Project And Support Officer

Location: The designated office base is Abbey House, Abingdon. The councils operate in a truly flexible, and hybrid way where the focus is on outcomes not where you work.Contract Type: PermanentHours: Full time, 37 hours per weekSalary and grade £33,833 - £39,977 per year, Grade 5

Closing Date: 14 April 2024

About the role and what we're looking for

We are seeking an organised, confident and experienced Project and Support Officer with fantastic communication skills to join our Planning Policy team within the council's Policy and Programmes service.

This is an extremely varied and key role, providing high quality, proactive project management support to a team of over 20 professionals, working together to deliver the new Local Plan and fulfil other important statutory planning policy responsibilities.

You'll be at the forefront of helping the team to deliver a first class service for both internal and external customers and will play a vital part in helping us to achieve our collective goal of being recognised as a pioneering, exemplary planning policy team.

You'll take pride in working to high standards of quality and efficiency, with real attention to detail and be able to prioritise tasks to achieve deadlines. In addition to having excellent communication skills, (written, face to face, on video conferencing and over the telephone), you'll need to have the ability to filter high volumes of information (sometimes sensitive and confidential) to identify and communicate key issues.

Above all, we are looking for someone with the confidence and expertise to provide seamless project management support for the team, who is calm under pressure, capable of thinking on their feet when dealing with fast changing priorities and happy to take action where needed to help us achieve our team objectives, to time and budget.

Main duties and responsibilities:

• Provide project management support to assist in the timely delivery of the new Local Plan and other statutory planning policy documents and processes.• Regularly liaise with Team Leaders/Workstream Leads to monitor progress and help resolve any issues relating to the completion of planning policy related tasks, including planning policy evidence base sub-projects.• Facilitate effective internal engagement on the new Local Plan and other planning policy workstreams by taking a key role in preparing for, and helping to run, our monthly Local Plan Members' Steering Group, Cabinet Member Briefings and Policy Project Meetings.• Maintain efficient, clear communication channels between officers, elected Members and external customers (via email, face to face meetings, virtual meetings over MS Teams, or over the telephone).• Prepare reports, minutes, meeting notes and other written correspondence (including monthly updates for our Cabinet Members) to a high standard and within defined corporate and service timescales.• Use the councils' financial management system to carry out budget monitoring, process invoices and purchase orders and search the system for information to resolve any financial queries for the team.• Work with Planning Policy Team Leaders and Democratic Services colleagues to agree and monitor committee reporting timelines for the new Local Plan and other work requiring Member approval.• Assist with EIR/FOI, DSAR, SAR and IRR requests and processes.• Take a lead role in the planning of public engagement events to raise awareness about our new Local Plan (including venue booking, printing and distribution of consultation material).• Liaise with the appointed independent Programme Officer to facilitate the smooth running of the Examination in Public of our new Local Plan.• Represent the Planning Policy team on cross-council projects to improve service delivery, performance or customer service.• Oversee and improve the planning policy pages of the council websites, upload relevant documents and carry out website updates as required.• Take responsibility for developing and maintaining a consistent, clearly structured system for storing electronic information for the Planning Policy team and maintaining the team's external consultations response log.

About you

Your essential skills, knowledge and experience

• advanced level MS Word and Excel• at least two years in a customer-focused office environment, demonstrating strong organisational skills• experience of managing and driving small projects• excellent time management and prioritisation skills• ability to carry out research and present a clear summary of findings• excellent written and verbal communication skills

Your essential qualifications

• educated to degree level (or equivalent), or equivalent level of experience

If you have the following experience or qualifications - it's a bonus:

• a project-based qualification• local government experience and political awareness• some knowledge of the role of local authority planning policy teams• some experience using financial processing systems• proof reading experience

We look forward to hearing from you.You may have experience in the following: Project Management, Project Support, Business Support Administrator, Office Assistant, Administrator, PA, Business Support Officer, Administration, Office Administrator, Admin Assistant, Team Administrator, Business Administrator, Administration Officer, Local Government Officer etc

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