Commissioning Officer - Children's Care in Eastleigh

The post holder will support the children’s care team to ensure that strategic commissioning projects are planned and managed effectively.

Main duties of the job

• Supporting the children’s care team to ensure that strategic commissioning projects are planned and managed effectively.
• Support specific projects including developing project management plans, reporting progress, risks and issues.
• Provide co-ordination of and participate in relevant internal and external working groups and provide project advice, expertise and support as required.
• Provide relevant and timely advice and guidance on own projects/functions.
• Support the development of service improvement proposals where required, work with relevant stakeholders to draft proposals and gain approval as appropriate.
• Contribute to the delivery of outcomes, improving patient experience, high quality care for our population, value for money and greater efficiency.

Working for our organisation

We offer excellent employment opportunities to new and existing staff. We aim to be a model employer by embedding best HR practice and to support new ways of working. We pride ourselves on offering good working conditions, job security, lifelong learning, fair pay and benefits, staff involvement and a balance between work and personal life. We enjoy a forward thinking and innovative culture and our vision is to have healthy people, living healthy lives in healthy communities. We understand the only way to deliver this is to have the right people with the right skills.

Here is a summary of some of the benefits and services which are on offer to staff:

• 27 days paid minimum holiday and bank holiday entitlement
• Sick pay policy
• Occupational health services including staff counselling services
• Flexible working and family friendly policies
• Flexible retirement and retirement vouchers

Successful candidates will be subject to a six-month probationary period.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Analytical and judgement skills: Contribute to the detailed information analysis of specific projects/reports requiring high levels of concentration. Update, maintain, organise, gather and analyse information to predict/meet future organisational and team needs by identifying best professional practice. Monitor and tracking risks and issues tracking mechanism and its proactive resolution and escalation processes. Contribute to the information management of performance, taking a lead for specific projects. Provide coordination of and participate in relevant meetings, drafting agendas and recording key actions and support where requested.
• Planning and organisation: Support implementation of strategic commissioning strategies and any associated action plans, in accordance with the agreed priorities of the team. Contribute to the development of performance and governance strategies and the development and implementation of improvement programmes. Contribute to the delivery against objectives, achieving quality outcomes, prioritising own workload and working to tight deadlines. Develop detailed project plans, action trackers, risk and issues logs that are in line with the agreed milestones and key projects. Provide relevant and timely advice and guidance on own portfolio of projects and provide reporting as required. Work with members of the Team to investigate the causes of any variance from target/plan and proactively contribute to the implementation of solutions. Support the development and implementation of plans to evaluate the effectiveness of the initiatives and ensure that measures and mechanisms are in place at the outset to support the evaluation.
• Policy and service development: Ensure that data collected is analysed, reported as appropriate and monitor the processing of data and information. Contribute to the review and development of existing information management systems and contribute to the development of an integrated approach to project management.
• Financial and physical resources: Deliver against organisational objectives, achieving quality outcomes, prioritising own workload and working to tight deadlines. Support and inform teams on the targeting of resources, monitoring, implementing, evaluating and delivery of plans by providing high quality information and analysis. Comply with the principles of Sustainability and Social Value and use resources in an efficient and responsible manner.
• Information management: Contribute for the development and maintenance of project planning reports. Lead on development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of new information systems as required. Carry out timely and accurate information analysis and reporting on agreed areas of portfolio.
• Research and development: Actively supports and contributes to the development of key performance indicators for the successful assessment of performance. Test and review new concepts, models, methods, practices and products. Contributes to ensuring there are processes in place for spreading and sharing learning and outcomes.

The post holder will be required to maintain constructive relationships with a broad range of internal and external stakeholders. Participate in relevant internal and external working groups/projects, services and initiatives to provide, information and analytical advice and expertise. Work with members of the team to develop and implement project data collection systems that will provide accurate and timely data. Communicate information, risks, issues and dependencies, including briefings and reports to project teams, sponsors and a range of internal and external staff.

Person specification

• Qualifications and experience: Educated to degree level in relevant subject or equivalent level qualification or significant experience of working at a similar level in specialist area. Specialist knowledge and expertise in Project Management.
• Skills and abilities: Further training or significant experience in project management, financial management or supporting change management process. Evidence of understanding of evaluating and measuring performance of health services. Evidence in communicating and stakeholder management.
• Knowledge: Experience of working in a children’s health, education or social care environment. A good understanding of the health and social care environment and roles and responsibilities within it. Previous experience in similar role in the public sector. Knowledge of project principles, techniques and tools, such as Prince 2 Foundation and Microsoft Project.
• Communication and interpersonal skills: Clear communicator with excellent writing report writing and presentation skills; capable of constructing and delivering clear ideas and concepts concisely and accurately to a diverse audience. Evidence of success in efficient and effective project and programme management. Skills in communication on complex matters and different situations, requiring persuasion and influence. An ability to maintain confidentiality and trust.
• Analytical and problem-solving skills: Ability to analyse and interpret information, pre-empt and evaluate issues, and recommendations and appropriate course of action to address the issues. Problem solving skills and ability to respond to sudden unexpected demands. Attention to detail combined with the ability to extract key messages from complex analysis. Independent thinker with demonstrated good judgement, problem solving and analytic skills.
• IT and digital literacy: Proficient in Microsoft Office and digital collaboration tools; ability to use data analysis and project management software.

We encourage and support our staff to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as this remains the best way to protect ourselves, our families, our colleagues, and patients from the virus. We recognise that some candidates for accessibility reasons may use software to support their application. At our Organisation, our selection process ensures we recruit candidates with the right skills and values. We monitor applications and remain alert to misuse that misrepresents abilities including the inappropriate use of AI.

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.