Community Lived Experience and Partnerships Manager

Location: HMP Dovegate, Staffordshire, ST14 8XR
Salary: £42,010 – £47,624 per annum, dependant on experience plus excellent benefits
Schedule: 40 hours per week, permanent

Ready to impact a better future?
As a Community Lived Experience and Partnerships Manager in our HMP Dovegate team, you’ll shape programmes and relationships that strengthen rehabilitation and improve outcomes for people in custody and on release. Your work will have a direct, positive impact on communities, helping create the connections, insight and support that set people up for a better future.

You’ll lead the development of community partnerships, lived‑experience initiatives and peer‑led programmes that make a meaningful difference. By embedding lived‑experience insight into service design and cultural development, you’ll help create an environment that builds trust, drives innovation and supports individuals to thrive.

What you’ll do as a Community Lived Experience and Partnerships Manager
You’ll be entrusted to:

• Build, maintain and coordinate effective partnerships with VCSE organisations, statutory agencies, employers, community groups and family‑support networks, ensuring strong collaboration and clear referral pathways.
• Lead the integration of authentic lived‑experience insight across HMP Dovegate, shaping decision‑making, peer‑led programmes and service development.
• Design, deliver and support community engagement and social‑value initiatives that strengthen connections between the prison and local communities.
• Work with operational teams and partners to design and continuously improve interventions, gathering qualitative and quantitative insight to identify gaps and opportunities.
• Ensure all partnership and lived‑experience initiatives comply with safeguarding, confidentiality, risk‑management and quality standards.
• Act as the primary point of contact for community partners, representing HMP Dovegate in local forums, networks and partnership meetings.
• Support mobilisation activity by mapping community stakeholders, developing partnership strategies and ensuring smooth transition into steady‑state delivery.

Does this sound like you?
You’ll be a great fit for this role if you have…

• Strong partnership‑building skills, with confidence working alongside VCSE groups, statutory partners, employers, community organisations and families.
• Experience designing and coordinating programmes in community engagement, lived‑experience integration or peer‑led delivery.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder‑management skills, with the ability to translate insight into service improvement.
• Strong analytical skills, with the ability to work with data, feedback and lived‑experience insight to measure impact and inform improvement.
• A clear understanding of safeguarding, risk management, professional boundaries and safe practice in custodial or community settings.

Vetting and checks:
An Enhanced DBS check is required for this role. This includes spent and unspent convictions, cautions, and any relevant information held by local police, in accordance with the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act and safeguarding requirements. You will also complete an Occupational Health Questionnaire to allow us to provide any support needed for you to succeed in the role.

Discover all you need to keep growing
We’re one of the top 1% of international employers, so you can have confidence you’ll be part of a highly supportive culture with leaders you can count on to help you achieve your goals. From mentoring and training to our focus on internal progression, we’re proud to offer clear development opportunities – and the support and tools to help you seize them.

What we offer

• Holidays: 25 days plus bank holidays
• Pension: Up to 6% contributory pension scheme
• Training and development: Over 1,100 internal courses available, funding for qualifications and apprenticeships (including L3 Team Leader and L5 Operations Manager apprenticeships), mentoring opportunities, and a focus on internal progression
• Health and wellbeing: Employee Assistance Programme, Bupa Anytime HealthLine, wellbeing app, 30% off at Serco‑managed leisure centres, and 24/7 access to a virtual GP service
• Discounts: Discounts across around 1,000 retailers, from food and clothing to days out, entertainment and travel
• Charity: Paid volunteering day, tax‑free charitable giving through Payroll Giving Scheme, donate your pennies from your monthly pay to the Serco People Fund Charity
• Employee networks: Our networks support inclusion and connection by providing spaces for collaboration, learning, and belonging. They represent and empower all our colleagues including LGBTQIA+ employees, women, parents and carers, people with disabilities, veterans, and people from all cultural backgrounds.

Let’s impact a better future, together. Apply today.

About Serco
At Serco, not only is the nature of the work we do important, everyone has an important role to play, from caring for vulnerable people to managing complex public services.  We are a team of 50,000 people responsible for delivering essential public services around the world in areas including defence, transport, justice, immigration, healthcare and citizen services. We are innovators, committed to redesigning and improving public services for the benefit of everyone.

By joining Serco you will have unlimited access to our Global Employee Networks – SercoInspire (Gender), SercoEmbrace (Multicultural), SercoUnlimited (Disability) and In@Serco (LGBT & Networks). Serco Employee Networks, led by colleagues who are passionate about diversity, inclusion and belonging. 

Apply
Please click on the apply button to complete your application. Occasionally we receive a large volume of applications for our roles and when that happens we sometimes bring the closing date forward, so please apply promptly to avoid disappointment. 

At Serco, we see people first and foremost for their performance and potential. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive organisation that supports the needs of all. As such we will make reasonable adjustments at interview through to employment for our candidates and strongly encourage applications from a diverse candidate pool. We are open to discussions around flexibility and flexible working. We operate a hybrid work structure in many of our business areas. We are proudly Disability Confident Leader employers and holder of the Gold Inclusive Employer Standard. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job will be given the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities at an interview.  For help with your application please contact 0345 010 4000.
 

At Serco we support fair access to employment for those with unspent criminal convictions through the ‘Ban the Box’ pledge (some may be exempt due to the nature of the role and the security clearance required). Please contact our recruitment team directly on 0345 010 4000 to discuss.