- Pay Rate:
£400.42 per day PAYE
- Hours per Week:
36 Monday – Friday, normal working hours
This opening assignment is for 2-3 months
- Newham, London,
E16 2QU
Interim Head of Democratic & Member Services (Grade PO7) – Policy & Communications
Job Ref: Newham RQ607047
The post holder may be required to work evenings, weekends and occasional public holidays. They must be able to attend the office at least 2 days per week and attend for key Committee and Cabinet meetings.
The Head of Democratic and Member Services has management responsibility for the Council’s Democratic Services and Member Support (training and development, allowances and expenses) functions, and ensure the smooth and effective running of all formal Council and committee meetings. They act as professional advisor for Member-level decision making in relation to Cabinet, full Council, and other key decision making bodies to ensure that all decisions are taken in accordance with all legal and constitutional requirements.
Key Accountabilities:
- Work with the Monitoring Officer, to advise Members and officers on legal and constitutional requirements of the decision making process.
- Pro-actively develop the forward plan of all key council committees and to plan these so that key decisions are made at the right time and that policy areas are brought together so that decisions are not taken in isolation but in a joined up fashion.
- Ensure that agendas and papers are all planned and agreed well in advance with the Mayor, relevant lead members and relevant Directors and service heads.
- Project manage the production of papers so that they are produced in a timely fashion and to support certain committee and council meetings when required.
- Quality control on all published papers and ensuring that they follow the agreed template, are short and concise, are grammatical and plain English and reflect wider policy and communication needs.
- Challenge authors and Directors where quality falls below expectations.
- Work with Internal Audit, to coordinate the production of the Annual Governance Statement for inclusion in the annual accounts.
- Design and delivery of a comprehensive members development programme.
- Manage and oversee all aspects of member support in relation to their allowances, expenses, ICT equipment and other administrative requirements.
“Role Requirements” – to give yourself the maximum chance of success please try and ensure your CV addresses the following essential criteria:
Qualifications & Knowledge:
- Degree level or equivalent qualification or relevant experience.
- Detailed knowledge and understanding of local government, in terms of policy, key relevant actors and ways of working
- Detailed knowledge of appropriate legislation and regulations.
- Knowledge of information communication technology systems.
Experience:
- Significant experience of working in a governance or administrative environment in a local authority or similar large complex organisation.
- Working with elected members or other lay officials and an appreciation of their requirements and ways of working.
- Developing or applying decision-making systems, protocols and processes to enable robust and efficient governance.
- Committee management software such as Modern.Gov or similar.
- Managing staff and complex situations, using clear judgement to advise others to do the same.
Skills:
- High level of oral and written communication skills.
- Strong attention to detail.
- Strong political awareness and sensitivity.
- Ability to work under pressure and manage a high work load.
- Ability to develop and maintain effective working relationships.
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.
Please quote the Job Title & Vacancy Reference No. in your application, or we will be unable to match your CV to the role being applied for.
Other “Essential Requirements” – Please check to ensure that your CV addresses the following items:
- Our clients are generally seeking applicants who are reasonably local, so on that basis we would ideally like you to supply us with your address (or at least your post code) and a telephone number so that we can reach you during working hours.
- Your recent UK working experience going back at least 5 years, or full employment history if you have been working for fewer years than this.
- Your availability to work either immediately, or at short notice.
- Please refer to the Role Requirements section above - your CV must address the requirements listed.
Other preferable/desirable details to include on your CV, if applicable:
- Any local authority/public sector experience
- Any relevant qualifications held or being studied for.
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CV Tips
Your CV needs to be current with your most recent role. We won’t be able to submit it with any unexplained gaps in employment. It will save time and improve your chances of success if we can put your CV forward immediately without having to ask for revisions.
Your CV must cover the “Essential Requirements” of the role. Ideally you will address the “Essential Requirements” on each job description page directly, in a bullet point list. Please include any DBS details and other qualifications called for.
Your CV should clearly state that you are available to start work either immediately, or at short notice. In general, our clients are unable to work with notice periods of more than 1 week from the point at which a role is offered, 2 weeks at the very most.
We do not put forward covering letters, so please ensure that your CV in contains all relevant information being called for.
We recommend that you consider sending us a CV suitably tailored CV for each role that you apply for. Job board aggregator sites will generally store only one version of your CV, which can be a bit limiting, so this is to your advantage.