Hub Manager, Black Country
£32,000 per year
Full-time, 35 hours per week
Permanent contract
Based in the Black Country as a home working role

We are on a mission to give children and young people from disadvantaged communities the literacy skills to succeed in life. You could join us to lead our Literacy Hub in the Black Country.

What you’ll be doing

Our Literacy Hubs are a creative, place-based response to the challenges of intergenerational low literacy, and we now have 14 around the country. Each is tailored in response to local assets and need and makes a 10-year commitment to transforming lives in the area.

As Hub Manager for the Black Country, you will work with a range of partners to shape and deliver activity as part of the local strategy. Specifically, you will support the delivery of our Connecting Stories project, which is funded by Arts Council England to support reader and writer development across all 14 Hubs. This will include work with authors, distribution of books and other resources, community events and a social media campaign, and each Hub will develop their own plans based on community and partner input.

Your initial focus will be on building links with key partners, completing the community engagement and consultation to finalise plans and beginning delivery. Beyond that, there will be a wider role engaging with a range of partners, including schools, business and cultural partners to join up provision and find new ways to work together.

Alongside your work on the Hub, you will also spend two days per week delivering our early years project, First Words Together. The programme aims to enrich the home learning environment and improve the emerging speech and communication of children aged under two. Working with our Early Years Programme Manager, you will build relationships with project partners locally and deliver training and support directly to early years practitioners in children’s centres and other early years settings across the Black Country.


You will work as part of our communities and local areas team, alongside Hub and Project Managers across all 14 Hubs and our national programme management team. For delivery of First Words Together, you will work closely with our early years team. You will be based in the Black Country, as a home working role, with significant travel around the local area to support partnerships and delivery, and nationally where necessary.

What we’re looking for

You will be an excellent project manager with extensive experience including financial and risk management within the charity or public sector and working with corporate partners. You will also have experience of working with early years settings, schools and community groups in the Black Country, working with a range of ages

You will need strong relationship management and leadership skills, as well as knowledge of the Black Country and its challenges.

Why our work is so vital

Poor literacy and resulting inequality is not inevitable. The National Literacy Trust improves the reading, writing, speaking and listening skills of those who need it most, giving them the best possible chance of success.

We make society fairer. Poor literacy creates social and economic inequality. The one in six adults in the UK with poor literacy earn less, are less likely to vote and more likely to experience health inequalities.

We enable social mobility. A child without literacy skills can’t succeed at school, and as an adult they will be locked out of the job market. The pattern is intergenerational and starts at birth.

Our work is targeted at communities with the highest levels of disadvantage and the lowest levels of literacy. We support thousands of schools and early years settings, bringing in wonderful partners like the Premier League and the nation’s best publishers who bring literacy alive. We campaign to make literacy a priority for our nation’s leaders. Our research and analysis make us the leading authority on literacy and drive our interventions.

What we offer you

As well as a competitive salary, we offer benefits including a generous leave allowance totalling 39 days pro rata (including bank holidays and office closure between Christmas and New Year), pension contributions of 8% of annual salary, a cycle to work scheme, employee assistance programme and other health and wellbeing benefits.

We support flexible working and promote a workplace where you can be yourself and contribute to our success, whoever you are.

Application details

Our people are our most important asset, and we value and respect diversity in all its forms (seen and unseen). We particularly welcome applications from those from Black and Asian backgrounds, as well as candidates with disabilities and from the communities in which we work. We would like to increase representation of these groups among our staff as we know greater diversity will lead to an even greater impact for our work.

To apply please select the button shown.

Closing date: 10am, Wednesday 27 October 2021.

Please note we do not accept CVs. No agencies or recruitment sites.

Registered charity no. 1116260 (England and Wales) and SC042944 (Scotland).

This vacancy is being advertised by Webrecruit. The services advertised by Webrecruit are those of an Employment Agency.