Interim Strategy Officer - Strategy & Communications

Reference no: Barnet RQ838800

Pay rate: £175.65 per day PAYE

Role Length: This opening assignment is for 2-3 months

The Strategy and Resources department is responsible for the council’s public profile and for implementing its strategic vision. Working with senior leaders, elected members and communities, the team ensure that Council decision makers are informed and guided by resident insight and equipped with the policies, strategies and campaigns to deliver the best possible outcomes for the borough.

The Strategy Officer will play a central role in supporting the implementation of the council’s new corporate plan. To manage projects within a broad and fast-paced portfolio and produce high-quality strategy documents, briefings and reports and take forward high-profile projects and policy development as directed. The successful candidate will be a natural collaborator with proven project management skills, and a keen interest in local government with a track record of delivering successful strategy and policy work.

Key responsibilities:

• Support the Strategy Managers in delivering high-profile corporate projects and the development and implementation of cross-cutting corporate policy.
• Take forward key outputs and objectives from corporate strategy projects as required.
• Balance a busy and varied workload, managing discreet projects within wider strategy programmes.
• Work closely with colleagues in Community Participation and Engagement to ensure strategy is coproduced and informed by resident insight.
• Work with colleagues across the organisation to support the development of strategic plans, cross-cutting policy and service changes that are informed by insight.
• Responsibility for performance management within the Strategy team, monitoring KPIs in the corporate performance plan, updating risk registers and providing reports to appropriate audiences.
• Provide support to strategic partnerships, boards and other multi-agency networks
• Write clear and engaging reports on assigned areas for senior leaders in the council including committees and Council Management Team (CMT).
• Work with the Communications team to ensure strategies and policies are communicated effectively to the right audiences.
• Produce and deliver presentations to a range of internal and external audiences, including senior leaders.
• Attend occasional evening meetings and events outside office hours.

“Role Requirements” – to give yourself the maximum chance of success please try and ensure your CV addresses the following essential criteria:

Qualifications:

• Educated to degree level, or equivalent experience.

Experience & Knowledge:

• Experience of working on development of cross-cutting policy and corporate strategy.
• Strong project management skills and experience.
• Minimum of 12 months recent experience in a similar role, or context and ideally within a public sector organisation.
• Knowledge and understanding of the statutory, regulatory, policy, strategic and service delivery framework in which local government operates.
• Experience of monitoring performance and evaluating outcomes.
• Experience of building relationships and working successfully with senior leaders.
• Experience of consultation and engagement or other user involvement in designing services or informing policy desirable.

Skills:

• Ability to translate and articulate complex policy / information to a variety of audiences inside and outside of the council.
• Ability to distil complex information for a range of audiences.
• Ability to concurrently manage multiple projects to deadlines.
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills.
• Excellent project management and organisational skills with a self-starting, can-do attitude.
• Confident working in a fast fast-paced environment alongside senior leaders.
• Excellent project and programme management skills and adept at managing a complex workload.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills and the ability to challenge, support, influence and engage senior management and stakeholders in a professional manner.
• Ability to work under own initiative, taking responsibility and ownership for solving problems.
• Ability to gain confidence and trust from senior officers, members and other stakeholders and to develop strong working relationships with stakeholders in a range of external organisations.
• High levels of political sensitivity and excellent judgement.
• The ability to develop networks and work with partners across the public, private and voluntary sectors as well as the community and residents.
• Ability to analyse and interpret information and translate into practical actions.
• Strong IT skills using Microsoft packages or equivalent (e.g. G Suite).

NB: Please feel free to apply to us direct via [email protected] by quoting the job reference and job title exactly. SEE DETAILS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS AD.

If you have previously applied to one of our vacancies and have already sent the required supporting documentation to us, please make this clear when you re-apply as this will help speed up your application.

To help speed up the process of uploading your CV to the client we would suggest that you send us your CV in Word format (or equivalent) if possible, rather than as a PDF.

If you are successful in securing this role, please note that for the entire duration of this contract, regardless of extension you will be working this role at the PAYE rate that has been advertised. For absolute clarity, we only work on a PAYE basis, rather than entertaining umbrella pay terms, we do not offer Ltd/umbrella or outside IR35 rates. If you wish to understand PAYE vs Umbrella more, please let us know and we can send you some additional information for clarity.