Development Manager, Manchester

Organisation: Access Sport CIO
Salary: £28,000–£33,000 FTE, with salary offered subject to experience
Location: Manchester
Contract type: Permanent (Full time)
Closing date: 17 August 2026
Interview date: 24 August 2026
Job Description: Access Sport is a national charity with a vision that no one should be
excluded from the transformational benefits of community sport. We are on a mission to make inclusion the norm in community sport by tackling the access barriers faced by disadvantaged and disabled young people.

We do this by training, equipping, and supporting community sports
clubs, organisations, and volunteers to provide inclusive programmes,
unleashing their potential to transform the lives of underserved young
people in their local communities.

This work aims to tackle the root causes preventing disadvantaged and/or disabled young people from accessing sport through a range of
projects which are either place-specific or sport-specific. All the clubs we support are invited to join our Inclusive Club Network. We then use the expertise gained through this work to effect System Change.

In 2025/26 Access Sport engaged over 40,909 disadvantaged and
disabled young people, with a strong representation from ethnically
diverse communities, girls, and previously less active young people.

A copy of our 2022-2027 growth strategy, Stand for Inclusion, which
provides further details about our work and future development plans
can be found here on our website.

Read more about our impact in our Annual Review. A number of videos
showcasing our work can be found on our YouTube channel. These
include a recent film about our new cycling and basketball facilities in
Cadishead and a dedicated film about our work in Partington, Trafford.

Role purpose
Summary
Access Sport is looking to appoint a new Development Manager within
our growing Greater Manchester team. This is an exciting opportunity
to lead the growth of a new place-based project in Manchester.
Access Sport has partnered with MCRactive, one of 10 local authorities in Greater Manchester, to expand our place-based work and tackle the unmet needs of local communities across the city. This role will focus on making sport more accessible for disadvantaged and disabled children and young people, and enhancing the community sports club network.

The Development Manager will have the opportunity to work on the
ground and build partnerships across Manchester to create more
inclusive sport opportunities. The post holder will work closely with the
MCRactive place-based team, as well as Access Sport’s Greater
Manchester team, and will be responsible for the overall delivery and
execution of our Manchester project.

Our work across Manchester will include:
• Place-based club development – training, equipping and
supporting community clubs in priority places across Manchester,
including the delivery of disability and neuro-diversity inclusion
training and youth leadership opportunities.
• Event delivery – inclusive events and multi-sport festivals
connecting disabled young people to new opportunities.
• Network development – working closely with Manchester
colleagues to support the development of an enhanced disability
inclusive sport club network across Manchester.
• Major sporting events social impact and activation - using major
sporting events as a catalyst to deliver targeted place-based
inclusion work and related community engagement activity.

Responsibilities
Project management
• Work alongside the Programme Leader to support the planning,
delivery, budget management and administration of our
Manchester project.
• Ensure the project KPIs are delivered within scope, on time, and on
budget.
• Work closely with internal teams across Access Sport to ensure
seamless cross-organisation working, including communications,
marketing, and finance.

Delivery
• Lead the development and delivery of our Manchester project,
aligning club development, training and learning, youth leadership
and event delivery to create more inclusive environments for
young people.
• Manage Access Sport’s Manchester project, supporting community
clubs to engage disadvantaged and disabled children and young
people, alongside providing ongoing, tapered support to emerging
clubs, helping them become independent and resilient.
• Champion youth, disability and neurodivergence inclusion across
the Manchester project, embedding inclusive practice into delivery,
delivering in-person and online workshops, training, and resources
to upskills coaches, volunteers and young people.
• Carry out regular visits to clubs to strengthen partnerships,
understand clubs’ needs and aspirations, and capture monitoring
data and information to evidence impact.

Partnerships and place-based working
• Build new local partnerships to expand the reach and impact of the
project across Manchester, working collaboratively with key local
organisations such as MCRactive.
• Support place-based approaches by tailoring delivery to local
community needs and priorities, working closely with the
Manchester place-partnership and GM Moving.
• Assist community organisations to build local partnerships, e.g.
local SEND schools, youth clubs, disability organisations, and
community clubs.
• Proactively work in collaboration with local networks including the
Ignite Manchester network and GM Moving forums, encouraging
greater connectedness and collaboration between the sport,
disability, youth, health and education sectors.
• Work closely with our wider Greater Manchester, and national,
teams to ensure cross-project learning and alignment of delivery
systems and process.

Monitoring and evaluation
• Work closely with Access Sport’s M&E Manager to ensure the
monitoring and evaluation requirements for the project are met
and contribute to internal and external reporting in an accurate
and timely manner.
• Use in-house data collection tools, such as Upshot, to track data,
including participation, demographics and outputs.
• Contribute to broader learning by identifying insights, challenges
and opportunities for improvement.
• Support the development of case studies, impact stories and
communications outputs.
This list is not to be regarded as exclusive or exhaustive, as there may be other duties and requirements associated with the post, which Access Sport may call upon the post-holder to perform from time to time.

Person specification
Skills/ experience
Essential
• Ability to manage multiple projects, underpinned by strong project
coordination, time management, and organisational skills
alongside an understanding of delivering against project budgets
and key performance indicators.
• Experience of developing and delivering community sport or youth
projects, ideally in a place-based context.
• Excellent written and verbal communication and an ability to
communicate with a diverse audience.
• A strong understanding of equity, diversity and inclusion in
practice, particularly in relation to underserved young people.
• Experience of building and managing effective partnerships across
organisations or sectors (e.g. schools, community groups, local
authorities).
• An understanding of the barriers that affect participation in
community sport, particularly for underserved communities.
• Experience of engaging, supporting or working with young people.
• An understanding of safeguarding and its importance when
working with children and young people (training will be provided).

Desirable
• Experience of developing or supporting community sports clubs.
• Experience of delivering training, workshops or workforce
development for coaches, volunteers or young leaders.
• Lived experience of one or more of the underserved communities
we support (e.g. D/deaf, disabled, neurodivergent, women and
girls, ethnically diverse communities, low socio-economic
backgrounds).
• Experience of monitoring and evaluation, including collecting and
using data to demonstrate impact.

Personal attributes
• A passion for Access Sport’s cause and empowering underserved
and disabled children and young people to reach their full potential
through sport.
• A personal commitment to Access Sport’s vision and values
• Self-motivated, able to use initiative, and have a highly flexible
approach to work.
• Proactive and adaptable - ability to think creatively and use
initiative to achieve outcomes.
• Reliable and hardworking with the confidence to work
independently.
• A team player with good interpersonal skills.
• Committed to continuing personal and professional development.

In addition:
• The post holder must have the right to work in the UK.
• The post holder must be able to travel regularly within the UK,
particularly within Manchester.
• There will be some requirements to work on evenings or weekends,
for which time off in lieu (TOIL) can be taken.

Equal opportunities
We welcome and encourage applications from people of all
backgrounds. Access Sport is committed to creating an inclusive culture, through fostering a diverse workforce where everyone feels like they belong, differences are valued, and everyone can reach their potential.

We are actively seeking to diversify and create a workplace that is
welcoming for all, ensuring that our workforce is representative of wider society and the communities we support. If you need any adjustments to the recruitment process, at either the application or interview stage, please contact us.

We offer disabled applicants the option of requesting that their
application is considered under the terms of our Guaranteed Interview
Scheme (GIS). If you wish to apply under our GIS, please indicate this in your cover email. For more information, please visit our Join the
Team page.

Background checks
As this role may, at times, involve working in a regulated environment
with young people, any offer will be conditional to satisfactory
background checks which includes a criminal record check with the
Disclosure and Barring Service and two references.

Staff benefits
Access Sport is an exciting and dynamic place to work. We pride
ourselves on being a close-knit and well-supported team with a clear
sense of purpose, delivering real impact. Inclusion is at the heart of
everything we do.

We are committed to supporting the development of our team members and, should you wish, there are opportunities for team members to get involved in different aspects of the charity, from the delivery of our programmes on the ground, to fundraising, events and advocacy.

Staff benefits include:
• Employee Assistance Programme - Access to a 24/7 confidential
helpline, counselling services and online information.
• Annual leave - 28 days annual leave, including 3 days between
Christmas and New Year, plus 1 extra day of leave per year of
service for the first 5 years. This equates to 33 days of annual leave
after 5 years of continuous service. Plus 8 days paid public holidays.
• Healthy living and wellbeing employer - We welcome staff to
embed regular exercise into their daily work lives and have
quarterly team away days.
• Volunteering/ personal development days - Two additional days of
paid leave each year to volunteer for an Access Sport club or other
charity, or to use as personal development days.
• Pension - 5% employer pension contribution.
•New Mums and Dads, including adoptive parents, can take
enhanced maternity and paternity leave.
• Flexible working and family-friendly - Hybrid and flexible working
arrangements which are family-friendly and provide flexibility
around caring responsibilities.
• 24/7 GP service to provide employees with a phone or video
appointment at a time and date that suits them.
• Cycle to Work scheme - saving up to 39% off a new bike and
accessories.
• Group Life Assurance for all staff on payroll.
How to apply: The closing date for applications is 9 am, Monday 17 August 2026. To apply, please complete the application form on the Access Sport website - Development Manager Application Form Once you have submitted your online application, please email your CV and Equal Opportunities Monitoring form to Careers@AccessSport.org.uk with your name in the subject line. Our Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form can be downloaded here: www.AccessSport.org.uk/join-the-team. Candidates who have been shortlisted for an interview will be notified by Friday 21 August. The first interviews are currently due to take place during the week commencing w/c Monday 24 August. If you have any questions or would like to have an informal discussion about the role, please email Sue.Wheeler@AccessSport.org.uk. Data protection Access Sport CIO will only process and store your personal information, this means any information that identifies or could identify you, for the purposes of recruitment, after which it will be securely disposed.

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Development Manager, Manchester