Principal Policy Officer WCC621350

Job Details:

Salary range: £54,684 - £60,795 per annum
Work location: Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, Westminster, SW1E 6QP
Hours per week: 36
Contract type: 2x Permanent (1x Housing, 1x Licencing)
Politically Restricted post: Yes 
Closing date: 30 June 2025
Interview date: Week commencing 7 July 2025 

About Us:

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF DAPHNE’S INSIGHT

Corporate Services in Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories, where passionate and expert professionals go above and beyond for their colleagues every day.

Daphne, our champion for people with learning difficulties, is a real beacon. She doesn’t just advocate for colleagues with these difficulties, she teaches managers how to identify and understand the conditions and support their teams at work. Daphne has an innate ability to see the human behind every situation, helping them capitalise on strengths and overcome challenges to be their very best. With her empathy and expertise, she’s a natural. But then, a lifetime of managing her own dyslexia and dyspraxia brings with it unique insight. Our people – and ultimately residents – benefit every day.

Please view the extraordinary story of Daphne’s Insight here.

The Role:

As a Principal Policy Officer you can make your own powerful contribution to Westminster’s success. You will be working either in the licensing team on a range of policies including busking, street trading and gambling on the licensing side, or in the housing policy team on topics such as homelessness, affordable housing and the private rented sector. It will be your task to provide information and advice to officers across the council, members and the Executive Management Team.

Leading the development and testing of special projects and pilots, you’ll develop new service models based on robust business cases including partnerships, commissioned services, and community-led ideas. We’ll also expect you to liaise, communicate and influence within the council, across partners, agencies and with the wider local and central government community to champion the council’s approach to improving services.

But your work won’t stop here – you’ll help communities support themselves more independently, and contribute to cross-departmental and multi-disciplinary working for enriched outputs and activities. We’ll also expect you to manage project teams, encouraging excellent performance by setting high standards, developing your colleagues’ capabilities and supporting them to be productive and accountable for their decisions.

Please refer to the Job Description and the Additional Information Document for more information.

About You:

With proven experience of multi-disciplinary policy or strategy development within a political environment, you’ll have the skills to influence, provide advice and build excellent working relationships with senior managers, Council Members, communities, partner organisations, private sector providers, public agencies and statutory authorities. We’ll expect you to have worked in a multi-disciplinary organisation with similar scope, complexity and resources to ours, and understand the consequences of the policies and decisions you’ll make.

Committed to the principles of equity, diversity and inclusion, it’s important that you have hands-on experience of working on government relations and lobbying campaigns, and of developing research strategies and delivering clear outcomes. A reliable and effective point of reference on complex issues relating to one or more of the business areas that affect the work we do, you should also be ready to develop strategies which ensure the council adheres to legal and local government requirements.

Educated to degree level in a relevant discipline, holding a professional qualification directly related to the post, or with equivalent practical knowledge and experience, you’ll have strong intellectual abilities and be able to produce evidence of continued professional, managerial and personal development. A confident communicator with the interpersonal skills necessary to coach and mentor junior members of the team, we’ll also expect you to self-manage your workload, set timescales and achieve your goals by target dates.

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.

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 (GM), people who are Black, Asian, Brown, dual-heritage, indigenous to the global south, and or have been racialised as 'ethnic minorities' (formally known as B.A.M.E , Black, Asian and multiple ethnic) 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.

We reserve the right to extend or close this vacancy early without warning subject to the volume of suitable applicants.

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.