Project Support Officer

This role has a starting salary of £31,262 per annum, based on a 36-hour working week. This is a 12-month fixed term contract/ secondment opportunity.

We are excited to be hiring a new Project Support Officer to join our fantastic Additional Needs and Transformation Team. This is an established team that assists in delivering our ambition to ensure all of Surrey's children, and young people with additional needs and disabilities, are enabled to lead their best possible life, ensuring no one is left behind.

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 dependants 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
• Learning and development hub where you can access a wealth of resources

About the Team

This is an exciting opportunity for you to be part of a team leading on major transformational change that will have a direct impact on staff, children and families across Surrey. The Additional Needs and Disabilities Transformation Team has an extensive portfolio of programmes that aim to address the increasing levels of demand and the increasing need to deliver value for money.

The work underway is critical to Surrey's ambition; to ensure the most positive outcomes for children and young people with additional needs; to support children and young people to thrive in their local schools and communities and develop independent and fulfilling lives, whilst ensuring that our services are effective and financially sustainable.

About the Role

The Project Support Officer will play a key role in supporting and coordinating the smooth running of programme activity and monitoring delivery. You will be involved in forward planning for routine meetings and engagements, helping to communicate the progress of the programme delivery and outcomes through reporting mechanisms. You will develop and maintain effective working relationships with internal colleagues and external partners at all levels to facilitate information sharing for the senior leadership team, council committees and partnership groups.

You will be expected to ensure project work is adequately prepared for, planned and resourced. In this role you will support projects and services in delivering to high standards, on time and within budget. Coordinating elements of programme delivery and managing administrative tasks will be key aspects of the role.

In this role, you will have the following key responsibilities:

• Provide support to the Programme Manager, PMO and project leads in the delivery of the Additional Needs and Disabilities Transformation programme, in line with agreed objectives, outcomes and stakeholder expectations.
• Support progress tracking and coordination of reporting functions.
• Maintain tools to support project planning.
• Manage information management systems including SharePoint.
• Coordinate programme team meetings, workshops and engagement events.
• Support the use and effectiveness of programme communications channels, including developing tools for collating feedback and tracking engagement with diverse stakeholder groups.
• Maintain high levels of quality and customer service with colleagues, external stakeholders and members of the public.

Shortlisting Criteria

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

• Strong Project Support skills with experience of working on projects.
• Ability to provide excellent customer service using a positive 'can do' attitude.
• Educated to 'A' level standard or equivalent experience.
• Excellent IT skills, including knowledge of MS Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Sharepoint.
• Ability to extract, analyse and present data and information in a clear, coherent format, both verbally and written.
• Commitment to delivering improvements in public service.

You will be asked to answer the following questions as part of your application:

1. What has motived you to apply for this role?
2. Please provide an example of a time that you worked on a successful project. Can you describe some of the key challenges and successes?
3. How do you manage multiple priorities?

The job advert closes at 23:59 on Sunday 27/03/2024.

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.