Contract Monitoring Officer - fixed-term for 12 months

Cambridgeshire County Council; Huntingdon; On-site; GBP 28,000 - 38,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive wellbeing package

Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual/s-

Flexible bank holidays

Additional AVCs to pension with tax/NI

Development opportunities and coaching

Paid volunteering hours

IDEAL peer support groups and equality

Employee Recognition Awards

Our Cambs Rewards discounts, car lease

Job summary

Cambridgeshire County Council is recruiting a Contract Monitoring Officer on a temporary 12-month contract based at New Shire Hall, Huntingdon. You will monitor contracted passenger transport services, oversee safeguarding and provider performance, and drive service improvements to meet children, young people and vulnerable adults' needs.

You will work across operational teams, commissioning and transport providers, leading responses where standards are not met and supporting data-driven

Qualifications

• Experience of contract management, monitoring and procurement activity.
• Strong investigative, analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Experience of managing performance issues and driving improvements.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Confidence in challenging poor performance constructively.
• Experience of preparing reports and analysing data to support decisions.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong organisational skills and attention to detail.
• A commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and adults.

Responsibilities

• Monitor performance across contracted services and investigate concerns.
• Carry out audits, reviews and safeguard-related investigations.
• Lead improvements where contractual requirements are not met.
• Work with providers to implement improvement plans and interventions.
• Support safeguarding activity with internal teams and external partners.
• Contribute to data quality, reporting and evidence-based decision making.
• Support future commissioning opportunities through analysis and market engagement.

Skills

Contract management

Contract monitoring

Supplier relationship management

Procurement/commissioning activity

Analytical skills

Communication skills

Problem solving

Organisational skills

Safeguarding commitment

Job description

The following content displays a map of the jobs location - New Shire Hall, Alconbury Weald, Huntingdon

Contract Monitoring Officer - fixed-term for 12 months

Job Reference Ref/234/9617

Number of Positions:

2

Contract Type:

Temporary

Salary Range:

Working Hours:

37

Location:

New Shire Hall, Alconbury Weald, Huntingdon

Closing Date:

20/11/2026

Job Category:

Social Care - Children

Organisation:

Cambridgeshire County Council

We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage…

• A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family
• Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro-rata) through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances
• Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings
• Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth
• Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day
• Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network
• Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards
• An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in-store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes

Take a look at our Employment Benefits Brochure attached to this advert to find out more.

About the role

Are you passionate about improving service quality, safeguarding vulnerable passengers and holding providers to account?

Cambridgeshire County Council is seeking a highly motivated Contract Monitoring Officers to join our Passenger Transport Service. This is an exciting opportunity to play a key role in strengthening contract compliance, safeguarding oversight, provider performance and market development across Home to School Transport, SEND Transport and Adult Social Care Transport services.

This role has been created to support a significant programme of service improvement and transformation. Working across operational teams, commissioning colleagues and transport providers, you will help ensure that services are safe, reliable, value for money and capable of meeting the needs of the children, young people and vulnerable adults who rely upon them every day.

Interviews will be held on the 10 and 11 December at New Shire Hall, PE28 4YE. You will be required to deliver a short presentation as part of the selection interview process. The subject of the presentation will be included in emails sent to shortlisted candidates.

Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of an Enhanced DBS check. The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

What will you be doing?

As Contract Monitoring Officer, you will work directly with transport providers to monitor performance, investigate concerns and support continuous improvement across our contracted services.

You will be responsible for monitoring contract compliance, carrying out audits and reviews, investigating incidents, complaints and safeguarding concerns, and ensuring operators meet the standards expected by the Council.

A key element of the role will be leading responses where contractual requirements have not been met. You will work with operators to implement improvement plans, manage performance concerns and support appropriate contractual interventions where necessary.

The successful candidate will also play an important role in safeguarding activity across the service. You will investigate safeguarding concerns involving transport providers, drivers and passenger assistants, working closely with internal safeguarding teams, schools, partner agencies and licensing authorities to ensure concerns are appropriately managed and resolved.

In addition, the role will support the Passenger Transport Service's wider transformation programme. You will help improve the quality, accuracy and consistency of service data, monitoring information and management reporting, ensuring that operational and performance data is used effectively to drive improvements and support evidence-based decision making.

Working alongside the Commissioning Manager, you will also contribute to the development of future commissioning opportunities by identifying service improvement initiatives, analysing provider performance, supporting market engagement activities and providing intelligence to inform procurement exercises, contract renewals and service redesign projects.

For more information, please see the attached Job Description/Person Specification.

About you

We are looking for an individual who can demonstrate:

• Experience of contract management, contract monitoring, supplier relationship management, procurement or commissioning activity.
• Strong investigative, analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Experience of managing performance issues and driving service improvements.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Confidence in challenging poor performance constructively and professionally.
• Experience of preparing reports and analysing data to support decision making.
• The ability to manage multiple priorities within a fast-paced operational environment.
• Strong organisational skills and attention to detail.
• A commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children andadults.

It would be advantageous if you have:

• Experience within passenger transport, local government or a regulated environment.
• Knowledge of SEND, Home to School Transport or Adult Social Care Transport services.
• Knowledge of transport licensing and regulatory requirements.
• Understanding of public sector commissioning, procurement and contract management processes.

This role offers the opportunity to make a genuine difference to the lives of Cambridgeshire residents whilst contributing to a major programme of service improvement.

You will work at the centre of contract assurance, safeguarding, provider engagement and service development, helping to strengthen existing services while supporting future commissioning and transformation activities.

About us

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.

Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered. We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.

Cambridgeshire County Council 1.49K subscribers

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Through a Guaranteed Interview Scheme, we will offer an interview to all applicants who disclose a disability and meet the essential criteria for a job vacancy. On your application form you can indicate you are disabled. Some examples of reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.