Assistant Project Officer

About the Borough

The London Borough of Sutton is situated less than 30 minutes by train from Central London, with direct connections to London Victoria and London Bridge. Found in zone 5 with good transport links in and out of London, Sutton boasts award winning parks and open spaces, low crime rates, affordable housing and great schools. As well as high levels of resident engagement and satisfaction, providing quality services and success in addressing our financial challenges, whilst involving residents in key issues and high street changes.

Sutton is continuously investing in the health, wellbeing and education of our residents and the future generation, as set out in the “Ambitious for Sutton” corporate plan. We are home to the Royal Marsden Hospital and the Institute of Cancer Research. Together with the development of the London Cancer Hub, Sutton will be the world’s leading life-science district, specialising in cancer research and treatment. Our vision will create around 13,000 jobs while contributing £1.2bn to the UK economy each year, a vibrant community of scientists, doctors and innovative companies intended to deliver real benefits for cancer patients and drive economic growth. With the regeneration of the local areas with new homes and schools, Sutton is passionate about working closely with our residents and vulnerable groups to help them maintain their independence and create a balance between support and independent living.

The Council is seen as a driving force within the South London Partnership of five outer south west London boroughs focused on strategic growth, regeneration and investment. As we strive to improve our services and spaces for our residents as set out in the ‘Ambitious for Sutton’ corporate plan, Sutton aims to shape the future of the borough and adapt to the needs of its residents to make our Borough a great place to live, work and raise a family.

About the Service and Team

Come and work for an exceptional team - delivering exceptional homes

We have a vacancy within our busy Regeneration, Enabling and Development teams for an Assistant Project Officer. Do you want to play your part in delivering on the government's 1.5m homes challenge? LB Sutton is delivering PassivHaus and award winning council homes, at scale and in a tough operating environment. We like to ‘grow’ staff and help them achieve their fullest potential and are seeking an Assistant Project Officer to assist in the delivery of regeneration and development schemes. We are looking for someone with a passion for housing, ability to learn and deliver results. This role will come with a comprehensive training and career development package, though is about meaningful impact and results. LB Sutton works in a hybrid/agile way though we expect 2-3 days a week in the office.

About the Role and Our Ideal Candidate

The Assistant Project Officer (Regeneration, Enabling and Development) plays a key role in ensuring the Council is able to deliver its social and affordable housing ambitions and responsibilities now and into the future.

• Assist in the identification, assessment & prioritisation of regeneration, enabling and development opportunities (i.e. involving relocation of existing residents) that meet the council’s strategic and housing ambitions. Progress opportunities to the project initiation stage
• Assisting inresponsibility for ensuring that housing regeneration programmes and projects are feasible, deliverable, affordable and to the right quality, mix and standards (including financial options appraisals) to meet the council’s strategic and housing ambitions and CDM requirements. Assist with the development of individual business cases and project approvals.
• Assisting with responsibility for ensuring that housing regeneration, enabling and development programmes and projects are delivered to the agreed specification and budget, with variations accounted for with appropriate approvals in place. Responsibility for ensuring that the best delivery solution is established and ready to deliver for each programme and project working collaboratively with all parties and team members to achieve the best outcomes for Sutton and its communities.
• For housing regeneration, enabling and development schemes, help to ensure, at a programme and project level, that the ‘lived-in’ experience and operational and financial reality of new homes and communities is:
  • safe with Construction Design and Management (CDM) principles embedded;
  • consistent with the programme and project aims;
  • affordable for residents and the council;
  • accords with council and strategic aspirations.
• For the overall housing new build programme assist on the identification and management of risks affecting the Council so that:
  • business risks being recognised, planned for and avoided, managed or escalated as appropriate
  • systems and governance being in place to ensure this happens as a matter of course
  • the ability to respond promptly and effectively to critical events including business continuity plans being up to date and fit for purpose.

Experience

• Some experience of working in relevant roles in housing, planning or asset management, or transferable skills from other areas
• Management of projects and contracts with consultants or suppliers
• A track record of delivery against targets and of achieving continuous service improvement
• Be politically and tactically astute with an understanding of how to influence key stakeholders
• Being open to challenge and committed to continuous learning and development for self and others.

Knowledge and Skills

• A practical understanding of the challenges facing local government
• Able to influence and communicate effectively with a wide range of people using a variety of different methods and styles.
• Able to interpret legislation and policy and to translate this into clear, accessible information for residents.
• Able to create systems and use data to drive improvement or support delivery of targets
• Able to interpret information to support the development of new policy or to inform the specification of services
• Able to adapt and respond positively to a variety of situations and people in order to meet changing priorities in the role, the Council and the community as a whole.
• Able to identify what needs to be done and to develop an appropriate plan of action in order to accomplish an objective and to monitor progress against it
• Be highly organised, excellent at time management, and manage competing priorities

Our Offer to You

As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across however big or small; will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.

Employees have access to a wide range of benefits to enable staff to achieve a work life balance, some of which include:

• A generous annual leave entitlement of 26-31 days plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply) depending on service and grade
• Enhanced Maternity, paternity, shared parental, adoption and dependents leave
• Two volunteering days per year
• Flexible Working - Smarter Working Scheme (dependent on the role)
• Adjustable and agile working arrangements using Google Chromebooks
• Learning and development portal offering a range of courses
• Discounts on a range of local shops, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
• Zip car scheme
• Confidential health & wellbeing and counselling support

Application Process

Apply online outlining what skills, abilities and experience you can bring which makes you an ideal candidate for this role. Please refer to the requirements outlined in the job profile when completing your application and check your CV details have been uploaded correctly in the relevant sections.

We understand and recognise the benefits of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the workplace and are embracing AI where appropriate, to boost our productivity and streamline how we deliver our Council services efficiently; to provide the best possible outcomes for our residents and communities.
However, we reserve the right to reject applications where it is apparent that AI-generated content has been used in isolation and without personalised responses. At Sutton we value authenticity and are looking for individuals who can clearly demonstrate their own skills, experience and motivation for the role that they are applying for and embrace and demonstrate our PRIDE values.
Here at Sutton we have core values of Transparency and this is to be demonstrated during the application process and completion of the supporting statement and will be further tested at interview and selection stage for those who progress forward.

The closing date is given as a guide. We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received, it is strongly advised that you complete and submit your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

As part of our award winning Diversity Programme we anonymise all applications received to reduce conscious and unconscious bias enabling every application to be reviewed on the knowledge, skills and experience shown in your application. We encourage our interview panels to be as diverse as possible (age, cultural, neurodiverse etc.) to reduce bias where possible. We are fully committed to removing barriers and enhancing the diversity of our workforce.

Additional Information

We are proud to be a diverse and welcoming Borough and we strive to create a workforce which reflects the community we serve, and instil a sense of belonging in our staff. We celebrate and respect differences and appreciate the value of having a diverse workforce, therefore we welcome applications from under represented groups.

To support our workers and their families we offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums and inclusive staff networks who help drive our diversity agenda.

We are also proud to be a disability confident employer and guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum essential criteria for a role. As an accredited London Living Wage Employer all our employees are guaranteed the London Living Wage regardless of their length or type of contract.

The UK has a points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance. Sponsorship availability varies and is subject to eligibility requirements and budget limitations. As a result, we cannot guarantee sponsorship for all roles and will evaluate sponsorship requests on a case-by-case basis.