Culture & Diversity Lead PO6-PO7

Culture & Diversity Lead 

(fixed term for 18 months)

(PO6-PO7) (£45,834-£51,837)

Waltham Forest is an ambitious Borough. Driven by the culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed innovative ways to build our communities and transform our Council.  We are looking for a skilled and experienced Culture & Diversity Lead to join our People’s Programme team to help deliver great public services that are not only highly effective but also easily accessible.

We are a Council bursting with energy and opportunity. Our strong grasp of our finances means that we can invest - in our residents, our place and our people.

We have recently launched our ambitious People Strategy 2021-2025 and are working closely with our staff to help shape the delivery and bring to life our values.

We need to make sure that everything we are doing today supports that vision, and helps our residents and staff succeed in an increasingly uncertain world.

As Cultural and Diversity Lead we are looking for an inspiring and persuasive individual who is passionate about diversity and can lead change and inspire our staff, managers, and leaders to embrace diversity and build it into everything they do. The role will be wide ranging working across the whole council and directorates. It will aspire to bring about enduring change within the council to deliver our ambition to become a pioneering leader on diversity, inclusion, and equality.

Key skills and experience for the successful candidate are: 

• Passionate advocate for the borough and across the council.
• The ability to respond to the unpredictable volumes of work, with a positive attitude and a willingness to learn new ways to accomplish work activities and objectives
• Track record of success of delivering and embedding culture change in organisations, working collaboratively with senior leaders to challenge and influence ways of working.
• Enthusiastic, energetic, and committed to ensuring equality and diversity as set out by the council.
• Naturally authentic when addressing sensitive diversity issues.
• Proven experience of promoting, developing, and delivering innovative interventions that support understanding of inclusion issues, provides practical tools and is accessible to diverse audiences.
• Proven experience of building effective change networks, both internally and externally to deliver sustainable culture change across organisations. Credible change agent, able to create and sustain momentum to ensure achievement of strategic goals.
• Demonstrates organisational leadership, with ability to challenge leadership and hold leaders to account.
• Excellent communication skills to engage the council community in the diversity agenda and celebrate successes and motivate employees to embrace and celebrate diversity at all levels of the organisation.
• Strong skills of persuasion with ability to land key messages and move diversity to a business-as-usual activity
• Pragmatic project management experience with a track record of getting things done.
• Facilitation and Process analysis skills
• Public speaking skills, possessing an ability to deliver innovative, engaging, and motivating presentations on diversity.
• Able to deal with ambiguity and make positive use of the opportunities it presents and respond positively to complexity and uncertainty.

We offer candidates the opportunity to enjoy rewarding work with a benefits package that includes 28 - 31 days holiday allowance, flexible working arrangements and access to the Local Government Pension Scheme.

For an informal chat or any further information, please contact: Eva.phillips@walthamforest.gov.uk