Engagement Lead
We are seeking an Engagement Lead to join us as a key member of the Refugee, Resettlement, and Migration service.
This role will oversee a small and dynamic team who work across the county and engage with a wide range of partners to deliver all aspects of resettlement, ensuring that each family receives tailored support to enable integration. This is an opportunity to use your knowledge and experience in refugee resettlement and to work with professional partners and volunteer groups to provide coordinated statutory support that will ensure safety and wellbeing, and the best chance of integration for refugees arriving in West Sussex.
About the role
Salary: £44,075 to £47,181 per annum.
Location: Your office base will be County Hall, Chichester, with hybrid working options
Working pattern: Full-time, 37 hours per week.
Interviews: 11th June
Please note that you’ll need to be able to travel independently to various locations around the county. You’ll also need to be able to work outside of office hours occasionally to meet the needs of the service.
In this role, you will build upon existing local partnerships and networks, encouraging and facilitating involvement of WSCC departments to gain an understanding of places at a District and Borough level. You will connect community & voluntary sector organisations to others sharing common goals and objectives, ensure arriving refugees are safe, secure and healthy. Your work will include taking a strategic approach to ensuring refugees have access to all statutory rights afforded to UK Citizens.
You will focus on delivery that gives families the best chance for integration into society that will lead to a better life. You will bring skills and experience of coordinating and working with statutory services working in and with communities, and you will understand and seek to overcome the barriers to integration.
Drawing on your experience, you will manage a small number of colleagues across the directorate on appropriate support for tactical delivery, providing project management, and underpinning local approaches with the principles of ‘what works.’ At all times you will have appropriate impact measures in place to further the collective understanding about what works and to demonstrate effectiveness.
Key Skills
- Ability to research, analyse and interpret varied and complex information to make effective and robust judgements on service proposals and articulate these recommendations in form of detailed reports and proposals, which have long term implications and need to be managed to statutory timescales and professional standards.
- Excellent communication, including verbal, written and presentation skills, with the ability to influence the actions of others and communicate information which may be complex and contentious. Including the ability to undertake facilitation of issues in group settings.
- Ability to write sound and robust guidance documents and relevant processes, which are both viable and practicable and meet legislative and business needs, including working with colleagues and partners to agree policy details and gain appropriate approvals.
- Ability to anticipate problems, plan solutions and make sound pragmatic problem-solving solutions which will have significant impact for a service or the organisation, particularly in relation to resources and customer engagement.
- Ability to think creatively, innovatively and laterally and to adapt to changing situations in a measured and flexible manner, adjusting the advice and guidance provided to suit any change in circumstance, whether legislative, structural, partnership related, etc.
- Ability to organise/prioritise work, co-ordinate a variety of tasks in a clear and logical way, and meet agreed deadlines which minimise the disruption to the business.
Qualifications and/or experience:
- Educated to degree level, or equivalent extensive experience of partnership working.
- Knowledge of organisational and procedural community RRMS / engagement fields, plus detailed knowledge of the organisational and national policies, practices and procedures associated with its service.
- Detailed knowledge of communities, partners and stakeholders to effectively establish and maintain community links and represent the Communities Directorate on appropriate committees/meetings.
- Experience of working proactively in a multi-agency environment, including with the volunteer sectors, local authority or other community organisations.
- Experience of participating in the development of strategic plans.
- Experience of working in partnership to develop strategies and deliver services relating to RRMS issues.
- Experience of initiating and sustaining collaborative projects with various agencies in the voluntary, statutory and private sectors.
- Sound experience supervising/line managing and supporting others, including providing mentoring, coaching and on-the-job training to colleagues to maximise their specific capabilities.
- Experience of budget monitoring and ensuring budgets are managed effectively.
For a full detailed list of the skills and qualifications required for this position please refer to the attached Job Description.
Rewards and Benefits
- From flexible working (where possible) to access to our Employee Assistance Programme, we are committed to providing a healthy work life balance.
- A laptop and mobile will be supplied if applicable to your role. You will benefit from a generous amount of annual leave, plus the opportunity to buy additional leave, an excellent local government pension scheme as well as a range of discounts giving our staff access to hundreds of offers.
- For more information about the wide variety of benefits you can take advantage of please visit our Rewards and Benefits page.
Further Information
The reference number for this role is ( CPP01342)
Applicants are strongly advised to arrange an informal conversation for further information regarding the role; please contact Ben Siou (Business Support and Planning Manager) at [email protected]
For an informal conversation regarding the application process, please contact Rachael Doolan (Recruitment Specialist) at [email protected]
How to Apply
Click apply below, upload your CV and cover letter. Your cover letter should:
- Outline your motivations for applying.
- Explain the skills and experience you can bring to the role (please refer to the key skills in the attached job description).
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.
Please ensure you have saved 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 right to work within the UK, enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, satisfactory references, 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.
