Policy & Project Officer

Contract Details: Secondment or Fixed Term Contract for 6 to 8 months. Full time. Fixed-term: 6-8 months depending on start date. Monday to Friday. 9:00 am to 5 pm. Hybrid working, some mandatory office days required. London Councils operates in a hybrid working environment as an agile employer, working across its Strategic Directorates.

Job Introduction: At London Councils, you will analyse, influence and propose policies impacting millions of people. In this public policy role, you will primarily work on the budgetary and financial aspects of multiple policy areas affecting local government finance and devolution including housing, social care, transportation, education, net zero, and asylum seekers and refugees. Furthermore, you will do so in a collaborative environment, working alongside other London Councils colleagues, council treasurers, local council leaders and local government stakeholders. We want you to bring your initiative, ideas, problem‑solving skills and curiosity to our energetic team focused on ensuring London boroughs have their fair share of resources, freedoms, and powers to improve the lives of its residents, businesses, and visitors. Whilst this position will focus primarily on local government finance and devolution, there will also be opportunities to work flexibly across functions and policy areas, contributing your expertise where needed and supporting policy and project related priorities in a collaborative and responsive way.

Main Responsibilities:

• Provide support to the development of London Councils’ policy positions, especially as it relates to local government finance and funding for London boroughs.
• Draft clear and concise reports, consultation responses, briefings and other publications for consideration by officers, boroughs and members.
• Collect, clean and manage large datasets from multiple sources to support evidence‑based policy development.
• Undertake detailed financial analysis, including modelling funding scenarios, budget impacts and trend analysis using large and complex datasets.
• Provide research on emerging issues within local government finance.
• Act as point of contact for enquiries on local government finance issues, responding to enquiries from colleagues, member authorities and others as required.
• Represent the organisation externally, promoting London Councils’ key policy priorities.
• Develop and sustain positive relationships with external stakeholders in order to advance London Councils’ policies and positions.
• Support London borough officer networks.
• Undertake other duties commensurate with this grade, as may reasonably be required and within agreed timescales and budgets.

The Ideal Candidate:

• Be an inclusive team player with excellent interpersonal skills.
• Be highly numerate with the ability to accurately analyse, interpret and present financial, demographic and socio‑economic data.
• Have strong Excel skills, including the use of formulae and functions, data manipulation, and ideally, experience with financial modelling.
• Have experience working with large datasets and the ability to clean, structure and validate data for analysis.
• Have strong IT skills, including Microsoft Excel, Word and PowerPoint.
• Have strong written and oral communication skills.
• Be able to present technical information clearly and concisely to a range of technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Be able to prioritise and manage projects with effective time management skills.
• Be able to develop a network of contacts to call upon when developing policy arguments.
• Be able to represent London Councils at a range of meetings and promote the organisation’s key policy priorities.
• Be familiar with the policy and legislative process.
• Understand the complexities of working in a sensitive political environment.
• Be able to assess the equal opportunities implications of local government finance policy.
• Be an innovative thinker with creative problem‑solving skills.
• Bonus if you have experience working in finance, public sector funding, budgeting, or economic analysis.

About The Company: London Councils is the collective of London local government, the 32 boroughs and the City of London Corporation. They come together through London Councils to work in collaboration to deliver their shared ambitions for London and Londoners. Through lobbying, collaboration and partnership, we ensure the voice of the London boroughs are united, and heard at a local, regional and national level. We also run a number of services on behalf of the boroughs including the Freedom Pass, Taxicard and Health Emergency Badge (HEB) and London Lorry Control Scheme (LLCS). We are committed to equal opportunities and encourage applications from all backgrounds. Reasonable adjustments will be made to support candidates during the recruitment process.