Portfolio Advisor

Salary range: £53,109 - £59,220 per annum 
Work location: Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, Westminster, SW1E 6QP
Hours per week: 36
Contract type: 1x permanent and 1x temporary for 12 months. Candidates should indicate a preference for one or both in a covering letter.
Politically Restricted post: Yes
Closing date: 16 June 2024
Interview date: 20 June 2024
Contact details for Informal discussion: Amy Just, Leaders Senior Advisor, via email: AJUST@WESTMINSTER.GOV.UK

About Us:

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM 

Governance and Councillor Liaison at Westminster City Council forms part of the Corporate Services family, which is a world of extraordinary stories. Where people use their vision and commitment to improve services, connect with communities and open doors for the next generations.

The team exists to operate the machinery of the council, turning policy ideas and thinking into implementable decisions, helping councillors be the best they can be and scrutinising performance to make sure we stay on top of our game. Our job is to make it easy for colleagues to deliver the best for our communities. And that has real impact.

Colleagues in our City Lions team help young local people engage with culture, creativity and dreams. When they came across a lonely, isolated 16-year-old who called himself a failure, they knew what to do. They worked 1-2-1 to find the thing this boy really loved. YouTube, it turned out. But it’s impossible to turn that into a career, right? Wrong. A week later, he was enrolled on the British Film Institute film-making programme. It was the ultimate light-bulb moment. And it turned him into what he is today – a budding Spielberg with a world of opportunity at his feet.

That’s just one of our success stories. With your support to facilitate vital decisions at the Council, we’ll tell many more. 

Please view the extraordinary story of the Impossible Dream here. 

The Role:

You’ll be a key member of a skilled and determined team who provide senior councillors and officers with outstanding support and advice. This advice makes things happen, from guiding executive decisions through council processes to developing complex briefing materials for Cabinet Members to engage stakeholders in our priorities.

You will be responsible for managing a number of Cabinet Member portfolios, working with the most senior officers in the council to move our priorities from ideas to implementable decisions.

Through your role advising officers and guiding major decisions through the briefing and governance processes, you’ll work with key contacts in departments right across the Council ensuring that decision reports are drafted and delivered to the highest governance standards and align with the strategic objectives of the council.

Working proactively with colleagues across the council, you’ll make sure Cabinet Members are briefed, draft speeches, and provide input ahead of key meetings and events.  Through active participation in the Cabinet Member’s portfolio, you will support ELT and Cabinet Members to spot and address potential opportunities and risks as early as possible and pursue solutions collaboratively with relevant officers. 

Please refer to the Job Description for more information.

About You:

Highly collaborative and personable, you have a demonstrable ability to build good relationships across an organisation at every level. The ability to influence senior stakeholders and communicate in tactful, diplomatic ways is essential, keeping in mind the issues facing local government.

You will have knowledge and experience of local government decision making, including confidently giving advice to senior officers on how to handle complex matters, and ideally some private office experience too.

You are comfortable working on high profile issues in a fast-paced environment, rapidly getting to grips with large and volumes of complex information and balancing several workstreams simultaneously. You can demonstrate a committed and thorough approach to your work, always taking time to assure yourself and others that the right approach is being followed.

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 over 250,000 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.

Closing date: 16 June 2024
Interview date: 20 June 2024

Click on the 'Apply' button to make your application via our website.

Contact details for Informal discussion: Amy Just, Leaders Senior Advisor, via email: AJUST@WESTMINSTER.GOV.UK