About Active Partners Trust (APT) 

As one of 42 Active Partnerships (APs) across England, Active Partners Trust, working in Derbyshire and Notts, teams up with local councils, community groups, businesses, healthcare organisations, charities, schools and more to find out what's needed. That means asking questions, making suggestions, sharing our knowledge, finding the right partners, and spotting opportunities, all to make movement part of everyday life. Because when we all work together, we can better understand, reach, and support the people who need it most.

Making our Move – Uniting the Movement in Notts and Derbyshire is a plan that guides our and partners’ work towards our shared vision ‘Together we will address inequality and empower everyone to be active in a way that works for them’

Making Our Move sets out the need for a collective response based on an in-depth understanding of people and communities, that builds a consistent message and way of working, removes the barriers to participation, builds capacity from within and makes physical activity the norm for people who live and work in our communities. We need to see change at all levels and across many sectors.

To do this, we need the best team, with the right attitude, work ethic, behaviours and commitment to make this happen. You’ll need to be able to identify with our core values and behaviours that define us as an organisation – they are who we are and what we stand for. Our values: Make a Difference. Integrity. Collaborate. Inclusive. Passionate.

Health and Communities Lead (Derby Place Partnership)

As part of wider Place Partnership work in Derby, this role will work closely with a range of health partners and community organisations. The focus will be on embedding physical activity into health inequalities work and influencing health strategy and policy.  

To find out more about the Derby Place Partnership work, click here Derby Place Partnership

Derby Place Partnership Health Lead will have the following areas of responsibility:

• Work closely with Active Partners Trust, Derby City Council, NHS Derby & Derbyshire Integrated Care Board, Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprises (VCSE) organisations to achieve the overall objectives of the Sport England Place Partnership work.

• Promote and raise awareness of physical activity place partnership work in Derby, identify and facilitate areas for improved connectivity, integration and collective action within health and social care environment.

Understanding and insight - informed by people and communities

• Understand existing community insight (lived experience and resident voice). Work with health colleagues to collate, analyse and translate this to inform action.

• Work with Derby Health Inequalities' Partnership (DHIP), VCSE, health partners and communities to identify opportunities to align community insight and resources across partners to inform action.

• Explore connections between physical activity place partnership work and specific condition work, such as long term health conditions, musculoskeletal, chronic respiratory conditions, cardiovascular diseases and identify future priorities for the work.

Grow Collaboration

• Support the Derby Place Partnership Programme Lead and health partners to develop a set of principles for how we will work together.

• Work with health partners in Derby to identify strengths and scope strategic opportunities for physical activity and health inequalities work and develop a shared view on how physical activity can better contribute to the Joined up Care Derbyshire 3 strategic priorities of Start Well, Stay Well and Age Well.

Leadership and workforce development

• Support the development of a workforce development plan that complements the Sport England Leadership programme, identifying priorities to support place-based work.

Learning and evaluation

• Further develop and strengthen the data set within Moving Communities in Derby, using ongoing learning to drive continuous improvement across all workstreams. Contribute to a learning culture: capturing learning, adapt delivery based on evidence and feedback and share insight.

• Support implementing the local evaluation and learning framework that aligns to the Theory of Change. Use the findings from the system maturity self-assessment and the latest community insight to strengthen learning loops and ensure evaluation continues to inform action in a timely way across the system.

• Develop joint communications to share insight, knowledge, and learning about place work

Governance, management and reporting

•  Contribute to reports for the Integrated Care Board, Derby City Health & Wellbeing Board, as well as coordinating and liaising with the leadership group of partners and to the Active Partners Trust Board.

• Ensure a commitment to Safeguarding and Equity and Diversity through all work internally and externally. 

• Work with colleagues to plan for the next phase of work beyond March 2028.  Ensure this is based on a good understanding of the lived experience of communities and the systemic barriers to physical activity that exist.

We are looking for someone to join us who:

Essential

Has strong leadership and strategic planning skills, including the ability to work in complexity, adapt to changing circumstances, influence health priorities and programmes, inspire distributed leadership.

Understands the importance of values and behaviours in creating the culture and environment for place-based working, such as being self-reflective, self-aware and adapts own behaviours. 

Is an excellent communicator – engaging in meetings, writing, speaking and presenting to a variety of audiences. A good listener – inquisitive and curious and can use a range of IT platforms and equipment.

Understands ways to reduce inequalities, recognising some communities need more support, and understands the role physical activity can play in this. 

Strong understanding of health and social care structures and policy.

Desirable

Has experience of working in Derby and understands the needs of its residents. 

Understands the value of learning and evaluation and can embed this within place-based work, across a number of communities and partners within a city footprint. 

 Is able to travel to meetings in and around Derby and the wider East Midlands area. 

Demonstrable experience of planning, organising and prioritising own workload to meet deadlines.

Understanding of the value of community insight, learning and evaluation, and experience embedding it within place-based work across multiple communities and partners.

Is analytical and able to interpret and understand data and insight from a range of sources and use it to inform the work. 

Has experience of applying the principles of co-production in enabling change.

Please note that these are the skills we want you to tell us about in your application as we’ll be assessing candidates against them.

Your main place of work will be Derby City Council offices, with some travel required to work with local partners, and with flexibility to work at home on occasion.

If you’re passionate about addressing inequalities and physical activity, we welcome your application. We encourage people to join our organisation from all walks of life; you don’t need experience in the sport and physical activity sector to work for us. Disabled people and those from ethnically or culturally diverse communities are underrepresented in our workforce and are particularly encouraged to apply.

Please note that we will not be able to apply for a certificate of sponsorship for this role. Proof of Right to Work in the UK is essential and will be requested during the application process.

If you want to find out more about the role to help you decide whether to apply, you are welcome to email Daisy Giuliano at recruitment@activepartnerstrust.org.uk.

How to Apply

Complete the anonymised work-related questions by Friday 16th October, 5pm. 

Submit your CV whilst completing your application – please note your personal details will remain anonymous whilst shortlisting decisions are made. 

Stage 1 interviews (online): Tuesday 27th or Wednesday 28th October 2026 (for 30 mins). 

Stage 2 interviews (in person): Monday 2nd November in Derby.

This post is funded by Sport England Lottery Funding.