IM2C Social Blend Manager

About Include Me 2 Club

Founded in 2009, Include Me 2 Club has grown into a vibrant, inclusive charity that engages, empowers, and connects over 2,000 children, young people, adults, and families every year. We deliver a wide range of activities, services, programmes, and events designed to help individuals live their lives fully and as independently as possible.

Our approach is member-led: our members shape the activities, services, and opportunities we provide. Their voices are central to everything we do, and we are proud to be driven by the people we support.

We are now looking for a creative, energetic, and passionate person to join our small, enthusiastic team. You will play a key role in championing inclusion, removing barriers, and actively promoting equality of opportunity for people with additional support needs, disabilities, and mental health conditions.

Working at Include Me 2 Club

At Include Me 2 Club, we believe that how we work is just as important as what we do. All staff are expected to work in line with our ethos, vision, mission, values, brand, and management principles. This means embracing a culture of inclusion, empowerment, and collective responsibility by:

· Building meaningful relationships – developing supportive, respectful, and mutually empowering relationships with colleagues, partners, and our members—whether adults, young people, or children.

· Creating a positive team environment – contributing to a friendly, trusting, and flexible workplace where we support one another, especially during periods of high workload or personal difficulty.

· Taking ownership and being accountable – demonstrating personal responsibility in all areas of work and delivering on commitments with integrity and professionalism.

· Contributing to the wider success of the charity – recognising that every team member plays a vital role in Include Me 2 Club's growth and sustainability, including:

o Supporting and promoting our fundraising efforts.

o Participating in storytelling to celebrate our impact.

o Actively involving our members in shaping the organisation's future.

About Social Blend – A Social Enterprise by Include Me 2 Club

Social Blend is the innovative social enterprise of Include Me 2 Club—a welcoming network of café, coffee, food, and retail destinations. But we're far more than a café. Social Blend is a platform for opportunity: a space where young people and adults with additional support needs, disabilities, and mental health conditions can build confidence, gain real work experience, and take steps towards meaningful employment.

Our public-facing cafés serve freshly prepared food, homemade cakes, and a phenomenal range of drinks, generating vital income to support our wider charity. But at the heart of everything we do is people development—empowering our members to gain the skills, knowledge, and confidence to move forward on their employability journeys.

About the Role – Social Blend Manager

We're looking for a dynamic, hands-on and committed manager to lead the day-to-day operations of Social Blend across our current and future venues. This is a key leadership role with responsibility for café operations, team management, training delivery, and safeguarding our values.

As Manager, you will:

· Lead and oversee all daily café operations, including opening and closing procedures as a key holder.

· Manage and support a team of café facilitators, volunteers, and trainees to ensure a supportive, welcoming environment.

· Develop and deliver a structured training programme for Social Blend members (aged 16+), working with individuals who have additional support needs, disabilities, or mental health conditions.

· Create and manage individual training plans, monitor progress, and ensure every member is supported to thrive and achieve their goals.

· Champion inclusion and accessibility at all levels of the café experience, maintaining a focus on delivering excellent service to both members and customers.

Why Join Us?

This role is more than management it's about making a meaningful, lasting difference. You will play a key role in transforming lives, supporting individuals to grow in confidence, learn new skills, and take real steps toward independence and employment. Social Blend is not just a café it's a movement for inclusion.

Role of the Social Blend Manager

We are seeking a Social Blend Manager to lead the day-to-day and strategic operations of Social Blend, Include Me 2 Club's innovative social enterprise café brand. This is a unique role combining hospitality management, social impact, creative leadership, and community engagement.

You'll be a dynamic, organised, and entrepreneurial leader with a passion for inclusion, food, and business growth. At Social Blend, your work will directly empower young people and adults aged 16+ with additional support needs, learning disabilities, and mental health conditions helping them build skills, confidence, and independence for the world of work.

Key Aspects of the Role

Operational Leadership

You will manage the daily running of Social Blend café sites, ensuring each location delivers high-quality service and a consistent, welcoming experience. Responsibilities include keyholder duties, rota planning, cash handling, supply management, health and safety, and maintaining strong standards across all operational areas.

Team Management & Training

You'll lead a growing team of café staff, volunteers, and trainees. You will oversee and support our trainees—young people and adults with additional support needs—to gain work experience, build their skills, and develop confidence through a person-centred, supportive approach. With the support of the Transitions Team, you'll help develop individual learning plans and training records.

Front and Back of House Support

This is a hands-on role. You will work both in the kitchen and front-of-house, preparing food and drinks, supporting customer service, and mentoring team members through busy spells and quieter periods alike.

Menu Development & Business Growth

You will have a key role in developing and evolving our café menus across all sites. This includes:

· Designing new dishes, drinks and seasonal specials

· Ensuring menus are affordable, popular, and profitable

· Responding to customer feedback, sales data, and food trends

· Working with suppliers to maintain quality and value

· Innovating through pop-up food nights, themed menus, and special event offerings

You will use your commercial awareness to monitor sales performance, analyse buying patterns, and generate new business—ensuring that Social Blend remains competitive, exciting, and mission-led.

Strategic Growth & Enterprise Development

· Social Blend is growing, and you'll help lead the way. You will:

· Support the identification and launch of new café sites and opportunities

· Develop the internal structures, systems, and processes needed to scale the enterprise

· Lead new initiatives such as outside catering, community partnerships, and pop-up events

· Help establish Social Blend as a recognised brand, known for inclusion, quality, and impact

Community Engagement & Events

You'll work closely with the wider Include Me 2 Club team to plan and deliver events such as coffee mornings, themed community meals, and catering for internal and external functions. You'll also contribute to marketing and promotion in partnership with our Comms and Fundraising teams.

Flexible Working & Rota Participation

You will be required to work occasional evenings and participate in weekend rota duties. This includes supporting community events, training days, or external catering.

Who We're Looking For

Our ideal candidate will bring a blend of experience across hospitality, inclusive training, and social enterprise. You'll be commercially minded but values-driven, capable of balancing great service with meaningful social impact.

You will have:

· A background in café or food service management

· Experience working with individuals with additional support needs

· Strong people management and rota planning skills

· Knowledge of food trends, menu development, and customer engagement

· A proactive, creative, and solutions-focused approach

· Passion for inclusion, community enterprise, and ethical growth

Other information General

All Include Me 2 Club employees are expected to comply with statutory requirements and IM2C's employment policies while carrying out their work. This post is one of continual development, and the post holder will be encouraged to develop skills and capabilities, including participation in projects and training events.

Accordingly, the range of duties and responsibilities outlined above may change from time to time to reflect the changing needs of the Include Me 2 Club. All employees, volunteers and trustee board members are PVG checked.

Equal Opportunities

The post holder must carry out their responsibilities with due regard to the Include Me 2 Clubs Equal Opportunities Policy.

Performance Review

Overall performance will be formally assessed and reviewed regularly, with additional informal assessment taking place as necessary. All Team Members are subject to a 6 Month Probationary Period.

Health and Safety

All employees are subject to the Health and Safety at Work Act. The post holder is required to pro-actively comply with their duties as described by Include Me 2 Club's Policy and objectives for health and safety.

Confidentiality

All employees are required to work confidentially in all aspects of their work.

Person specification for Social Blend Manager

Essential

Desirable

Qualifications

· Hold a relevant Catering, Social Care or CLD qualification – e.g. HND/HNC/SVQ3 or SVQ2 in Social care (or equivalent)

· Basic first aid

· Level 2/3 food safety training

Knowledge or Experience

· A minimum of 3 years experience in a catering management role

· Multi-Site Catering Experience

· Experience in delivering catering training

· Experience of working with people with learning disabilities in a supportive or training role

· Excellent management, leadership and conflict resolution skills

· Catering experience or relevant food planning and preparation skills

· Knowledge of health and safety and food hygiene standards, and working within these

· Experience in writing and working with risk assessments

· Excellent organisational, planning and time management skills

· Ability to communicate with people with learning disabilities in an accessible manner

· Good administrative and computer literacy

· Ability to work calmly while under pressure and leading a team

· Experience in managing a budget and handling money

· Experience of Allergen awareness

· Experience in customer service

· Experience of working in the charity sector

Personal Skills

· Be Creative and Entrepreneurial in your approach

· Adaptable to varied workload

· Flexible approach to working hours

· Good physical health

· Be patient, tolerant and able to work in a team

· Be organised and efficient as well as flexible in their approach

· Be able to work within the ethos of the employing organisation

· Be Pro-Active and Approachable

· Have a can-do attitude, full of fun and sparkle

· Be willing to learn, research and adapt

· A leader of people

· A team player

· Able to work on your own initiative and drive

· Apply your skills, knowledge and experience to a variety of situations

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: From £30,940.00 per year

Benefits:

• Casual dress
• Company pension
• Discounted or free food
• Employee discount
• Flexitime
• Free parking
• Health & wellbeing programme
• On-site parking
• Store discount

Application question(s):

• Tell us what qualifies you to be working in this area? SVQ, HNC, NHD in what area, where you completed your qualifications?
• Social Blend is a training programme for young people and adults, particularly with additional support needs, disabilities and mental health conditions, please tell us about your experience and your abilities to provide training, mentoring and supervising people in previous roles.
• Social Blend is a multi-site enterprise, tell us about your experience in managing teams of people, across multiple sites and ensuring standards, service and SLAs are delivered effectively.
• Tell us why you should be our Social Blend Catering Manager? Tell us more about yourself or in particular something we may not have asked already that makes you feel like IM2C and Social Blend is the role for you?
• Tell us about your experience managing multiple sites

Experience:

• Catering management: 3 years (required)

Licence/Certification:

• Driving Licence (required)

Work authorisation:

• United Kingdom (required)

Work Location: In person