Head of Place Shaping WCC618990

Job Details:

Salary range: £74,688 - £103,830 per annum.
Work location: Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, Westminster, SW1E 6QP
Hours per week: 36 
Contract type: Permanent 
Closing date: 15 November 2024
Interview date: Week commencing 09 December 2024
Contact details for Informal discussion: Richard Gibson, Director of Culture and Place Shaping, via email: ooconnor@westminster.gov.uk

About Us:

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF SERENA’S VISION 

Regeneration, Economy and Planning in Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories. Where innovative and open-minded people bring everything to the cause. Even expertise from surprising places. 

Take Serena. She is an absolute force of nature at the heart of our Church Street regeneration. And she puts the residents first in everything. Serena’s vision is clear. Regeneration isn’t just about bricks and concrete. It’s about communities. It’s about the environment. It’s about the lives of people and how they feel about where they call home. Serena is their advocate, making sure residents’ voices aren’t just heard, but drive the changes we’re making. The future is safe in her hands. 

Please view the extraordinary story of Serena’s Vision here.

The Role:

As Head of Place Shaping, you can make your own powerful contribution as you work collaboratively with members, residents, services, partners and stakeholders to drive positive place-based change to deliver maximum benefits for our communities. Leading a service dedicated to creating and delivering high quality places throughout Westminster, you’ll adopt a strategic place-based approach to develop and deliver positive outcomes for residents, businesses and visitors to the city, maximising the potential of public assets in areas facing growth, challenge or change.

Putting engagement at the heart of Place Shaping programmes, you will maximise opportunities for residents to shape the creation of vibrant and inclusive spaces in their neighbourhoods, and foster relationships with community groups and stakeholder organisations. 

Integrating public art and culture into the public realm will be at the heart of what you do, championing the link between culture and place to animate spaces, improve access and participation, celebrate the heritage of our communities and attract investment. 

Providing strategic leadership for the creation of management plans across delivered projects, you’ll collaborate with colleagues and partners to ensure effective management, maintenance and animation plans are in place to protect up-front investment and ensure intended outcomes are secured.

You’ll have a wide range of additional responsibilities – these include empowering your own team to build upon global best practice, and fostering an innovative and creative approach to your work. We’ll also expect you to represent the Council’s position on the built environment and place, and ensure clear plans, governance, budget and performance management are in place for the effective development and delivery of services, programmes and projects.

Please refer to the Job Description for more information.

About You:

With a degree in Architecture, Urban Design, Landscape Architecture, Urban Planning or a similar discipline, or relevant knowledge and experience, you’ll have worked in a complex organisation and will have led and delivered significant place-based programmes of change. Capable of developing and delivering projects in the built environment and leading the development and execution of multi-disciplinary programmes and projects, you’ll have the skills to establish and build productive working relationships with a wide range of senior colleagues and stakeholders.

We’ll expect you to have a track record of managing large budgets, business planning, quality and performance management, and an understanding of the role of local government in advancing place-based programmes of change. An innovative thinker with experience of delivering cross-cutting outcomes through high quality and creative place-based programmes of change, you’ll also have the ability to manage political and cultural issues to ultimately deliver successful projects and programmes.

Capable of translating strategic objectives into operational plans and using your interpersonal skills to inspire, motivate, coach and develop team members to high levels of performance, you’ll be a motivating and inspirational communicator. You should also possess a strong commitment to equality and diversity, both as a leader and a deliverer of high quality services.

The Council is committed to achieving diverse shortlists to support our desire to increase the number of staff from underrepresented groups in our workforce. We especially encourage applications from a global majority background and, while the role is open to all applicants,  we will utilise the positive action provisions of the Equality Act 2010 to appoint a candidate from a global majority background where there is a choice between two candidates of equal merit. If you are from a Global Majority background you can self-declare this to the hiring manager as part of our positive action commitments.

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.