Area Manager - London

Place2be; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A mental health charity is seeking an operational manager to lead a team of practitioners delivering mental health services in schools across London. This role emphasizes collaboration with multiple agencies to ensure young people have access to needed support. The ideal candidate should possess strong organisational skills and a passion for improving children's wellbeing. Benefits include growth opportunities, comprehensive learning and development programs, and a contributory pension scheme. Join us to make a difference in children's lives.

Benefits

Annual Leave that increases with service

Comprehensive learning and development

5% contributory pension scheme

Life assurance of four times your annual salary

Wellbeing days for personal time

Christmas holidays closure period

Qualifications

• Proven experience managing teams in mental health or related fields.
• Ability to work collaboratively across multi-agency approaches.
• Strong communication skills, both verbal and written.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage a team of practitioners delivering services in schools.
• Ensure service delivery aligns with the organisation's mission and values.
• Develop partnerships for a multi-agency approach to support young people.

Skills

Organisational skills

Collaboration

Passion for mental health support

Job description

As a key operational manager, you will lead and manage a team of school-based practitioners delivering mental health services in schools. You will have a key eye for service delivery; delivering on Place2Be’s mission, values and business priorities. This role works across a geographical area reporting directly to a Regional Director.

Your team will span across London and will be home based (with the option of working from our head office in London if you desire). Collaboration and Partnership work are at the heart of this role. You will ensure that the aspect of this delivery is part of a multi‑agency approach with statutory and other voluntary sectors to create multiple pathways to ease access for young people and families to support their wellbeing. You will bring passion and strong organisational skills to the team during this exciting period of opportunity for the organisation.

Together we can change children’s lives. At Place2Be, we believe every child should have easy access to mental health support whenever they need it. We create a safe place in schools where children and young people can open up without pressure or stigma, allowing our highly skilled and diverse counsellors to reach children, young people and their families who need us.

For a career with purpose, this is your place.

Recruitment Process

As part of your application you will need to answer some shortlisting questions. Please answer these as fully as you can, we recommend using the STAR model. Situation, Task, Action Result.

Closing date for applications: 02/01/2026

1st Interview date: 08/02/2026

Our Benefits

When you work at Place2Be –whether that's in a school, supporting families, providing clinical supervision, or in IT, Finance, or Fundraising –every role can make the difference to a young person. To achieve this, we ask that you bring your best self to your role and our commitment to you, is to welcome you into our community, and help you progress. Because we know that you being at your best, means the best outcomes for the children we support.

Here’s just a few things we have on offer:

• Annual Leave that increases with service
• Comprehensive learning and development to enable you to progress your career
• 5% contributory pension scheme
• Life assurance of four times your annual salary
• A comprehensive employee assistance programme
• Mobile Phone Discounts (EE network)
• Wellbeing days to allow you some ‘you’ time
• Christmas holidays closure period in addition to your annual leave

We welcome applications from everyone regardless of age, gender, gender identity, gender expression, ethnicity, sexual orientation, faith or disability. We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and Minority ethnic candidates and disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented within our organization.

We are proud to be a disability confident employer and will ask you during your application If you wish to be considered for a guaranteed interview under the disability confident scheme. Under the scheme we commit to offering an interview to disabled applicants that meet the minimum criteria as outlined in the job role.

If you have any questions about the scheme, or require any adjustments to help you complete an application then please contact the recruitment team on 020 7923 5050 or email [email protected].k