Air Quality Officer WCC620331

Job Details:

Salary range: £41,580 - £45,399 per annum
Work location: Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, Westminster, SW1E 6QP 
Hours per week: 36
Contract type: Temporary up to 18 months
Closing date: 30 March 2025
Interview date: 14 and 15 April 2025

About Us:

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF GRACE

The Environment & Communities Directorate in Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories. Where dedicated people like Grace are using their skills and passion to progress environmental action in the heart of London.

It was at university where Grace first started campaigning for improved recycling facilities, water refill stations, and other eco-friendly initiatives. When she saw the real difference people could make when they came together, she knew she wanted to dedicate her career to community action for the planet.

When she joined us as Principal Engagement Officer, Climate Emergency, she quickly established herself as a passionate advocate for community outreach, engaging various stakeholders across Westminster in the social causes, impacts and solutions to climate change, air pollution, and biodiversity loss. 

Grace became a driving force behind our first Citizens’ Climate Assembly, which took place across two weekends in the summer of 2023. Fifty residents were chosen at random from across our diverse communities to come together, learn about the climate emergency, and deliberate how we overcome the barriers to becoming a net zero city by 2040. The assembly produced several recommendations which have informed the evolution of our Climate Emergency Action Plan. Due to the success of this initiative, we’re holding more assemblies to continue community involvement in local decision-making.

To see the work of the Westminster Citizens’ Climate Assembly, click here. 

The Role:

As an Air Quality Officer you can make your own powerful contribution to the health and wellbeing of Westminster’s communities. This role is an exciting opportunity to make a lasting difference, as over a period of 18-months, you will help us tackle issues of air quality, climate action and ecological emergency.

Specifically, you will take on a community engagement role in which you will encourage schools and communities to connect with the Council’s Schools’ Clean Air Fund. Building relationships with schools, nurseries and community groups, you will raise awareness of this initiative, encouraging them to put forward their proposals on how they would like to improve air quality around them.  You will support their ideas and more, connecting directly with teachers, parents, children and community groups  to encourage them to source and establish the concepts that they think will best serve their local communities, before making technical recommendations on how they can enhance their ideas. 

You will also have the opportunity to work with other community groups and businesses on a variety of projects to support the delivery of the council’s wider Air Quality Action Plan, so there will be immense scope to broaden your skills and knowledge in the sustainability field.

This is a wonderful opportunity to get involved in an immensely satisfying project. We reserve the right to extend or close this vacancy early without warning subject to the volume of suitable applicants, so if you share our passion for the environment, please do apply as soon as possible. 

Please refer to the Job Description for more information. 

About You:

This is a unique opportunity to work with multidisciplinary teams and partners in order to collectively drive forward improvements on issues ranging from air quality to climate, energy, biodiversity and more. Providing you with the perfect opportunity to develop your expertise in sustainability, you will simultaneously make a significant impact on the wellbeing of everyone who lives near Westminster’s schools, so job satisfaction is all but guaranteed!

To be equal to the challenge you will therefore have a strong interest in the air quality, climate change and sustainability, and you will ideally have some knowledge of air quality mitigation and abatement measures. We will expect you to be keen to connect with our community, neighbourhood groups and partners who can help bring ambitious ideas to life, so you will have experience of engaging with different groups and managing stakeholder expectations. 

With the ability to quickly develop a knowledge of the technical interventions that can improve air quality in a built-up environment, you will understand the governance and budgetary requirements of delivering a grant-funding project. Good prioritisation skills will be important, and you will know how to deliver projects from first concept through to successful completion. We would also like you to create materials demonstrating the ongoing success of this initiative, so good IT skills, plus exceptional influencing, verbal and written communication skills will be important. Lastly, you will have the flexibility to occasionally attend weekend or evening engagement events. 

Westminster City Council is committed to supporting Care Leavers into the workplace. Care Leavers seeking their first job and who wish to be considered under our scheme, will automatically be invited to interview should they meet the essential criteria for the role. 

What We Offer:

Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to more than 200,000 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.