Head of Leisure & Physical Activity, TAMESIDE METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL

The Role

In Tameside over 73,000 people who live in the borough are not currently active enough. In order to improve their health and wellbeing, we want to change this.

This is an exciting opportunity to join our Public Health team within Tameside MBC in a new role which will be leading on a major priority across the council. The role will provide strategic leadership both within Public Health and across the council for the public leisure offer in Tameside and the wider physical activity agenda.

The Head of Leisure & Physical Activity will be the lead for leisure within the organisation, alongside the Director of Public Health. This includes being the client lead for the operator of the public leisure service in Tameside. The service is currently run by an independent trust which the council commissions, and the facilities it operates from are owned by the council. The service is shifting into a new phase, with leadership for this agenda moving to Public Health in the council.

The role will be responsible for client management of this function, supporting the Director of Public Health in leading the service through substantial review and transformation in the short to medium term. It will also lead strategically on the wider physical activity agenda and deliver on the Tameside Moving strategy as part of the broader public health and wellbeing agenda. This aspect of the role will support existing work in the Public Health team to enable more movement across communities and maximise opportunities around physical activity across the council and wider partnerships.

The role will have a strong focus on partnership working across a range of services within the council, particularly relating to the wider Public Health Team, Finance and Estates. There will be partnership work with external agencies, particularly the leisure operator, and across the NHS, other statutory partners and the voluntary, community, faith & social enterprise sector. The role will report to the Director of Public Health and be part of the Public Health Senior Team as well as the Extended Leadership Team of the council, positioning the role to further influence work to improve physical activity across all parts of the council.

About You

We are seeking an appropriately qualified professional with proven experience and knowledge of the leisure sector who wants to have a real impact to effect change. The ideal candidate will have excellent problem‑solving, communication, political and technical skills, and the energy and drive to make a major contribution to improving health and reducing inequalities in Tameside through increased movement.

Key capabilities include:

• Excellent relationship and partnership skills to build a mutually supportive way of working with the leisure operator, fostering a culture of collaboration, system leadership and continuous improvement.
• Experience of leisure service operations and managing close strategic client‑side relationships.
• High level of intellectual rigour, political awareness, negotiation and motivation skills.
• Flexibility, tact and diplomacy, and the ability to communicate effectively within diverse settings.
• Leadership experience and the ability to understand other cultures, advise, challenge and advocate to enable effective working across organisational boundaries and influencing without direct authority.

About Us

At Tameside, we are committed to ensuring all our citizens lead long, fulfilling and healthy lives. We support economic growth, provide high‑quality health and care services, protect our most vulnerable and create strong, self‑sufficient communities.

We recognise that our people drive our success and enable the organisation to deliver on its vision, purpose and priorities. Our values underpin our practice and behaviours, and are at the heart of everything we do. We pride ourselves on living by our STRIVE values: Support, Trust, Respect, Integrity, Value diversity and Engage.

Additional Information

This position is subject to Basic Disclosure Procedures.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

This is a politically restricted post.

We are not able to offer sponsorship at this time.

We are proud to be an accredited disability confident employer. Reasonable adjustments will be considered in accordance with the Equality Act 2010 in relation to the job role criteria.