Evaluation and Learning Lead – Preston Place Partnership – Job Opportunity

Evaluation and Learning Lead – Preston Place Partnership – Job Opportunity Join to apply for the Evaluation and Learning Lead – Preston Place Partnership – Job Opportunity role at Active Lancashire Hours: 3 days a week, based on a secondment model involving a collaboration agreement with your host organisation. Working arrangements can be discussed as we appreciate that working arrangements may differ between employing organisations. Duration: 12 months – December 2025 to end of November 2026. (Potential for an extension exists dependent on future funding and action plans) Salary: £39,862 to £42,839 pro-rata (Negotiable) Working Arrangements: 2 days per week agile working, with Thursday (TBC) based in the Preston Place Partnership Office at Fulwood Leisure Centre. The postholder will be required to spend a significant amount of time supporting work with stakeholders and communities across Preston. Closing Date: Sunday 30th November 2025 at midnight Interviews: Friday 12th December 2025 Preston is one of 80 Sport England Place Expansion localities, who will be bringing stakeholders and communities together to look to address the challenges of physical inactivity and support people to move more. As part of the work to date several focus areas have been identified for Preston, these are Children and Young People, Places and Spaces to be Active, Health and Messaging related to physical activity. Over the next twelve months we will collectively be diving deeper into all of these themes to understand how future work needs to be focused, what are the enablers for change and what are the barriers that we need to think about addressing. To progress this work, we are excited to announce we have an opportunity for an individual to work as the Evaluation and Learning Lead, through a shared role model. The model will see the postholder remain employed by their current employers and work for a fully funded and agreed amount of time as part of the Preston Place Partnership team. About The Role The postholder will work closely with members of the Place Partnership Team, stakeholders and community across all of the identified themes to help gain valuable insight and learning relating to barriers and enablers for change for people in Preston to be supported to move more. The role will also lead all evaluation work linked to the Place Partnership. Key Elements Of The Role Include Working closely with all thematic leads to support community engagement, consultation and conversations with a broad range of stakeholders, organisations and individuals across Children & Young People, Health, physical activity messaging and Community Assets – ensuring the work achieves the required insight and learnings and is appropriately recorded in order to shape future work. Working closely with the Place Programme Manager and Thematic Leads to capture learning and support evaluation across each thematic area, leading any baseline activity as required. Leading the development of a Learning and Evaluation Plan. Supporting the development of a local Theory of Change. Leading the use of assets such as the Sport England’s System Maturity Matrix, to reflect on progress within the place relating to conditions for change linked to supporting people to be more physically active and move more. Working closely with the Communications Lead to share learnings and insight in an engaging way. Supporting the Place Programme Manager and Communications Lead with reporting to Sport England. Working collaboratively with all members of the Place Partnership team to share all relevant insights and opportunities that contribute to the development phase and progress the application to full award. About The Person Be currently or have previously worked in a role linked to evaluation, research or insight. Have the ability to take both a quantitative and qualitative approach to evaluation, learning and insight. Have the ability to analyse, understand and interpret qualitative data into simple and easy to understand findings and recommendations. Have the ability to interpret learning and insight to support the production of appropriate plans that will support people in Preston to move more. Be able to evaluate pieces of work and demonstrate impact and learnings in a clear and concise manner. Have some understanding of the development of Theories of Change and how insight and learnings can be used in their development. Have some understanding of the current physical activity landscape, including policies and national guidelines. Open minded to new ways of working, willingness to adopt alternative approaches and a desire to embed and share new learnings and approaches within their host organisation. If you or someone within your organisation is interested, has the skills we are looking for, and whose employer would support a shared role with the Preston Place Partnership, we’d encourage you to apply. To apply please submit a copy of your CV with a cover letter that is no more than two pages long, explaining why you feel you could deliver the key elements of the role and meet the skills and capabilities we are looking for from the postholder, to pblythin@activelancashire.org.uk. If you would like an informal discussion about this role or have any questions, please contact Paul Blythin, Director of Health and Skills at Active Lancashire on pblythin@activelancashire.org.uk or 07549 774563. #J-18808-Ljbffr