Senior Project Officer - Children, Young People & Learning

About Us

The context for West Sussex County Council is changing. Increasing demographic pressures, continuing challenges to provide residents and communities with greater levels of choice and control over services, and the tighter financial constraints placed on the authority, mean that the Council needs to change the way it operates. Effective business management develops and delivers support to the Children, Young People and Learning Directorate and enables it to operate as an effective and efficient service. There is a strong focus on improvement across the service and real desire to enhance outcomes for customers, performance, driving efficiencies and providing best value for money for residents. During a period of great change, an organisation needs support functions that are able to provide the right advice, approaches and understanding throughout the transformation period and into the future.

About The Job

• Salary: £38,626 to £41,511 per annum
• Contract Type: Fixed term until March 2026
• Working Pattern: Full-time, 37 hours per week
• Location: Based at County Hall, Chichester (Countywide travel may be required)

We are looking for a Senior Project Officer for Children, Young People and Learning to deliver a customer focused project management service, including provision of expertise and guidance on project related issues in support of the West Sussex County Council Children First strategy. As a Senior Project Officer (SPO), you will provide expertise to projects and programmes, working with the senior leadership team to achieve project success. You will be accountable to the Project Management Office (PMO) Manager and work within the Governance team to ensure coherent delivery of project management processes and services to the wider service. You will provide expert assistance with the delivery of medium sized or large projects/programmes and be responsible for the delivery of small and medium projects, in both instances working closely with clients to ensure efficient service provision.

To support the service as the Senior Project Officer, you will need to have experience and knowledge of statutory children's services and be required to work with senior operational managers, supporting them in the delivery of a range of statutory and high-risk services. You will be analytical with the ability to communicate with all levels of the organisation and external partners including the public. You will be personally resourceful and pro-active and able to work autonomously. In addition, you will be able to work well as part of a team and be customer focused. You will be agile and flexible and be able to respond quickly to changing priorities and short deadlines.

The Opportunity

Some of the Key Skills and Experience required include:

• Excellent literacy and numeracy with advanced analytical skills which will enable you to interpret and manipulate varied and complex project information.
• Project Management qualification/HNC/HND (e.g. PRINCE 2) or equivalent practical experience to ensure you can organise and plan to meet set targets to achieve timely completion of projects.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills enabling you to interact effectively so guide, influence, persuade high-level clients/stakeholders and create and maintain effective working relationships and provide coaching to clients/colleagues on process or documentation.
• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to anticipate problems and resolve issues independently, planning solutions and making sound pragmatic decisions.
• Advanced IT skills in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, use of Internet and other web-based applications, for the integral use of word processing, analysis and research of data, creating electronic presentations.
• Effective people management skills including performance and financial management skills and the ability to provide direction and support to individuals and teams.
• Knowledge and understanding of local Government Children's Services and ideally of Ofsted inspections of Children's Services.
• Experience of contributing to the development of business cases to assist clients in achieving improvements in service and of business/systems analysis or business process improvement i.e. process flow mapping.

You will need to be able to travel independently around the county, including to areas that may not be easily accessible by public transport. Pool cars and pool bikes are available.

Rewards and Benefits

As an employer we recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive and dynamic working environment where employees can achieve their full potential, achieve a healthy work-life balance and are rewarded for the work they do. For a full list of the benefits offered to you as a West Sussex County Council employee, please visit our Rewards and Benefits page.

Further Information

The reference number for this role is CAFHE05802. To apply, please follow the links below to upload your CV and Cover Letter. In your cover letter please outline your motivations for applying and explaining the skills and experience you can bring to the role (please refer to the key skills) ensuring that any gaps in employment are covered in your CV. We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. This post is subject to referencing and a health check. Equity, inclusion and accessibility is very important to West Sussex County Council. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, as this helps us build a diverse and talented workforce, that reflects the communities we serve. We ensure our approach to recruitment is flexible and supportive to enable all applicants to be at their best and to ensure they have the best possible chance of success. We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that have a disability, are a veteran or are a care leaver. More information can be found on our application help page.