Are you passionate about making a lasting and positive difference to a child's health and wellbeing?
Do you thrive working in a busy and dynamic environment?
Would you like to collaborate with various partners and providers across schools?
If so, we would like to hear from you.
We are looking for an experienced, motivated and detail orientated manager to shape and lead our school meals offer within Brighton & Hove. If you are someone who thrives on a busy environment, is passionate about improving children's lives through nutrition and quality and enjoys building strong, productive relationships then this is for you!
You will take a strategic and operational lead in delivering an effective school meals service that meets the diverse needs of all pupils. You will work collaboratively and inclusively across schools, providers and the council to ensure consistently high standards, effective contract management and continuous service improvement.
This role combines leadership, financial oversight, relationship management and system development, perfect for someone who enjoys both people and process.
Interviews to be held on 6 July 2026
There is full information about the role below and attached but, if you would like an informal discussion, please contact Jacqui Parfitt, Head of Commissioning
[email protected]
About the role
This role involves leading the School Meals team to ensure the timely and accurate validation of applications for school meals, including eligibility for free school meals. It includes building strong working relationships with school leaders to maintain and improve service standards and resolve any operational issues to service provision.
Collaboration with the catering provider is essential to ensure that the menus are appealing, reflect local high quality produce and ensure that a range of dietary cultural and sensory requirements are met. Alongside this, the role focusses on identifying new opportunities to continue the growth in the number of children enjoying a school meal and managing procurement of goods and services, ensuring value for money whilst maintaining quality.
As School Meals Manager you will:
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Have the ability to develop a supportive environment and lead a team often within a pressurised, busy environment.
- Pay attention to detail and proven finance acumen to ensure that the service is delivered within budget.
- Have strong knowledge of statutory health and safety legislation and school meals standards.
- On-going commitment to standards and quality improvement.
Benefits
This role offers the opportunity to make a real difference to children's lives and to have a positive impact on all communities.
We can offer you a comprehensive benefits package including
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The opportunity to gain valuable experience working in the area of schools.
- Ongoing training and development, helping you build your skills and progress your career.
- The chance to work in a supportive, collaborative team where knowledge is shared and continuous improvement is encouraged
- A learning-focused organisation that values wellbeing, inclusion and innovation in how services are delivered
- Flexible working arrangements to support a healthy work life balance
- A supportive and inclusive working environment, with access to staff networks and forums
- A local government pension scheme and family-friendly policies
- Employee benefits including discount schemes and a cycle-to-work programme
Encouraging a diverse workforce
Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans.
Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk).
Why work for us?
As a council, we want to:
- be connected
- be confident
- be innovative and creative
- be diverse and inclusive
- be healthy and psychologically safe
For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us which gives details of our wellbeing support, our benefits including leave and pensions as well as details of our training and development.
How to apply
Please read our Apply for a job at the council pages carefully. They give you all the guidance you need to complete your application as well as information on what will happen after you’ve submitted your application and at interview.
As part of your application, you will need to provide your education and career history and answer some application/shortlisting questions. Your answers to the application/shortlisting questions are the most important part of your application as they will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our Shortlisting questions guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.
AI advice for candidates
We are interested in hearing about your experience and skills in your own words. While we value people who know how to use AI, we ask that you minimise using it in your application.
We are keen to hear how your experience and skills align to our values and the skills and experience needed to perform well in our roles with clear real examples from you. To support you in this, we have guidance on using the STAR model which can help you ensure you are telling us your whole story. We also provide clarity on the skills we are looking for in our adverts and in the job description/person specification attached to each job advert.
All the applications we receive are read by at least two hiring managers and we do not use AI in this process. Our experience of reading applications is that those that have heavily used AI contain generic paragraphs that are strikingly similar to other applicants’ responses. This makes it extremely difficult to differentiate between applications, and doesn't give us enough evidence of your individual skills. There is a risk that we will therefore not be able to shortlist you. Instead, we recommend you ensure your application stands out by presenting clear examples of your actual skills and experiences in your own words.
Additional information
Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only.
We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.
