Business Support & Planning Manager

West Sussex County Council; Chichester; Hybrid; GBP 59,000 - 64,000; Full time

Job summary

A local government authority is seeking an experienced Delivery Manager to lead the Refugee Resettlement and Migration Service. You will oversee teams, ensure excellent customer service, and drive initiatives to support refugees. The role requires strategic thinking, project management skills, and an ability to manage change effectively. A generous salary package and benefits are included. The position is hybrid, based in Chichester or Crawley.

Benefits

Excellent local government pension scheme

Generous holiday entitlement

Flexible working options

Training and development opportunities

Qualifications

• Experienced delivery manager capable of managing multiple teams.
• Proven record of setting up new initiatives and project managing.
• Adept at strategic planning and influencing stakeholder decisions.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team through periods of change and implement new workstreams.
• Provide high-quality line management and mentorship.
• Drive service improvement and support delivery of wrap-around assistance.

Skills

Delivery management

Cross-directorate collaboration

Strategic thinking

Process improvement

Job description

About the Team

The Refugee, Resettlement and Migration Service (RRMS) provides the leadership, management and operational delivery of the County Councils contribution to established global refugee, resettlement and asylum programmes funded by the UK Government. Playing a lead role and facilitating involvement from partners across West Sussex, this activity includes supporting individuals and families from specific cohorts (e.g. Afghans, Ukrainians), wider schemes (e.g. UK Resettlement) on a temporary/transitional basis and over multiple years.

You will lead the team through periods of change as the newly established Refugee Resettlement and Migration Service embeds within the Communities Directorate, pivoting to deliver new and emerging workstreams to meet needs as required, developing or redesigning processes that align with current government guidance and implementing ways of working, including digital approaches, that deliver required outcomes.

This team works closely with a wide range of County Council colleagues across several disciplines and in conjunction with statutory partners and community-based organisations to deliver wrap‑around support and provision.

The Opportunity

Salary: £59,991- £63,411per annum

Working Pattern: Full time, 37 hours per week

Contract type: Permanent

Location: County Hall, Chichester or Centenary House, Crawley and working from home (Hybrid)

Shortlisting date: week commencing 12th January 2026

Interview date: week commencing 19th January 2026

Playing a lead role and facilitating involvement from partners across West Sussex, this activity includes supporting individuals and families from specific cohorts (e.g. Afghans, Ukrainians), wider schemes (e.g. UK Resettlement) on a temporary/transitional basis and over multiple years. This is in addition to requirements for fast‑paced crisis response, including at Gatwick Airport, providing urgent humanitarian assistance and protection.

This role will enhance operational leadership capacity within RRMS by taking on a number of Team Manager direct reports who, in conjunction with partners, are leading their teams to deliver wrap‑around support provision for individuals and families as well as focusing on the continuous service improvement function for associated back‑office functions operating at scale countywide.

Providing high quality line management with a supportive coaching/mentoring approach to workforce development you will be people‑focused in your approach, whilst embedding a rigorous approach to service improvement heightening resilience whilst bringing efficiencies to allow for growth in workflow and to maximise the delivery of key objectives.

What are we looking for?

• Experienced delivery Manager, able to deliver a variety of deliverables for our customers covering a wide variety of subject areas.
• Confident in managing a number of teams, directly or indirectly, ensuring that customer excellence is applied, maximum streamlined processes are followed and ultimately delivering a great customer service.
• Experienced setting up new initiatives from the beginning, identifying resource requirements, forecasting demand levels, developing processes and project managing from implementation to go live, and monitoring success throughout the project.
• Someone who loves to plan, thinking ahead to what customer demand may be and planning how best to respond.
• Demonstrate a keen appetite for improving how we do things and a proven history of taking an organisation with you and leading a service to make that happen.
• You’ll be able to employ fantastic cross‑directorate collaboration and organisational skills influencing and supporting others to contribute and deliver improvements in the service.
• Highly skilled in prioritizing many very fast‑paced tasks, bringing diverse working groups together to make decisions quickly and identifying the area’s most in need of your attention.
• Brilliant strategic thinker and able to influence services, senior leaders and make reasoned augments for why we need to do the things we do based upon sound evidence whilst meeting residents ever‑changing needs and expectations driving through opportunities.

For more information on the Key Skills as well as the Qualifications and/or experience required, please refer to the Job Description attached.

Working for us

As well as adding real value to our service users and our communities, as an employer we recognise our employees are central in being able to achieve this. To recognise this we want to help support your development and provide a great place to work ensuring you can fulfil your full potential, have access to a range of benefits including:

• an excellent local government pension scheme
• generous holiday entitlement of (plus opportunity to buy additional leave)
• a range of flexible working options,
• maternity, paternity, dependency and adoption leave
• volunteering opportunities
• training and development opportunities, including coaching and mentoring
• health and wellbeing benefits

For a full list this can be found at our Rewards and Benefits page.

Further Information

The reference number for this role is CPP01260.

For issues or queries regarding your application please contact .

Internal candidates wishing to apply for this role will be considered for a secondment position. Please can you therefore discuss and agree this with your manager before applying for this position.

To apply

Please follow the links below to upload your CV and Cover Letter. In your cover letter please outline your motivations for applying and explaining the skills and experience you can bring to the role (please refer to the key skills) ensuring that any gaps in employment are covered in your CV.

Please save the job description attached to the main advert on our website as, once the job has closed, you may not have the opportunity to download again.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. This post is subject to a DBS check, 3 years referencing and a health check.

Equity, inclusion and accessibility is very important to West Sussex County Council. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, as this helps us build a diverse and talented workforce, that reflects the communities we serve. We ensure our approach to recruitment is flexible and supportive to enable all applicants to be at their best and to ensure they have the best possible chance of success.

We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that have a disability, are a veteran or are a care leaver. More information can be found on our application help page.