Leaders Senior Advisor WCC618989

Job Details:

Salary range: £59,220 - 65,853 per annum
Work location: Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, Westminster, SW1E 6QP
Hours per week: 36
Contract type: Permanent
Politically Restricted post: Yes
Closing date: 10 November 2024
Interview date: 14 and 15 November 2024
Contact details for Informal discussion: Amy Just, Strategic Lead - Cabinet and Executive Governance on # Us:

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM

Governance and Councillor Liaison at Westminster City Council forms part of the Corporate Services family, which is a world of extraordinary stories. Where people use their vision and commitment to improve services, connect with communities and open doors for the next generations.

The team exists to operate the machinery of the council, turning policy ideas and thinking into implementable decisions, helping councillors be the best they can be and scrutinising performance to make sure we stay on top of our game. Our job is to make it easy for colleagues to deliver the best for our communities. And that has real impact.

Colleagues in our City Lions team help young local people engage with culture, creativity and dreams. When they came across a lonely, isolated 16-year-old who called himself a failure, they knew what to do. They worked 1-2-1 to find the thing this boy really loved. YouTube, it turned out. But it's impossible to turn that into a career, right? Wrong. A week later, he was enrolled on the British Film Institute film-making programme. It was the ultimate light-bulb moment. And it turned him into what he is today - a budding Spielberg with a world of opportunity at his feet.

That's just one of our success stories. With your support to facilitate vital decisions at the Council, we'll tell many more.

Please view the extraordinary story of the Impossible Dream
here.

The Role:

You'll be a key member of a skilled and determined team who provide senior councillors and officers with outstanding support and advice. This advice makes things happen, from helping drive forward strategy, guiding executive decisions, and developing complex briefing materials for the Leader and Cabinet Members to engage stakeholders in our priorities.

As the Leader's Senior Advisor, you'll be responsible for management of a fast-paced Leader's Office, as well as the end-to-end co-ordination of the Leader's strategic priorities: working with the most senior officers in the council to move those priorities from ideas to implementable decisions.

Knowledge and understanding of the political landscape will be essential in supporting the Leader and ELT to spot and address potential opportunities and risks as early as possible, and you'll be expected to pursue solutions collaboratively with relevant officers.

Working proactively with colleagues across the council, you'll make sure the Leader is briefed, draft speeches, and provide input ahead of key meetings and events, in particular with communications and public affairs colleagues.

You'll also be responsible for the development and growth of junior members in the team, helping to hone their skills in managing a private office and anticipating the needs and expectations of a busy senior politician.

Please refer to the
Job Description for more information

About You:

Highly collaborative and personable, you have a demonstrable ability to build good relationships across an organisation at every level. The ability to influence senior stakeholders and communicate in tactful, diplomatic ways is essential, keeping in mind the issues facing local government.

Ideally you will have knowledge and experience of local government and its systems, including confidently giving advice to senior officers on how to handle complex matters. Working closely with politicians or private office experience will also be critical to success in this role.

You are comfortable working on high profile issues in a fast-paced environment, rapidly getting to grips with large and volumes of complex information and balancing several workstreams simultaneously. You can demonstrate a committed and thorough approach to your work, always taking time to assure yourself and others that the right approach is being followed.

The Council is committed to achieving diverse shortlists to support our desire to increase the number of staff from underrepresented groups in our workforce. We especially encourage applications from a global majority background and, while the role is open to all applicants, we will utilise the positive action provisions of the Equality Act 2010 to appoint a candidate from a global majority background where there is a choice between two candidates of equal merit. If you are from a Global Majority background, you can self-declare this to the hiring manager as part of our positive action commitments.

What We Offer:

Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to a diverse community of residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster. Westminster City Council's strategy is to work towards a Fairer Westminster. A Fairer Westminster is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city's future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe.

At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is the Westminster Way. To find out more about how we do this visit
westminster.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/public-health-strategy-policies-and-reports/equality-duties

As a forward-thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working.

The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application, we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible.

Highly collaborative and personable, you have a demonstrable ability to build good relationships across an organisation at every level. The ability to influence senior stakeholders and communicate in tactful, diplomatic ways is essential, keeping in mind the issues facing local government.

Ideally you will have knowledge and experience of local government and its systems, including confidently giving advice to senior officers on how to handle complex matters. Working closely with politicians or private office experience will also be critical to success in this role.

You are comfortable working on high profile issues in a fast-paced environment, rapidly getting to grips with large and volumes of complex information and balancing several workstreams simultaneously. You can demonstrate a committed and thorough approach to your work, always taking time to assure yourself and others that the right approach is being followed.

Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to a diverse community of residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster. Westminster City Council's strategy is to work towards a Fairer Westminster. A Fairer Westminster is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city's future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe.

At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is the Westminster Way. To find out more about how we do this visit
westminster.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/public-health-strategy-policies-and-reports/equality-duties

As a forward-thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working.