Band 8a Community Service Manager - Bristol

Job summary

You'll lead the Reconnect Service, a strengths-based community support programme designed to help people rebuild meaningful connections, improve wellbeing, and engage confidently with their local communities.

As Community Service Manager, you'll oversee service delivery across Avon, Somerset and Wiltshire--ensuring high-quality, trauma-informed, person-centred support that empowers individuals to thrive. You'll be an inspiring leader with a passion for community-based mental health and wellbeing. You bring emotional intelligence, operational confidence, and a commitment to empowering people through connection and choice.

You will have:

• Leadership Experience in health, social care, mental health, or community services.

• Strong understanding of trauma-informed practice and strengths-based approaches.

• Experience managing teams across multiple sites or localities.

• Excellent partnership-building skills and confidence working with commissioners.

• Ability to interpret data, manage budgets, and oversee service performance.

• A values-driven approach centred on dignity, inclusion and co-production.

Main duties of the job

• Service Leadership -- Manage day-to-day operations across multiple localities, ensuring consistent, safe and effective delivery.

• Team Management -- Lead, supervise and develop a multidisciplinary team of Community Practitioners, Peer Workers and Volunteers.

• Partnership Development -- Build strong relationships with statutory, voluntary and community organisations to enhance pathways and collaboration.

• Quality & Governance -- Maintain high standards of safeguarding, risk management, data quality and compliance with commissioning requirements.

• Service Innovation -- Identify opportunities to evolve the Reconnect model, embedding co-production and lived experience.

• Performance Oversight -- Monitor KPIs, produce reports, and ensure the service meets contractual outcomes.

• Community Engagement -- Champion inclusion, accessibility and community-led approaches across the region.

About us

We are the lead provider of healthcare for people with serious mental illness, learning disabilities and autism across Bath and North East Somerset (BaNES), Swindon and Wiltshire, and Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

We aim to provide High Quality, Compassionate Care everywhere, every day. This means our services will be safe, clinically effective and provide a positive all round experience for our patients, families and carers. And we believe passionately in treating everyone with kindness, respect and empathy.

Key to this is providing a supportive and safe environment for our 4,000 staff where we all feel welcome and able to do the best we can for those we support. Our staff and teams work incredibly hard delivering services across more than 90 locations, covering 2,200miles, to more than 1.8million people.

At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.

Details

Date posted

14 September 2026

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 8a

Salary

£57,528 to £64,750 a year

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time

Reference number

342-SS114-0926

Job locations

Blackberry Hill Hospital

Bristol

BS16 2JR

United Kingdom