Carol managed organisations and programmes in public and voluntary sectors for over 20 years before returning to the world of academia. She is a qualified social worker, and as Lead Officer for Early Years and Childcare in the Borough of Poole, she led the process to implement children's centres, building on her commitment to collaborative early intervention services.
Previously, Carol worked for three Councils for Voluntary Service in roles focused on volunteer management, partnership working, and as the Director of Amber Valley CVS. She has also worked for and consulted with national organisations. In both public and voluntary sectors her work focused on change management, project implementation, and cross-sector collaboration.
Carol is a trustee of an adoption agency.
Carol's research focuses on collaboration and leadership in the particular context of the UK voluntary sector. She is Director of the OU's Centre for Voluntary Sector Leadership (CVSL), leading the centre's engagement in and with the voluntary sector. Current research projects include a study of local infrastructure organisations in the COVID context, and a major EU funded project exploring digital skills for leading third sector organistions. Carol was a contributor to CVSL's recent research on the value and distinctiveness of small charities commissioned by the Lloyds Bank Foundation and conducted in partnership with Sheffield Hallam University and the Institute of Voluntary Action Research.
Carol's research is inter-disciplinary, extending from organisational theory into social policy, and social care. Carol's PhD at the Open University explored the practice of cross-sector collaboration in children's services, with a particular focus on leadership practice enacted by voluntary sector partners. She continues to explore collaborative ways of working and leading in contexts as diverse as children's services, place-based community groups and water management - working with practice-based and academic colleagues.
Carol's teaching interests focus on leadership, collaboration, and non-mainstream ways of leading and managing - with a particular focus on nonprofit organisations. She is co-author of the Centre for Voluntary Sector Leadership's open access courses on leading voluntary organisations, and a block author for the OU's level 2 module Developing Leadership and level 3 module Leadership for Social Change. Carol is supervising three PhD students whose research focuses on leadership and collaboration in formal and informal voluntary and community contexts.
Carol's adopts an engaged approach to research that ensures participants share in the learning from ongoing research projects. She has facilitated local community development activities and contributed to learning events on collaboration and collaborative leadership. She works in close collaboration with practice-based partners.
In July 2018 Carol will contribute to CVSL's delivery of free training on collaborative leadership.
"You can't Google everything": the voluntary sector and the leadership of communities of place (2022)
Rees, James; Sancino, Alessandro; Jacklin-Jarvis, Carol and Pagani, Michela
Leadership, 18(1) (pp. 102-119)
The Distinctiveness of Smaller Voluntary Organisations Providing Welfare Services (2022)
Dayson, Chris; Bennett, Ellen; Damm, Chris; Rees, James; Jacklin-Jarvis, Carol; Patmore, Beth; Baker, Leila; Terry, Vita and Turner, Katie
Journal of Social Policy ((Early Access))
The Public Sector and Co-Creation in Turbulent times: A Systematic Literature Review on Robust Governance in the Covid-19 emergency (2022)
Scognamiglio, Fulvio; Sancino, Alessandro; Calo, Francesca; Jacklin-Jarvis, Carol and Rees, James
Public Administration ((Early Access))
Developing voluntary sector leadership through Open Educational Resources: a practice perspective (2022)
Jacklin-Jarvis, Carol; Vangen, Siv; Smolovic Jones, Owain; Haslam, Daniel; Mutwarasibo, Fidele; Britton, Helen and Logan, Kay
Voluntary Sector Review ((Early Access))
Fun, lifelong relationships, and a safer community: understanding collective leadership practice in a grassroots association (2021)
Jacklin-Jarvis, Carol and Rees, James
Voluntary Sector Review, 13(2) (pp. 207-225)
The difference leadership makes? Debating and conceptualizing leadership in the UK voluntary sector (2020-03)
Terry, Vita; Rees, James and Jacklin-Jarvis, Carol
Voluntary Sector Review, 11(1) (pp. 99-111)
Exploring the potential for collaborative leadership through a policy lens: a comparative analysis of children's services and flood risk management (2020)
Jacklin-Jarvis, Carol and Potter, Karen
International Journal of Public Administration, 43(16) (pp. 1386-1396)
‘It’s just houses’: the role of community space in a new housing development in the digital era (2019-03-01)
Jacklin-Jarvis, Carol and Cole, Marion
Voluntary Sector Review, 10(1) (pp. 69-79)
A tale of two states? A comparative study of cross-sector collaboration in children’s services and flood risk management (2018-03-31)
Jacklin-Jarvis, Carol and Potter, Karen
Voluntary Sector Review, 9(1) (pp. 89-97)
Collaborating across sector boundaries: a story of tensions and dilemmas (2015-11)
Jacklin-Jarvis, Carol
Voluntary Sector Review, 6(3) (pp. 285-302)
How to Evaluate Catchment Based Partnerships & Avoid a Watered Down Approach? (2019)
Potter, Karen and Jacklin-Jarvis, Carol
In : 2019 Voluntary Sector and Volunteering Research Conference: A civil society for the future: setting the agenda for the voluntary sector and volunteering research in the 2020s (10-11 Sep 2019, Aston University, Birmingham, UK)
Brokering relationships with the state: what new understandings can ‘environmental catchment VOs’ filter from the social welfare domain? (2018)
Potter, Karen and Jacklin-Jarvis, Carol
In : The Voluntary Sector and Volunteering Research Conference 2018 (6-7 Sep 2018, London, UK)
Collaboration and the governance of public services delivery (2017-11-08)
Vangen, Siv; Potter, Karen and Jacklin-Jarvis, Carol
In : Symposium on the policy and reform trajectory of public services in the UK and Japan (8-9 Nov 2017, Japan)
Collaborative public leadership: does problem context matter? (2017-03-27)
Jacklin-Jarvis, Carol and Potter, Karen
In : 2nd International Public & Political Leadership (PUPOL) Conference - Leadership for Public and Social Value (06-07 Apr 2017, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK)
How does problem context matter for cross-sector collaboration? A comparative study of voluntary sector engagement in children’s services and flood management (2017)
Jacklin-Jarvis, Carol and Potter, Karen
In : The Voluntary Sector and Volunteering Research Conference 2017 (Sep 2017, Nottingham, UK)
Collaboration for children: leadership in a complex space. A voluntary sector perspective. (2014)
Jacklin-Jarvis, Carol
PhD thesis The Open University