Programme Manager

This role has a starting salary of £57,868 per annum, based on a 36-hour working week. This is a 12-month fixed term contract / secondment opportunity with the possibility the contract may be extended.

We are excited to be hiring 2 new Programme Managers to join our fantastic Children's Social Care Transformation Team - a team focused on delivering significant improvements across children's services through a diverse range of projects as part of a major portfolio of change. This is an exciting opportunity for you to lead on major transformational change that will have a direct impact on staff, children and families across Surrey and beyond.

This is a hybrid-working role where you will usually work in the office 2 days per week.

Rewards and Benefits

• 26 days' holiday (prorated for part time staff), rising to 28 days after 2 years' service and 30 days after 5 years' service
• Option to buy up to 10 days of additional annual leave
• An extensive Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to support health and wellbeing
• Up to 5 days of carer's leave per year
• Paternity, adoption and dependents leave
• A generous local government salary related pension
• Lifestyle discounts including gym, travel, shopping and many more
• 2 paid volunteering days plus 1 team volunteering day per year
• Additional professional training where helpful to you and the role
• Learning and development hub where you can access a wealth of resources

About the Team

You will be joining a team of friendly and experienced project and Programme Managers along with other key professionals that are passionate about improving the way we work, delivering change in a well-managed way and ultimately ensuring we provide outstanding services to our residents. We aim to provide an excellent team environment and culture where you find your job enjoyable and rewarding and where you can bring your whole self to work.

We have two positions available within the team:

1. Programme Manager to lead the Family Resilience & Safeguarding (FR&S) programme.

This is delivering a range of projects which are currently focused on the front door to children's services, developing our early help offer, transforming our services for adolescents and children with disabilities. Knowledge or experience within children's services will be a benefit for this role.

2. Programme Manager to lead the Recruitment, Retention & Culture (RRC) programme.

A complex programme bringing together resources from across the council, children's and education services focused on our workforce. With multiple workstreams and projects starting up throughout the year, this work is crucial to improving the staffing position across many hard-to-recruit and retain roles.

About the Role

The role is part of one of the council's most important transformation programmes to improve our services for children, young people and families. You will manage projects/programmes that are critical to the future of the organisation - while they have their own outputs, they all contribute to the overarching goals of delivering significant savings, changing the way we work and providing excellent outcomes for residents.

You will lead on either the Family Resilience & Safeguarding or the Recruitment, Retention & Culture programme. Both are large and complex change programmes that have already been established and form part of the overall Children's Social Care Transformation portfolio.

In this role, you will oversee a range of projects. You will plan, organise and manage the programme at a strategic level, ensuring projects are aligned to the overall needs of the service and are delivering the changes required on time and within budget. You will be responsible for ensuring risks across the programme are well managed, changes are clearly communicated to those affected and the overall benefits are realised. Resolving issues that arise and working with colleagues both within the services and with partner agencies will be an important part of the role along with utilising expertise from across the services to keep the programme delivering as planned.

You will manage 2-3 Project Managers providing direction and support to them on a day to day basis and will be working alongside at least 2 other Programme Managers.

Shortlisting Criteria

To be considered for shortlisting for this position, your application will clearly evidence the following:

• Ability to oversee multiple projects within a complex programme of change with multiple senior sponsors.
• A proactive approach and the ability to look ahead for potential problems taking preventative or mitigating action in advance.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills at all levels and assessment of needs and priorities that are key to your stakeholders.
• Ability to carry out reviews of major functions or processes and work flexibly to meet changing demands and priorities.
• Ability to understand complex organisational designs and structures and understands how to relate these to the portfolio being managed.

Please contact us for any questions relating to the role. This could be to discuss flexible working requests, transferable skills or any barriers to employment.

The job advert closes at 23:59 on 10/03/2024 with interviews planned for 14/03/2024 and 15/03/2024.

Our Commitment

Surrey County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. A guaranteed interview will be offered to all disabled applications where:

• The candidate has evidenced the minimum criteria for the role through their application
• The candidate has chosen to share that they have a disability on the application form

Our application form and onboarding process will provide an opportunity to request any reasonable adjustments for the interview and/or the role.We want to be an inclusive and diverse employer reflecting the community we serve and particularly welcome applications from all underrepresented groups.