Career Grade Planning Officer

About Us:

At Hammersmith & Fulham, we are ambitious in reforming the council to ensure this is a place for everybody. Within the Economy department, we aim to be efficient in everything that we do. We believe our residents deserve a place that is safe, clean and green, with high quality services they can rely on.

Are you a highly motivated and experienced S106/CIL officer or a recent graduate looking to start their planning career? Are you looking for a new, different and interesting challenge working for a highly motivated team addressing the infrastructure challenges of a thriving London Borough?

The role is a unique opportunity to be at the forefront of the growth agenda within the Council. As part of the Spatial Planning team, you will work closely with colleagues across the planning service and with services across the Council.

We are seeking a highly motivated and enthusiastic S106/CIL officer to join our growing and forward thinking team. You will help to manage and monitor progress on delivery of over £150m in planning contributions. This role also offers you the opportunity to take forward initiatives around the development and governance of the policy framework for development contributions and to support its implementation following adoption.

Our mission is to be the best council. To do this we need the best people to help build our vision. If you’re looking to develop your career in a fast-paced, professional environment whilst making a difference, then we look forward to hearing from you.

Please refer to the Role Profile for more information.

Role Responsibilities:

Through the application of competent infrastructure delivery skills, make a significant contribution to the regeneration of the borough by ensuring that development is supported by necessary infrastructure through the innovative and practical use of S106 planning obligations, CIL and other funding mechanisms

You will need to:

To be responsible for delivering infrastructure and other spatial planning projects within the Development Plan to meet your own performance management and quality targets and, supervisory responsibility for specified officers in the team.

To be responsible for ensuring that your projects keep within budget, potential variances are flagged in the correct way and other sources of income are correctly calculated and processed for your caseload.

Promote customer satisfaction when delivering services.

Develop the full range of professional skills and knowledge to satisfy the requirements of the post.

To be responsible for drafting and delivering infrastructure strategies, governance, processes and guidance as required, the complexity of which will rise with progression through the career grade from simple to more complex projects.

People Values

How we act defines who we are.  At the heart of our organisation is a common approach to defining ‘who we are’.  We are looking for people who can build this into everything they do.

 We are fair

We treat everyone with compassion, dignity and fairness. We value the views and opinion of others, and promote benefits and opportunities for all.

We are caring

We care about our borough and doing things well. We focus on standards and continuous improvement; learning from our mistakes and celebrating success.

We are collaborators

We work together for a better society. We work with our residents, businesses, schools, third sector and others for better outcomes for everyone.

We are driven

We will only settle for the very best. We seek to continually improve and put our residents, customers and businesses at the heart of everything we do.

Recruiting for Attitude

Your skills and ability are important however, we recruit as much for attitude as we do experience. We are looking for people who have the following attributes:

Complex problem-solving

The ability to work within a complex system and find simple solutions and outcomes that deliver real change.

Critical thinking

The ability to challenge the norms through evidence-based approaches using both numerical and critical reasoning and thinking. You can rationalise decision-making and form views quickly and soundly from a range of sources.

Creativity

You take approaches that demonstrate how doing things differently and creatively changes the dynamic in situations. You can apply creative solutions that deliver hard outcomes.

People management

You can get the best out of people. You have a coaching-style and drive through a commitment to personal and professional development. You are clear in your expectations and have exceptional feedback from your team about their working environment. You recognise and support people as individuals.

Coordinating with others

You have the knack of working well with others. You have an appreciation of your own presence and approach and can demonstrate how you have developed and continue to develop how you work with others. You can also recognise how others work, think, and feel to get the most out of collaboration.

Emotional intelligence

You have a high degree of self-awareness and self-regulation in a wide range of situations from one-to-one conversations to team and group dynamics. You can recognise motivating factors and demonstrate empathy appropriately applying a wide range of adaptive social skills.

Judgement and decision making

You can take rational and evidence-based decisions and take responsibility for your decisions and actions. Where there is ambiguity or a lack of evidence you can demonstrate the ability to understand the environment and show flexibility in applying your judgement.

Negotiation

You can demonstrate an understanding of the range of skills and techniques required to successfully negotiate with a range of other partners. This includes understanding how to structure and undertake successful negotiation on an organisational-wide level.

Service orientation

You must be unequivocal in your commitment and drive for outstanding service delivery. Both in terms of the quality of products and work delivered as well as the achievement of objectives. You and your team can demonstrate how your overall contribution to the organisation and service delivers to our organisational aims and objectives.

Cognitive flexibility

The ability to recognise the environment in which you work and adapt and shift to this environment to maximise your own personal achievement and lead others in the same approach. Applying cognitive flexibility to situations of significant change and transformation.

Hammersmith & Fulham Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults. We expect all employees, workers and volunteers to share this commitment. We will ensure that all our recruitment and selection practices reflect this commitment.

Corporate Equalities Employment Policy: In order to combat discrimination, no unnecessary conditions or requirements will be applied which could have a disproportionately adverse effect on any one group. All sections of the population will have equal access to jobs. No applicant or employee will receive less favourable treatment because of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage or civil partnership and pregnancy or maternity, unless a Genuine Occupational Qualification (GOQ) applies.

We are a Disability Confident Employer – committed to ensuring that our recruitment and selection process is inclusive and accessible.

Contact details for an informal discussion: Rebecca Yee, Infrastructure Delivery Team Leader via email at REBECCA.YEE@LBHF.GOV.UK