Connect Westminster Project Officer

About Us:

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF ANAKHA’S FRESH THINKING

Creativity isn’t something that only senior managers do. In Digital and Innovation at Westminster City Council, we expect it from everyone, including our newest recruits.

Enter Anakha, a graduate trainee, full of energy and fresh ideas. We welcomed her input to our ‘Smart City’ initiatives, especially our Innovation Hub – a newly created space where staff, residents and businesses can meet, experiment and exchange ideas. But it was what happened next that really made a difference. Anakha’s innovation space project was used to invite young people to help them find work through the 'Kickstart' programme as well as to recruit young people to our 'Tech Lions' initiative and is regularly occupied by the Apprentice Community.

We are also inviting residents aged 11-19 from the Westminster Youth Council to the Hub to attend a fun ‘speed dating’ event, where they hear from different digital teams. We will continue to meet with them every week to keep them directly involved in our plans to ensure young people have a regular voice at the heart of the council. From the importance of electric vehicle charging points to new uses for tech, their insights about the kind of city they want to live in are central to our plans.

As for Anakha, she’s now moved into a permanent Project Manager role in the Digital and Innovation Smart City team. Supported by ongoing mentoring from colleagues, she’s already developing even bigger and better ideas.

The Role:

As a Project Support Officer you can make your own powerful contribution when you support our European funded Connect Westminster project, which aims to connect SMEs to superfast broadband services. The project will enable businesses to become connected to super or ultrafast broadband, and deliver enormously positive economic, social and environmental impacts. Working with businesses, local authorities and a range of other agencies, it’ll be your task to prepare progress reports, claims for funding and provide general administrative support.

Supporting the Programme Manager in the development and maintenance of project monitoring systems for progress against forecast outputs will be another key responsibility, as will the preparation of reports and communication material, and website updates. You’ll also help to service the Project Steering Groups, work that will include recording actions, booking venues and managing sign-in sheets, and organising other practical elements of their meetings.

In addition to these tasks, you’ll maintain the Programme Manager’s electronic and paper-based filing systems, and provide any other ad hoc support that may be required. The Connect project launched in August 2017, and as we reach the final six months of delivery, you’ll play a key role in ensuring that the project is completed on time and achieves the expected output targets.

Please refer to the Job Description for more information.

About You:

With a Level 2 apprenticeship or its equivalent, and experience of working in an administrative role as part of a busy project team in a multi-agency partnership context, you’ll have the ability to collect information from numerous sources and collate it in an structured way. You’ll be interacting with a wide range of people from diverse backgrounds, so you’ll have superb communication skills, and an excellent command of written and spoken English.

We’d prefer you to have some experience of working in partnership with major organisations and agencies across sectors, and in addition to well-developed organisational skills, you’ll be a confident user of the Microsoft Office suite of software, with a particular emphasis on Word, Excel and PowerPoint. You’ll be working with budgetary information relating to the project, so we’ll also look for good numeracy and financial skills.

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.