About Us: THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF GRACE’S PASSION AND DEDICATION The Environment & Communities Directorate in Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories. Where dedicated people like Grace are using their skills and passion to progress environmental action in the heart of London. It was at university where Grace first started campaigning for improved recycling facilities, water refill stations, and other eco-friendly initiatives. When she saw the real difference people could make when they came together, she knew she wanted to dedicate her career to community action for the planet. When she joined us as Principal Engagement Officer, Climate Emergency, she quickly established herself as a passionate advocate for community outreach, engaging various stakeholders across Westminster in the social causes, impacts and solutions to climate change, air pollution, and biodiversity loss. Grace became a driving force behind our first Citizens’ Climate Assembly, which took place across two weekends in the summer of 2023. Fifty residents were chosen at random from across our diverse communities to come together, learn about the climate emergency, and deliberate how we overcome the barriers to becoming a net zero city by 2040. The assembly produced several recommendations which have informed the evolution of our Climate Emergency Action Plan. Due to the success of this initiative, we’re holding more assemblies to continue community involvement in local decision-making. To see the work of the Westminster Citizens’ Climate Assembly, click here. The Role: As a Programme Assurance Manager you can make your own powerful contribution to Westminster’s success. The vision of the Environment, Climate and Public Protection directorate is to help make ours the best city in the world, and the high performing Highways Team you’ll join feeds into this vision by delivering projects and programmes that are vital to the maintenance and enhancement the Council’s reputation. You’ll focus on finance performance management and the delivery of the annual public realm programme, and support project delivery staff on a scheme- by-scheme basis. Maintaining, updating and ensuring the accuracy of key project and programme information including risks and issues, emerging dependencies, the preparation of exception reports and action logs for key projects and programmes, you’ll also support the preparation of budgets and resource plans. The production of detailed project reports will be another key task, work that will include monitoring expenditure against budgets, changes and variations, and ensuring that key decisions on changes to delivery and expenditure are recorded. Your additional responsibilities will include assisting with the coordination of planning, the development and delivery of revenue and capital maintenance programmes, and escalation of any project-related issues. We’ll also expect you to help manage funding streams, assist with the monitoring of the contract schedule of rates and indexation, and develop positive relationships with a diverse range of internal and external stakeholders. Please refer to the Job Description for more information. About You: With plenty of experience in the delivery of projects and programmes, and the preparation of relevant performance reports, you’ll have a strong customer focus and the ability to monitor budgets. It’s important that you have a working knowledge of public sector processes, and in addition to a practical understanding of specialist IT applications such as data bases and financial systems, we’ll look for some project management experience (although this is not essential). You should be a natural problem solver with the communication and interpersonal skills necessary to quickly establish strong working relationships with your colleagues and other stakeholders. Your ability to analyse financial information will allow you to understand business contexts and extract key facts to deliver concise management information, while your strong focus on results will see you delivering value that leads directly to the achievement of business results. Committed to collaborative teamwork and continuous improvement, you’ll understand the importance of aligning customer needs with the strategy and implementation of our organisation’s needs. In addition, some knowledge of procurement legislation and supplier and contract management would be desirable. The Council is committed to achieving diverse shortlists to support our desire to increase the number of staff from underrepresented groups in our workforce. We especially encourage applications from a global majority background and, while the role is open to all applicants, we will utilise the positive action provisions of the Equality Act 2010 to appoint a candidate from a global majority background where there is a choice between two candidates of equal merit. If you are from a Global Majority background, you can self-declare this to the hiring manager as part of our positive action commitments. What We Offer: Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to more than 200,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster. Westminster City Council’s strategy is to work towards a Fairer Westminster. A Fairer Westminster is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city’s future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe. At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is the Westminster Way. To find out more about how we do this visit https://www.westminster.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/public-health-strategy-policies-and-reports/equality-duties As a forward-thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working. The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application, we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible.