Project Manager - Get Suffolk Reading (Haverhill)
£34,000 per year
Full-time, 35 hours per week
Fixed term contract to end March 2024
Home working role based in Suffolk

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 as Project Manager for our Get Suffolk Reading campaign in Haverhill.

What you’ll be doing

Get Suffolk Reading, launched in 2021, builds on our experience of place-based working across the country. Working in partnership with Suffolk County Council and a wide range of local stakeholders, our team deliver a county-wide campaign as well as projects, volunteer-led activity and campaigning focused on three priority areas - Haverhill, Lowestoft and Stowmarket. All activity aims to develop a love of reading among families with pre-school or primary aged children.

You will be part of a team of three, responsible for leading, developing and delivering Get Suffolk Reading in Haverhill. This includes developing strategic planning, embedding work within broader local priorities and delivering activities. You will work with schools, early years settings, businesses and local authority partners, as well as reporting to the local Senior Steering Group. You will also work closely with those developing and delivering our other local campaigns and projects, to share learning.

What we’re looking for

You will be an inspiring and effective leader, with extensive project management experience, including strategic planning, relationship management and risk management within the charity, public and/or volunteering sectors. You will also need experience working in education, early years or local government, and sound understanding of education structures and drivers. Knowledge of the Suffolk community, and specifically Haverhill, will be essential.

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 (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 apply button shown.

Closing date: 10am, Thursday 13 April

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.