Relationship Officer - Parks WCC620448

Job Details:

Salary range: £41,580 - £45,399 per annum
Work location: Victoria Embankment Gardens, London, WC2N 6DU
Hours per week: 36
Contract type: Permanent
Vetting requirements: Standard DBS Check
Closing date: 20 April 2025

About Us:

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF GRACE’S PASSION AND DEDICATION

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 a Relationship Officer in the Climate Resilience, Parks and Green Spaces team, you can make your own powerful contribution by providing our local residents, workers and visitors with access to impressively-maintained parks and green spaces. We know the physical and emotional wellbeing of our local communities is intrinsically linked to being able to enjoy these spaces, and as such, you will find plenty of job satisfaction in this interesting opportunity. 

Specifically, you will take responsibility for working with our Grounds Maintenance Contractor and Relationship Manager to manage the parks and planting displays in the south of the borough up to Oxford Street, including high-profile locations such as Leicester Square, Victoria Embankment Gardens, Soho Square, Hanover Square and our three cemeteries. With the chance to get involved in planning and implementing further greening initiatives that will enhance local habitats and biodiversity, you will initiate, develop and manage creative capital projects that will encourage repeat visits to the district. You will also support the Westminster Events department in successfully delivering activities that are taking place in our parks and gardens (such as London Pride and film premieres in Leicester Square) and you will use your knowledge of horticultural practices and techniques to offer technical advice, draw up planting plans, create specifications for landscape delivery and manage the resulting contracts.  

With plenty of scope for career development in this multi-layered role, we will provide you with training in any areas that you feel need developing. From project management and community development through to consultation and engagement methodologies and techniques, we will be happy to enhance your learning. There will also be the unique chance to train as a Green Flag judge so that you can carry out assessments of other green spaces too. Furthermore, you will have the chance to support our extended teams in communication and engagement plans, so every day will present you with new learning opportunities and projects to get involved in – so there really is no saying where this role will take you. 

Please refer to the Job Description for more information.

About You:

This is an exciting opportunity to join an ambitious, friendly and highly inclusive team who are pioneering the most innovative projects, programmes and approaches to street greening and environmental sustainability. To make the most of the role, you will therefore be a team-player with great communication skills, and you will be keen to share your most creative ideas that will further enhance our world-famous parks and planting displays. Comfortable managing disputes relating to contracts, you will ensure we are receiving value for money and high-quality services, so you will have a background in supporting the delivery of similar parks, open spaces, greening and cemetery contracts. 

From a practical point of view, you will have a good knowledge of horticultural practices and techniques, and you will have experience of designing planting and greening schemes – if you have horticultural or garden design qualifications to back this up, that would be nice but isn’t essential. What’s more important is that you have a good awareness of environmental sustainability and biodiversity, and that you are an organised individual who can manage your own workload. You will either have experience of using CAD drawing and GIS mapping software, or you will be willing to learn this once you have joined us.

You will also have the flexibility to occasionally attend evening and weekend community 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.

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.