership Programme and ensure our neighbourhoods and communities benefit from the aspirations outlined in Our Manchester Strategy 2025-2035. Values matter and underpin our practice framework, and you will be pivotal in ensuring our practice reflects effective support, enablement and inclusion.  

We don’t pretend there aren’t challenges, some of them deep-rooted, but they are challenges that the sort of leaders we are looking for will relish taking on: tackling inequalities and striving to ensure that Manchester’s children and young people benefit from inclusive growth.  

As Assistant Director (Early Intervention and Prevention) you will ensure children, young people and their families receive the right support, as early as possible, to ensure improved outcomes and to prevent issues escalating. You will lead on reforms at a neighbourhood level ensuring children’s voices and experiences are at the centre of our offer to families.

You will be joining an exceptional management team, working with them and with our partners and stakeholders to ensure our children and young people are safe, happy, healthy and successful. 