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This special place in South West London between the capital and the country has been a Royal borough longer than anywhere else - it is where the first kings of England were crowned.

Today it is a vibrant and diverse borough, with a long history and strong cultural and community heritage. Kingston's riverside location, fantastic retail offer, historic market place and church, parks and gardens all make Kingston town centre the vibrant space it is, and each of our district town centres (Surbiton, New Malden, Tolworth and Chessington) have something unique to offer.

Situated in Zone 6, Kingston is among the best-connected town centres in London – with direct train links from Kingston and Surbiton stations to Clapham Junction and London Waterloo, as well as Wimbledon for an interchange with the London Underground and Tramlink.

Kingston’s people are innovative and entrepreneurial, and have a strong sense of community pride. The borough has been home to great industry and creativity for many years, reflected in assets such as the Rose Theatre, the International Youth Arts Festival and Kingston University, which boasts more new graduate business start-ups than any other.

We have seen tremendous generosity and compassion within our communities, particularly in response to COVID-19, which is a demonstration of Kingston’s key strength. The council offers a strong level of support to vulnerable groups and those who need additional support, which has also increased significantly as a result of the pandemic. Like most places, the average age of our population is rising as more people are living longer, so we are working closely with residents to help them maintain their independence and further improve the cost effectiveness of our service to meet the ongoing rise in demand.

Kingston is home to people from diverse and interesting cultures and backgrounds, which helps to create the rich sense of community shared across the borough. In particular, Kingston has a large Sri Lankan Tamil community and is home to more people from Korea than any other part of the UK.

Our Transformation Programme has great support from our senior leadership team and the team already has numerous Programme Managers in place. We are looking for another innovative and creative leader to join the team to deliver a fundamental programme of work. So if you are proactive and passionate about delivering better outcomes for Kingston residents then we would love to hear from you!

In this role you will:

• 
  Define and deliver the Council’s Corporate Transformation Programme
• Work collaboratively with services across the organisation, including Heads of service, SRO’s and business partners to deliver at pace
• Line manage a small Project delivery team and matrix management of other staff connected to the programme including senior stakeholder management
• Be responsible for the Programme reporting at several different governance forums
• Work closely with the SRO to define and deliver the Programme vision, ensuring links are made with other Programmes across the organisation to ensure synergies and avoid duplication of effort
• Work closely with other Programme Managers and Directors to ensure synergies and dependencies are identified and management - avoiding duplication of effort
• Provide strategic management capacity working as part of the Transformation Management Team

This role will sit within the Corporate Change and Improvement team, which is the engine room responsible for driving the Change & Transformation Programme across the organisation. Kingston has developed a very ambitious transformation agenda, which includes a number of large strategic programmes that will transform the way services are delivered, empowering staff and improving outcomes for residents.

Recently as a service, we have developed a Project/ Programme Management framework that has been launched to the organisation that outlines a consistent approach to Project/ Programme delivery. A comprehensive suite of PPM tools and documentation supports this framework and will ensure the benefits and outcomes of the corporate Transformation Programme will be achieved to time, cost and quality standards.

We are committed to delivering excellent public services to our residents and local businesses, which is why we place the customer, and their needs, at the heart of what we do in all our service areas. As the council looks to implement a significant customer transformation programme, we are looking to recruit someone that can not only support and develop our services but who will be excited to define and deliver a new delivery model for customer services across the council that provides the best possible customer experience to our residents.

As a team we are dynamic, innovative and supportive. We like to test and pilot new innovative ways of working and digital tools to help support project and programme delivery. The team has a dynamic skill set and we work together to support and learn from each other. If you enjoy working in a fast paced environment and working with multiple stakeholders then this is a very exciting time to join the team

To be successful in this role you will:

• Have a track record of managing complex change projects and programmes in a public sector setting
• Need to have strong leadership skills and be able to manage effective relationships across the organisation in a complex stakeholder environment
• Be able to demonstrate strong stakeholder engagement and management skills, at all levels of the organisation
• Have a collaborative approach to delivering change
• Have a strong coaching and mentoring mentality to help the Programme team to thrive whilst enabling and upskilling others

As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across however big or small; will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.

In addition we offer a modern and flexible working environment for our staff supported by our IT infrastructure, Google Chromebooks and Google Apps, which have acted as a key enabler for collaborative and streamlined working. The COVID-19 pandemic has required us to be even more flexible in how we work and manage staff workloads, ensuring they have the correct equipment and resources to be able to maximise their talents and looking after their wellbeing.

Employees have access to a wide range of benefits, some of which include:

• Generous annual leave entitlement plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply)
• Three volunteering days per year
• Flexible and agile working arrangements
• Comprehensive learning and development programme
• Discounts on a range of local shops, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
• Zip car scheme
• Free eye tests and contribution towards glasses
• Confidential wellbeing and counselling support
• Subsidised gym membership

We pride ourselves on being a diverse, tolerant and welcoming Borough and we aim to create a workforce which reflects the community we serve. We are respectful of difference and realise the positive value of diversity in our workforce. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds and particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and disabled candidates as these groups are currently under-represented in our workforce.

We are proud to be recognised as a Disability Confident employer, and are committed to thinking differently about disability and taking action to improve how we recruit, retain and develop disabled people. We guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum/essential criteria for the role.

We offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums, and inclusive staff networks who help drive our diversity agenda.

We are an accredited London Living Wage Employer and this means that everyone working at the Royal Borough of Kingston, regardless of whether they are permanent employees or third-party contractors and suppliers receive the London Living Wage. The real Living Wage is higher than the government’s minimum, or National Living Wage, and is an independently calculated hourly rate of pay that is based on the actual cost of living.

The UK has introduced a new points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance.