Community Planning Project Officer

Job Description

The Improvement Service (IS) is a publicly funded company limited by guarantee. We exist to support councils and their partners to improve the health, quality of life and opportunities of all Scottish people through community leadership, strong local governance and the delivery of high quality, efficient local services. 

Working for the IS means joining a small family of professionals, who work together to strive for continuous improvement in the public sector and ultimately, better outcomes for Scotland’s communities. 

Our company headquarters are based in West Lothian, located conveniently for commuters between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Pay is only one of the benefits of working for the IS, our terms and conditions are progressive and flexible, and employees are rewarded with a generous annual leave entitlement of forty-one days per year as well as a flexible working policy. 

The IS is committed to promoting equality and diversity in all its activities to promote inclusive processes, practices and culture.

The IS is a Disability Confidence Committed Employer.  We are committed to interviewing anyone with a disability who meets the essential criteria.

An exciting opportunity has arisen with the Improvement Service in the role of Community Planning Project Officer.

Community Planning aims to improve how local government and other public authorities work together to improve local outcomes in an area. Community Planning Partnerships (‘CPPs’) exist in every local authority to identify priorities and to share resources to deliver services for people.

The new Community Planning Project Officer will be in place to support councils and their partners to share knowledge, skills and experience to spread best practice in community planning across Scotland. A primary forum for this will be through the Scottish Community Planning Network, for which the Project Officer will be the secretariat.

The Community Planning Project Officer will be part of the IS’s established Recovery and Delivery Programme, and will work collaboratively both internally, and with Scottish Government and Local Authorities in support of the Community Planning across Scotland.

The Community Planning Project Officer will be responsible for our work with the Scottish Community Planning Network, supporting its use as a forum to develop and embed a shared vision for partnership working. Through the facilitation of the Network, the Project Officer will help to explore ways of strengthening relationships so that increased collaborative working across the community planning partners can be put into practice, and will provide opportunities for mutual support, capacity building, and information exchange to share and embed best practice in community planning in Scotland.

Outside the work of the Network, the Community Planning Project Officer will have responsibility for collating and analysing the Local Outcome Improvement Plans and Locality Plans published by CPPs to find exemplar practice that can be highlighted and shared. To ensure that Community Planning Managers are abreast of all future policy that may impact on their work, the Project Officer will undertake horizon scanning, collating, and sharing the results to raise awareness.

The Community Planning Project Officer will also need to work collaboratively with other Programmes in Improvement Service to drive forward joint delivery of action across disciplines and sectors, understanding how Community Planning is affected by and can impact other policy areas.

Requirements

Location: West Lothian Council Civic Centre, Howden South Road, Livingston, West Lothian, EH54 6FF.

Occasional travel across Scotland.

It is anticipated that the role will involve a blended model of office and home working. This flexible approach will be agreed between employee and line manager.

Duration: Fixed term contract to 31^st March 2025, possibility of extension. Grant funding information – Scottish Government Public Service Reform Directorate. 

Hours: Standard working week is 36 hours Monday to Friday. Hours can be worked flexibly in agreement with the Line Manager.

Closing date: 18th April 2024

Interview information: A competence based interview will take place in the weeks commencing 22^nd and 29^th April 2024 (shortlisted candidates will be advised by email in advance of the interview). 

For more information about competency-based interviews, see our 'Guide to Competency-based Interviews'. You may also find it useful to read our current Business Plan 2024-25