Project Manager (Children's Services)

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About the role

Are you a dedicated project manager who is passionate about supporting service improvement and innovative change within Children's Services?

How we deliver transformation support to our services is changing, and we have an exciting opportunity to recruit a Project Manager to support design and deliver projects within the Children's Directorate. You will report to the Programme Manager for this service, and will be accountable for the delivery of a variety of key projects to support transformative change across the service area.

You need a background in Project Management and will be well versed in associated methodologies, processes and documentation. It would be advantageous to have experience in Education and SEND services projects.

Above all, we are keen to attract people who, with solid experience of improvement methodologies and a proven track record of applying them, embrace the values and behaviours of North Northamptonshire Council to support services to innovate and implement improvements which positively impact our service users.

What will you be doing?

You will be supporting the Children's Services Directorate to deliver projects working alongside the Programme Manager, Change & Engagement Manager within our team, as well as Service Leads and key partners across the County.

Defining, developing and delivering large scale projects. You will be part of an in-house project management change capability, providing organisational learning, capability, resilience and value for money.

You will be accountable for the planning, coordination, facilitation and monitoring of change and improvement projects; and for developing capacity and capability to embed service improvement tools and techniques supporting the continuous modernisation and redesign of services.

Taking responsibility for the day to day running and delivery of the projects, resulting in new ways of working and identified business benefits being realised. Planning and the development of training programmes where applicable; and the building of collaborative relationships in which to challenge, influence and empower managers and staff to enable them to produce more effective, innovative and high quality service delivery and partnerships.

Engagement with all stakeholders both internal and external, developing and maintaining effective strategic links; influence, challenge and empower staff to change and improve their services. Managing business analyst resource during delivery of a project where applicable, and working across various locations in North Northamptonshire where required.

Coordinating, leading and taking accountability for the delivery of workstreams; applying project management methodologies, tools and techniques to deliver rapid, demonstrable and sustainable improvements.

Please see the attached job description and person specification for full details of main job accountabilities and essential qualifications, knowledge, skills and experience needed for this role.

About you

Qualifications

• Graduate level or equivalent professional qualification or relevant proven experience.
• Advanced knowledge of business process/business improvement/project management acquired through degree or equivalent management experience.
• PMO3, MSP, PRINCE2 or equivalent programme/project management qualification or equivalent by significant experience.

Minimum levels of knowledge, skills and experience required for this job:

• The ability to create project management products utilising a range of software and tools
• Experience and knowledge of ICT capabilities to meet business needs.
• Knowledge and experience of project/change management concepts and methodologies and when to appropriately utilise them.
• Awareness of the National and Local Government agenda, current issues and challenges.

Skills

• Ability to successfully manage significant change and improvements in working practices.
• Able to manage stakeholder relationships within complex projects and collaborate constructively with internal and external partners to create conditions for successful partnership working. Ability to manage and resolve conflict.
• Ability to enable others to develop vision and translate that into realistic plans.
• Strong group facilitation skills and excellent organisational and time management skills, ability to plan and deliver objectives within an agreed timeframe.
• Ability to build rapport and credibility with senior managers, members and Corporate Directors.
• Excellent written and verbal communication and presentation skills along with interpersonal skills to gain the respect of multi-professional teams, enthuse and motivate individuals and teams.
• Evidence of management and delivery of defined business benefits.
• Experience of working in a dynamic and complex environment, handling multiple projects, developments including risk and issue management.

Experience

• Political sensitivity and a demonstrable ability to recognise, influence and manage the communications consequences of sensitive issues.
• Experience of budget management including responsibility for financial planning.
• Experience of successfully leading, managing, coaching and developing diverse project teams in delivering demonstrable and sustainable transformation and service change & improvements.

If you have any questions and would like an informal chat about the role please feel free to contact Helen Baines (helen.baines@northnorthants.gov.uk)

Our benefits

Here at North Northamptonshire Council, we're transforming for the better, using all our creativity and imagination to create the best life for our local people.

You'll find that we have a wide range of careers that may be more surprising than you think!

Why choose us?

We offer a vibrant working environment with:

• a competitive salary
• a pension scheme, where we pay a significant contribution on top of your contribution. It provides life cover and ill-health protection.
• lots of opportunities to develop your skills, knowledge and potential in a large unitary council
• generous leave entitlement (28 days, rising to 33 days) and bank holidays, plus the option to buy up to an extra 10 days
• hybrid and flexible working arrangements, where practicable for service needs to help you with a healthy work-life balance.

We provide a range of great benefits such as an Employee Assistance Programme, an Employee Benefits Scheme, wellbeing support, travel rates at HMRC rates, as well as supporting a range of active Employee Network Groups.

About us

Our Values and Behaviours

Our values define who we are and how we operate, by forming the foundation for how we interact with our customers, colleagues and provide our services. They are also at the forefront of our decision making and delivery and are:

Customer-focused
Respectful
Efficient
Supportive
Trustworthy

Our Key Commitments

Our key commitments help ensure that the priorities we make, now and in the future, maintain the necessary breadth of focus in those areas that we believe matter most.

We are proud to be a recognised Disability Confident Employer and is committed to providing an inclusive recruitment process and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role.

North Northamptonshire Council re-signed the Armed Forces Covenant in June 2024 which highlights the Council's pledge to support the Armed Forces community. The council obtained the silver status award for the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) and we are now currently working towards achieving Gold status.

We aim to be a carbon neutral Council by 2030.

Further information can be found at Jobs and careers | North Northamptonshire Council (northnorthants.gov.uk)