Community and Social Infrastructure Lead

Salary range: £50,700 - £53,793 p.a. inc. 
Contract: Permanent  
Hours of work: 36 hours per week
Location: Civic centre and other locations from time to time

 

 

Brent is a tremendously vibrant London borough where the iconic arch of Wembley Stadium dominates the skyline. Spanning both inner and outer London, it is a borough of huge contrasts in terms of its economic, environmental, ethnic and social make up. Brent’s diversity is evident to all who visit our borough and our long history of ethnic and cultural diversity has created a place that is truly unique and valued by those who live and work here.

 

The council is pursuing a far-reaching transformation agenda that better meets the needs of our community so it is an exciting time to join us.

 

Brent Council leads the way in working with residents, businesses and stakeholders.  We have built a reputation for working with communities in meaningful ways that strengthen and encourage communities to play an active part in shaping the borough.

 

The council has bought forward ambitious and ground breaking strategies including the Black Community Action Plan, The Poverty Commission and The Climate Emergency Ecological and Biodiversity Strategy.  Our plans and strategies are designed with our residents so that they co-design the future with us.  We are working on our new Borough Plan for the next four years which means our community engagement approach will be widespread, innovative and accessible and we are increasing participation in our grant programmes.  Our plans and strategies are enhanced by our ability to support communities with grant funding that allows local delivery led by local people.
 

The Post

This is an exciting opportunity for someone with strong participatory grant making experience and strategy development experience to lead our teams, shape our work programmes and get the best possible outcomes from our grant investments.  We spend more than £3m in Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy each year and have smaller local grant streams that rely on good community involvement.  Our grants help us to deliver our strategies and strengthen trust and participation.  The postholder will lead a team of four people to manage, monitor and administer our grant programmes effectively and bring on new ways of working that support our residents. 

We are bringing forward a new Community Engagement Framework that will set the standard of engagement across the council.  Already in place is a new consultation platform that has room for greater dialogue with our residents, and we need to build its usage even more.  We have increased the size of our teams and are looking for an experienced leader who can work across strategy and delivery and maintain important internal, external and political relationships to deliver a good service to our residents.

The Person

We are seeking a passionate individual who is committed to delivering the best outcomes for our residents with a thorough understanding of successfully engaging with local communities through grant funding and raising the profile of local projects we fund.  

You will be an effective stakeholder manager, with excellent persuasion and influencing skills to develop positive and constructive relationships with stakeholder groups including residents, businesses, the community and voluntary sector and internal colleagues.

You will be an excellent communicator, able to work closely with elected members and to lead workshops where you will give advice and guidance to community organisations. Your strategic thinking and analytical skills will enable you to draw on insights, trend data and research to develop and implement better systems and approaches to our grant management and ensure that our way of delivering grants reduces barriers that some residents face.

You will work closely with our corporate communications team to ensure internal and external communications amplify the outcomes we are delivering for our communities.   You will have experience of leading teams or programmes that require lots of face to face interaction and experience of working with diverse groups.

Closing date: 2 October 2022 (23:00)

Additional Information 

Brent Council values the diversity of its community and aims to have a workforce that reflects this and therefore encourage applications from all sections of the community. We positively encourage all applicants to self-identify their characteristics in the diversity survey section in the application.

We are committed to safer recruitment and safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Applicants should be aware that posts working with children, young people and vulnerable adults are subject to an Enhanced DBS check as well as other employment clearances.

 

Brent has a positive approach to flexible working.

 

As a disability confident employer Brent welcomes applications from people with all disabilities, including hidden disabilities and mental health conditions. We will interview any disabled applicant who meets the essential criteria. If you require reasonable adjustments to be made to any part of the recruitment process due to your disability, please contact us on  recruitment@brent.gov.uk