Senior Pathways to Work Programme Officer

Application Deadline: 10 May 2026

Department: Skills and Employment

Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time

Location: Sheffield Head Office

Reporting To: Pathways to Work Participant Journey and Development Manager

Compensation: £42,840 - £46,142 / year

Description

Hours: 37 hours per week

Contract: Permanent

Salary: £42,840 - £46,142

Location: Sheffield (This is a hybrid role with a minimum of 3 days per week in the office)

The Senior Pathways to Work Programme Officer is a key role within SYMCA’s Education, Skills and Employability Directorate, providing senior programme support across Connect to Work and contributing to SYMCA’s system stewardship role within the Work and Health landscape in South Yorkshire. Through close working with DWP and local providers, you will help ensure high‑quality delivery, strong performance, and robust reporting across employment support programmes. This role is central to maintaining confidence, compliance and continuous improvement within Connect to Work and wider employability provision, supporting SYMCA’s ambition to simplify the system and improve outcomes for South Yorkshire residents.

Applications must be accompanied by a cover letter to detail how you meet the criteria as detailed within the role profile. Please note, all applications should be made directly via our careers portal. The successful candidate will be required to undergo and pass a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

About the role

This role provides senior operational and system-focused support to SYMCA’s Pathways to Work programme, with a particular emphasis on oversight of the Department for Work and Pensions Provider Referral and Payment (PRaP) system. You will support effective integration between PRaP, SYMCA’s internal participant management system (Enspirio), and other data sources, ensuring processes are robust, accurate and consistently applied. Working closely with internal colleagues and delivery partners, you will help troubleshoot system and process issues, support performance monitoring, and ensure partners understand and meet their reporting and compliance responsibilities. The role plays an important part in maintaining data integrity, supporting continuous improvement, and enabling the successful delivery of high‑quality employment support across South Yorkshire.

Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Managing and developing SYMCA processes between the DWP PRaP system and internal SYMCA systems, ensuring accuracy, integrity and consistency of data for Connect to Work in South Yorkshire.
• Acting as the principal point of contact for the DWP PRaP team, working with colleagues across the Education, Skills and Employability team to implement process updates, elevate issues and support continuous service improvement.
• Providing detailed operational support to delivery partners and SYMCA staff, including guidance, training and ad‑hoc case reviews.
• Working closely with quality and compliance colleagues to monitor data quality and funding compliance.
• Supporting future process design and system development, working with internal and external colleagues to gather specifications and ensure new or revised processes are deliverable through system solutions.
• Providing expert, knowledge‑based advice on funding rules, technical guidance and industry standards.

About you

You will have experience of working within employment support, public sector programmes or similar large‑scale delivery environments, with a good understanding of participant management systems and the application of funding or technical rules. You will need to be highly organised, methodical and detail‑focused, with the ability to manage competing priorities and maintain accuracy under pressure. You will be confident working with a wide range of stakeholders, from senior colleagues to front‑line delivery staff, and be able to communicate clearly, provide guidance and support, and contribute to training or process improvement activity. You will demonstrate SYMCA’s behaviours by working collaboratively, acting with integrity, showing ambition to improve systems and outcomes, and taking accountability for your work.

Knowledge, experience and skills

• Significant sector knowledge of employment support provision and participant management systems.
• Extensive experience of interpreting funding rules and applying technical guidance for publicly funded programmes.
• Significant experience delivering written and verbal support to a wide range of stakeholders, from senior management to frontline staff.
• Significant experience managing personal and team workloads, working under pressure and prioritising to meet deadlines.
• Understanding of IT systems used in business environments.
• Exceptional attention to detail, particularly in maintaining and resolving data quality issues.
• Extensive experience and understanding of regulations relating to confidential and sensitive information.

Benefits

All colleagues have access to a Local Government Pension Scheme and the chance to be part of an organisation where you can really make a difference. Located in Sheffield City Centre, we are well‑placed for transport links and encourage employees to take advantage of the active travel facilities. Work/life balance is extremely important to us here at SYMCA with our recognised family/friendly policies, genuine work flexibility, recognition, and shared success.

In addition to the above, some of our benefits include:

• Holiday Entitlement – From 28 to 36 days annual leave entitlement (depending on length of service) plus bank holidays. Pro‑rata for part time colleagues.
• Annual Leave Purchase Scheme – The ability to purchase up to a further 15 days per year in addition to your normal annual leave.
• Hybrid working – Our offices are a space where we come together and collaborate. Most roles in SYMCA are offered on a hybrid basis with the exception of some support roles being onsite full time.
• Flexible Hours Scheme – Most roles within SYMCA work under the Flexi‑Scheme which allows office‑based employees’ flexibility and discretion over their working hours.
• Rewarding You – Reducing everyday expenses through discounts, benefits, financial advice, wellbeing solutions and more with Reward Gateway and Cycle‑to‑Work schemes.
• Training on the job – Support with upskilling skills through on‑the‑job training and qualifications.
• Professional Membership Fees – Where membership to Professional bodies is applicable to your role, SYMCA will reimburse your membership fees where applicable and following approval by Line Management.

Diversity at South Yorkshire Combined Mayoral Authority

Our workforce is made up of a diverse community, where we all belong and feel part of something bigger. We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio‑economic background, religion and/or belief. All employees are eligible to request Flexible Working arrangements from day one of employment as such all requests will be considered subject to operational requirements. Where candidates share disabilities within the application process, if they demonstrate that they meet all essential criteria from the Role Profile within their application, they will automatically be invited to interview. If you require any reasonable adjustments throughout the process, please contact recruitment@southyorkshire-ca.gov.uk or include within your application form detailing the adjustment and how it will assist in managing any barriers.