Contract Monitoring Officer in St Helens

We Are St Helens Borough Council. Located in the heart of the Northwest close to Liverpool, Manchester and Lancashire, St Helens is a transformational Council which is passionate and ambitious for the communities we support. We provide a wide range of local authority services to the residents, businesses, schools, and visitors to the borough. We can only do this because of our highly valued, highly skilled workforce.

Working together, our workplace vision and values guide our organisation, and the contribution of our workforce is key to our culture journey. Employees with us receive a wide range of benefits including well-being in work, financial benefits, ways of working and learning and development support.

Join our developing Public Health Contract Monitoring Team. St Helens Council is continuing to strengthen its approach to monitoring commissioned Public Health services, and we are looking for a Contract Monitoring Officer to join the team at an exciting stage of its development. You will help us to ensure commissioned services are delivering what residents need, achieving agreed outcomes and providing the best value for money. Working across a varied portfolio of Public Health services, you will build relationships with providers, understand performance and help turn monitoring information into meaningful improvement.

Please note that all successful candidates will need to be available for an in-person interview at St Helens Town Hall on Thursday 15th October.

Making a Difference

Whatever stage of your career, working in the public sector puts you at the heart of communities. Our workforce provides services to our residents day in and day out, making a positive impact on people's lives. We could not do this without the dedication, professionalism and strength of our workforce. There are so many reasons to choose to work at St Helens Council including the fantastic range of employee benefits and rewards on offer.

As a St Helens Council employee, you'll be enrolled in the Merseyside Pension Fund Pension Scheme.

About the role

As a Contract Monitoring Officer, you will take day-to-day responsibility for an allocated portfolio of commissioned Public Health services. Working closely with the Senior Contract Monitoring Officer, Public Health colleagues and service providers, you will coordinate the full monitoring cycle and help provide assurance that services are meeting contractual requirements, delivering agreed outcomes and responding to the needs of St Helens residents.

What you'll be doing

Your work will include:

• Coordinating and chairing regular contract monitoring meetings with providers
• Reviewing provider returns, performance data and narrative information
• Identifying achievements, trends, risks, underperformance and areas for improvement
• Drafting quarterly and annual contract monitoring reports
• Agreeing and following up actions with providers
• Maintaining forward monitoring schedules, records and evidence using SharePoint and Teams
• Supporting provider visits and other quality assurance activity
• Contributing monitoring intelligence to service reviews, commissioning decisions and contract development

What we're looking for

We are looking for someone who is organised, analytical and confident working with a range of people. You will need to manage competing priorities, pay close attention to detail, make sense of both numerical and written information, produce clear reports and be comfortable having constructive conversations about performance. You do not need to have previously worked as a Contract Monitoring Officer. Relevant experience may come from contract monitoring, commissioning, performance management, quality assurance, Public Health, service delivery or another role involving the monitoring of services or programmes. Strong transferable skills, sound judgement and the ability to follow work through to completion are particularly important. Knowledge of Public Health and of the health needs, inequalities, communities and partnership landscape of St Helens would be an advantage.

This is a hybrid role, with a combination of office-based working, home working and attendance at provider sites and meetings as required. Employees can regularly work away from Council workspaces, including from home or other locations, alongside required office-based working. The balance between remote and office-based working will be determined at service level based on operational need, with staff expected to work from an office-based location for a minimum of two days per week.

We reserve the right to close the advert early, with sufficient applications. St Helens Council is officially recognised as one of the region's leading fair employers, achieving accredited status under the Liverpool City Combined Authority Fair Employment Charter. The Charter recognises the ongoing commitment to fair pay, secure work, training & progression & staff well-being whilst celebrating employers who go above and beyond for their workforce providing an inclusive and supportive environment.

Equality & Diversity

We encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds, who share our values, our commitment to inclusion, and who will help us on our journey to transform our organisation. The Council guarantees an interview to disabled applicants who demonstrate that they meet the essential criteria for the job, as detailed on the Person Specification, and will, for qualifying disabled candidates, make reasonable adjustments within selection. All Council employees are required to abide by the ethical standards embodied by the 7 Nolan Principles.