Project Planning Support Officer (The Synergy Programme)

Do you want to be part of an energetic, innovative team and bring your skills to one of the biggest changes to the administration of the Civil Service in decades? We are looking for people who are flexible, intuitive and are comfortable taking high levels of volume, speed, and complexity in their stride. A number of exciting new roles have come up in the newly formed Synergy Programme, a cross-departmental group formed in response to Government Business Service’s request for individual departments to group together in ‘clusters’ to drive efficiencies, increase buying power and improve the quality of shared service to our end users – our people.

The Synergy Programme is the largest of five departmental clusters, comprising the Ministry of Justice, Department for Work and Pensions, Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Home Office. The Department of Work and Pensions hosts the Synergy Programme. Your work will impact the procurement arrangements for the next 15 years, impacting over 50% of all Civil Servants – that is 230,000 people across the four departments and arm’s length bodies.

Success of the Programme is crucial as Civil Servants rely on shared services to provide business critical tools in human resources, finance, payroll, and procurement. It affects everything we do, from joining a department as a new starter, the way we claim for expenses, how we buy goods and services such as our laptops and canteen provisions, how we make a claim for our expenses, to the way we receive our pensions when we retire.

We are looking for applications from people who can demonstrate a passion for our core ambition - delivering a once in a generation, transformed service that Civil Servants will use as a result of the Synergy Programme.

The role of the Project Planning & Reporting Support officer is to work with PMO colleagues across all disciplines including planning, risks, and governance, and collaborate with stakeholders to be responsible for the effective delivery of planning and reporting responsibilities and contribute to the effective delivery of other PMO responsibilities.

They collaborate with stakeholders to ensure all aspects of the project are defined. They provide clarity on key milestones to define what, when and how activities will be organised to ensure the outcomes of a project can be achieved, with the resources available.

They lead on all aspects of Project Planning, which will include the development, updating and monitoring of plans and schedules. They identify tasks, activities, interdependencies and outputs for the project and work with the project team to track and monitor progress against the plan throughout the life of the project.

They manage all aspects of project reporting, which includes the development, updating and monitoring of a large suite of products to meet the needs of both Boards and Senior Leaders.

They cover a diverse range of activities to support the delivery of the project’s objectives. They enable the smooth running of the project by supporting the Programme Management office lead through the operation of project management processes, and the co-ordination of business management actions and activities on their behalf.

They identify and create new automated reporting products using the most appropriate digital tools and software applications which will include PowerBI Developer, Visio and Microsoft 365/Office skills but not restricted to these products as new reporting tools become available.

They work across the programme to identify tasks, activities, interdependencies, risks, and outputs for the programme. Tracking and monitoring progress against the plan throughout the life of the programme.

Successful candidates will be expected to:

• Support the Synergy planning officers and Project Planning lead in conducting effective internal and external stakeholder engagement, at all levels, to deliver and maintain an integrated plan for the programme, including generating and tracking milestones.
• Implement and maintain appropriate Planning, Reporting and Risk systems.
• Establish and maintain project controls, reporting to the project manager aware of the project status.
• Prepare project performance reports, through analysis of information, reporting progress, slippage and highlighting areas of risk, challenges, and opportunity. Presenting statistics and researching latest information.
• Ensure organisational tasks are conducted efficiently. Manage and monitor compliance of the project with Departmental Security, Health and Safety, Equality and Diversity, Business Continuity and Business Planning
• Manage professional relationships with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders, and function as lead point of contact for some external parties. Draft and sign-off correspondence,
• Plan, schedule and participate in planning meetings ensuring appropriate methodologies are used which align to team and programme priorities.
• Lead on reporting activity and work with the project to support delivery of the business case benefits and outcomes. Support capability building and the use of best practice in planning and reporting. Provide expert advice for team members and project community.
• Challenge and test project assumptions to ensure that plans are realistic and achievable. Develop of breakdown structures, quality criteria, product descriptions and monitoring strategy. Support the project manager to identify options to optimise delivery through resource smoothing, resource levelling and rescheduling of activities.
• Ensure that stakeholder responsibilities and needs are understood and addressed in reporting arrangements.
• Monitor and analyse information, reporting progress, slippage and highlighting areas of risk and opportunity.
• Provide expert advice on planning processes throughout the lifecycle of the project and provide day to day support to the Planning Lead / Team.
• Support secretariat duties as required delivering meaningful outputs, auditable logs, and records for Synergy Governance Boards.
• Manage procurement of supplies and services related to project support within Delegated Financial Authority limits.
• Ensure organisational tasks are conducted efficiently. Undertaking secretariat duties, including minute taking and project board support.
• Collaborating with colleagues across PMO team to review and action PMO Inbox correspondence within stipulate timelines.