Contract Officer - Transport

About the role

Are you an ambitious and inspirational individual with the capability to make a difference to people’s lives?

Then we want to hear from you!

Cambridgeshire County Council is looking for a Contract Officer to support our Contracts Team. This is a unique opportunity to be part of an established high performing team with an outstanding reputation for leading the way in our Adult’s Commissioning Directorate.

Can you rise to the challenge? If you have the passion for putting social care at the heart of everything you do and the ambition to help shape our future, we would love to hear from you.

If you would welcome this new challenge then apply online today or, for an informal discussion about the role, contact Shelley Kingston Tel: 07342 700287

Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of an Enhanced Disclosure obtained through the Disclosure and Barring Service. The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

What will you be doing?

The successful candidate will:

Work with Contract and Account Managers to develop and use appropriate systems and tools (such as the risk matrix tool) to manage and monitor contractual compliance with internal and external providers in order to ensure that quality services are provided to service users

Identify contractual compliance shortfalls and liaise Commissioners and Contract and Account Managers to recommend the appropriate course of action. To professionally challenge poor practice and carry out ongoing work with providers to address any such shortfalls and ensure improvement of service provision and quality and the management and mitigation of risk.

Where appropriate, to gather information or carry out an initial visit to a provision which has not previously been used or monitored where a Service User is being placed for the first time.

Monitor notifications of concerns and report evidence of any trends in performance, concerns and other issues to the relevant Contract and Account Manager and support key Managers, Commissioner, CQC, Quality Improvement, Operations and Safeguarding Teams in the event of provider failure.

Ensure providers are aware of and comply with all relevant legislation and contract requirements as well as current priorities and strategies across both Councils.

Support Contract and Finance Manager to provide information to assist with the commissioning of services and support the development of commissioning strategies, specifications, monitoring tools and other associated documents, where required. The post holder will also be expected to act as a member of tender project groups as appropriate.

Support the review of Commissioned Services through providing intelligence which identifies gaps in service provision and any trends in needs of service users.

Provide information which will assist in the development of the relevant market, including networking with other local authorities.

Research and review legislation, policy guidance, new initiatives, and best practice in relation to personalised models of service that increase choice and control and to ensure staff, providers and other stakeholders are aware of any relevant current and future government policy and initiatives.

Promote good practice and enhance service quality through the ongoing provision of clear guidance, information, and education to care providers, in order to raise the quality-of-service provision.

Work closely with providers across the statutory, voluntary, and independent sector to develop productive relationships and co-production of service delivery and improvement.

Provide support and information to social care teams in relation to commissioning and contract arrangements, including promotion of good practice, advice, and support.

Liaise with external agencies, including but not limited to CQC, health partners, district councils and other statutory and non-statutory organisations.

Contribute to the delivery of provider events as delegated by the manager.

Ensure the demands of the service are met, a requirement of this role is to provide emergency support during weekend and bank holiday periods.

Carry out additional reasonable duties as required by the line manager.

To demonstrate awareness/understanding of equal opportunities and other people’s behavioural, physical, social and welfare needs

About you

The successful candidate will:

Be educated to A Level / NVQ Level 3, GCSE Maths and English Grade C

Have an up to date and credible level of knowledge and understanding relating to commissioning and contract management.

Have knowledge of policy, legislation and guidance relating to Commissioning and Contract Management.

Have an understanding of how to apply performance measures and evaluation methodologies to deliver improvement.

Have the ability to problem solve on a wide range of issues and to seek the necessary information and guidance to make an appropriate decision or recommended course of action

Have good analytical skills and the ability to draw qualitative and quantitative data from a wide range of sources and utilise it to inform strategy development.

Have experience of using information management systems to produce good quality data in a variety of formats.

Have extensive office administrative experience and be fully proficient at using IT systems, with a good working knowledge of the Microsoft Office package

Have knowledge of Health and Safety Legislation.

Have knowledge of Data Protection and Equal Opportunities legislation and their requirements

Have an understanding of financial management, procedures, and processes

Be able to prioritise workload

Be able to consistently produce work of a high standard

Have good interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate in a friendly, open, and constructive manner via email and telephone

Be able to work on own initiative with minimal supervision

Have commitment to continuous service development

Be adaptable and flexible to the needs of the Team with a willingness to learn and develop.

Our benefits

We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits:

• Flexible working
• Flexible Bank Holidays
• A comprehensive wellbeing package
• Our Cambs Rewards employee discounts
• A comprehensive pension scheme.
• IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network.
• Camweb our staff intranet helping to keep you informed
• An employee recognition scheme

About us

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.

Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.

We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities. If you don’t meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don’t be put off.   We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered.  We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Some examples of adjustments could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.

Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion. 

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/jobs-and-careers

Attached documents

• Contract Officer CCC JD.pdf