Welfare Project Manager – AR

Carrington Blake Recruitment; London; On-site; GBP 100,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a skilled Project Manager to lead a transformative review of its Financial Support Team. This role involves assessing current service offerings and developing a new integrated service model aimed at enhancing support for residents facing financial hardship. The successful candidate will collaborate across teams, engage with stakeholders, and deliver comprehensive documentation and proposals for service improvements. If you are a proactive problem-solver with a strong background in project management and a commitment to equity in public services, this opportunity is perfect for you.

Qualifications

• Significant experience in Project Management with a focus on delivering outputs on time.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to engage with stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead a project to review the Council’s Financial Support Team's functions.
• Establish a collaborative design for a new integrated service model.

Skills

Project Management

Planning Project Activities

Process Redesign

Stakeholder Engagement

Written and Verbal Communication

Business Case Development

Understanding of Local Authority Issues

Commitment to Equal Opportunities

Job description

Background

The Benefit Service requires support to undertake a review into the Council’s approach to Tackling Inequality. This review will assess the current functions undertaken by the Council’s Financial Support Team and consider the options for delivering an improved Service.

Key functions of the post

Reporting to the Benefits Manager, lead a 3-month project across the two teams to:

1. Establish a strong mutual understanding of each other’s objectives, work, outputs, and outcomes
2. Establish a new approach to working together to ensure that residents, officers and members are clear about the respective service offer
3. Establish joint reporting on both teams’ outputs and outcomes
4. Inform a collaborative design of a new integrated service model to support residents experiencing financial hardship

This will involve:

1. Review of inflows/outflows
2. What is the current service offering
3. Operational capacity
4. Staff development requirements
5. Areas of failure demand
6. Review of outcome tracking
7. Could data be used to improve efficiency/effectiveness of service

Expected outputs

It is expected that, during the duration of the contract, the post holder will deliver:

1. A comprehensive review document, covering all aspects highlighted earlier in this document.
2. Provide the Officers with a point of contact to input into the review and highlight opportunities for improvements.
3. A draft project plan to support Service improvements.
4. Proposals for a new integrated team, including draft JDs & growth bid, if required.

Key skills and experience

• Significant experience of Project Management, delivering agreed outputs and benefits on time and in budget
• Experience of planning project activities, estimating resource needs and monitoring progress against a plan
• A track record of delivering at pace in a complex organisation
• Experience of redesigning processes and services to deliver better value at lower cost
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including presentation skills, and an ability to engage effectively with a range of stakeholders, both within and outside the council. Experience of producing business cases, project briefs and other project documentation.
• Experience of working effectively with a wide range of multi-disciplinary teams, senior managers, and partner organisations.
• A good understanding of the issues Councils currently faces and the landscape across local authority / Corporate services, and the particular governance and accountability requirements
• Knowledge and understanding of equity issues in relation to providing public services.
• Commitment to promoting and implementing the Council’s Equal Opportunities policies and anti-discriminatory practice.
• Adopts a can-do attitude by identifying problems/issues and finding solutions