Service Manager - South West London

AKG UK; Greater London; On-site; GBP 42,000 - 62,000; Full time

Job summary

AKG UK is seeking a Service Manager to lead the delivery of an employability contract for young people, ensuring high-quality wraparound support and successful job placements. You will oversee performance, compliance and participant experience, coordinating with internal teams and external partners to sustain positive outcomes.

The role requires strong leadership, practical knowledge of welfare-to-work, and the ability to travel regionally.

Qualifications

• Experience of contract managing employability, welfare-to-work, youth employment, or similar publicly funded contracts.
• Clear commitment to helping young people access and sustain meaningful employment.
• Strong people management experience in a target-driven environment.
• Strong understanding of participant-centred support, action planning and barrier removal.
• Experience using management information to monitor performance, identify trends, manage risk and drive service improvements.
• Excellent stakeholder management with DWP, Jobcentre Plus, employers, local partners and internal teams.
• Knowledge of compliance, audit, quality assurance, safeguarding, data protection, health and safety, employment law and equality and diversity requirements.
• Excellent communication, influencing, negotiation and presentation skills.
• Highly organised and able to manage competing priorities and deadlines.
• Willingness to travel locally and regionally to support delivery sites and meetings.

Responsibilities

• Lead local delivery of a high-quality employment support service for eligible young people.
• Ensure tailored pre-employment preparation, in-work support and progression planning.
• Accountable for day-to-day management of contract delivery and performance against metrics.
• Use management information to monitor performance, identify risks and implement improvements.
• Coach and support delivery colleagues to provide consistent, participant-centred support.
• Develop effective working relationships with DWP, Jobcentre Plus and local partners.
• Ensure delivery complies with DWP requirements, AKG policies and safeguarding, data protection and safety standards.
• Work flexibly across regional areas and UK-wide when required to meet needs.

Skills

Operational leadership

People management

Stakeholder management

Participant-centred support

Performance management

Communication skills

Risk management

Presentation skills

Tools

Microsoft Office

Case management systems

Performance dashboards

Job description

The Service Manager will be responsible for leading the effective delivery of the contract, ensuring eligible young people receive high-quality wraparound support, are matched to suitable fully funded employment opportunities, and are supported to sustain and progress in work. The role will provide day-to-day operational leadership, performance management and stakeholder coordination to ensure contract outcomes, compliance standards and participant experience expectations are consistently achieved.

Key Relationships/Interactions

Internal

• Head of Operations and Senior Leadership Team
• Mentors and Activity Co-ordinators
• Employer Services and Employer Engagement colleagues
• Quality, Compliance and Performance teams
• Customer Excellence Centre and Participant Experience teams
• Wider AKG Delivery colleagues
• Shared Services functions across the Group, including People and Culture, Finance and MI Teams

External

• Participants (young people aged 18 to 24), and, where appropriate and with consent, their support networks and other support services helping young people overcome barriers to work
• Department for Work and Pensions and Jobcentre Plus contacts
• Local employers providing funded employment opportunities
• Local authorities, education providers, training providers and community partners

Key Responsibilities

As Service Manager for the contract, you will lead local delivery of a high-quality employment support service for eligible young people. You will ensure participants receive tailored pre-employment preparation, in-work support and progression planning so they can succeed in funded employment and move towards sustained work.

You will be accountable for the day-to-day management of contract delivery, including performance against referral, engagement, job matching, employer placement, sustainment, quality and compliance expectations.

You will use management information to monitor performance, identify risks, implement improvement actions and report progress to the Head of Operations.

You will lead, coach and support delivery colleagues to provide consistent, participant-centred support. This includes ensuring caseloads are managed effectively, participant action plans are meaningful, barriers to work are addressed, safeguarding responsibilities are understood, and all records meet contractual and audit requirements.

You will work closely with employer engagement colleagues and local employers to source suitable funded employment opportunities, match participants to roles aligned to their skills and aspirations and maintain strong relationships that support positive participant and employer outcomes.

You will develop effective working relationships with DWP, Jobcentre Plus and wider local partners to support referrals, resolve delivery issues, strengthen local labour market links and promote the offer across the area.

You will lead and manage the team, supporting recruitment, induction, training, observations and ongoing development of team members to build a confident and high-performing service.

You will ensure delivery complies with DWP requirements, AKG policies and values, data protection, health and safety, safeguarding, equality and diversity legislation, and quality assurance standards.

You will work flexibly across both your assigned regional area, and UK wide from time-to-time, outside standard hours to meet participant and programme needs.

You will also undertake any other duties appropriate to the level of this role, for which you have the necessary training or experience.

Essential and Desirable Skills, Knowledge and Experience

• Experienced operational leader with experience of contract managing employability, welfare-to-work, youth employment, skills or similar publicly funded contracts.
• A clear commitment to helping young people access and sustain meaningful employment.
• Strong people management experience with a proven ability to lead, motivate, coach and performance manage front-line delivery teams in a target-driven environment.
• Strong understanding of participant-centred support, action planning, barrier removal, job matching, in-work support and sustained employment outcomes.
• Experience of using management information to monitor performance, identify trends, manage risk and implement service improvement actions.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills, with the ability to build effective relationships with DWP, Jobcentre Plus, employers, local partners and internal teams.
• Good knowledge of compliance, audit, quality assurance, safeguarding, data protection, health and safety, employment legislation and equality and diversity requirements.
• Excellent communication, influencing, negotiation and presentation skills.
• Highly organised, resilient and able to manage competing priorities, deadlines and operational pressures.
• Good IT skills, confident using Microsoft Office, digital communication tools, case management systems and performance reporting dashboards.
• Knowledge of the local labour market, employer recruitment needs and support services available to young people is desirable.
• Ability and willingness to travel locally and regionally as required to support delivery sites, employer activity, stakeholder meetings and contract reviews.

Inclusive Recruitment and Accessibility

AKG UK is committed to creating an inclusive and accessible recruitment process. We welcome applications from candidates with a range of backgrounds, experiences and working styles. Candidates are encouraged to let us know if they require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process. Applicants do not need to meet every desirable criterion to apply; we are interested in relevant skills, potential and values alignment as well as direct experience.

Compliance

It is the responsibility of all staff to abide by organisational policies to ensure compliance with relevant standards e.g. ISO 27001 (Information Security), ISO 9001 (Quality) and ISO 14001 (Environmental) as well as adhering to statutory duties in relation to safeguarding, Prevent and health and safety.