Senior Policy Officer (Insight and Participation)

JOB DESCRIPTION

Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest

Salary: PO6 £52,584 - £55,620

Contract Type: Full time Fixed term (12 Months)

Working hours per week: 36

Application Deadline: 23/02/2025

Proposed Interview Date(s): TBC

Reference:1623

About Us:

Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work.

We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents.

London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London's Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.

The Council's preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk so we can arrange an alternative application method.

About the role:

This is a fast-paced role that will shape the council's work on community safety and participation around the issues that matter most to our residents. The successful applicant will have a positive, proactive, can-do approach, with demonstrable skills in effective collaboration across a diverse range of stakeholders

The postholder will have a central role in leading the design, delivery and response to neighbourhood participation, including the council's ongoing response and engagement to our Citizens' Assembly on neighbourhood policing. They will also play a key role in driving engagement initiatives across the Neighbourhood and Environment Directorate, leading on the development of cross-cutting strategy and policy to deliver key council priorities around our Council's Mission of creating safer and greener neighbourhoods.

In the role you will be expected to:

• Oversee our shared response to the Citizens' Assembly, working closely with the police, partners and residents to take forward a community-powered response to neighbourhood policing and community safety.
• Support and lead the design of participation and activation initiatives designed to empower residents to shape decision-making and service design to create safe, green neighbourhoods.
• Lead on the design and development of evidence-based strategy and policy to increase the uptake of participatory methods across the council in the delivery of key priorities.
• Provide high quality policy advice, support and guidance on community participation to council services, senior officers, Cabinet, and council members.

>> Click here to download the Role Profile <<

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide high quality policy advice, support and guidance to senior officers, Cabinet, and council members
• Monitor wider policy developments of relevance to the council and identify their implications and our responses
• Lead on the development of cross-cutting strategy and policy through pro-active research, consultation and analysis
• Use diverse participatory methods to involve a range of stakeholders in the development of strategies and policies.
• Oversee the implementation and delivery of projects, programmes and strategies.
• Work closely with the Council's Community Safety and Strategy and Design teams to effectively design and deliver the priorities of the organisation and administration.
• Actively contribute to the successful delivery of the vision for the Neighbourhoods and Environment Directorate and the wider organisation, working collaboratively with colleagues to continuously innovate the service.

Qualifications and Requirements:

Essential:

• Experience of managing projects, working to time, budget and quality in a large organisation
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, able to put together and deliver high-quality briefings and presentations at short notice.
• The ability to work creatively, collaboratively and positively to find solutions to problems.
• Excellent research, analysis, interpretation and evaluation skills.
• Robust, resilient, highly motivated and not easily discouraged.
• Ability to work with agility in a pressurised political environment.
• Confident in building relationships, influence and engage successfully with politicians, senior managers, colleagues and partners in politically sensitive situations.
• Excellent time management skills and the ability to manage a complex workload, prioritising tasks and thriving as priorities change.
• Significant experience or relevant skills for working in policy development in central, local government, public body or think tank, including providing high level advice to politicians or senior leaders.
• Experience of designing and delivering a range of participatory methods.
• Good ICT skills.

Desirable:

• Understanding of political structures, processes and the civil service.
• Experience of collaborative policy development e.g. with think tanks and/or campaigning organisations.
• Knowledge of the workings of local government and the national and political environments, especially in relation to policing and community safety .

Indicative qualifications:

• Educated to degree level of equivalent standard.

Terms and conditions:

Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks.

Satisfactory declaration of interest;.

How to Apply:

Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the 'Apply' button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace.

The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives:

- Promoting equality of opportunity

- Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage

- Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels.

- Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.

To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.

For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-opportunities/working-us.

Contact Information:

If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Rebecca Teers, Community Safety Strategy Manager, at rebecca.teers@walthamforest.gov.uk

If have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk.

Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice.