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Employer:

Active Travel England

Salary:

£39,428 - £43,159

Contract Type:

Full time

Location:

York, North East

Sector:

Principal Planner

Reference:

PJCOM2273A

Job Sector:

Senior Planner / Senior Planning Officer

Closing Date:

Sunday 19 March 2023

Function:

Town Planning

Sector:

Central Government, Department for Transport

Discipline:

Spatial planning system

Description

Spatial Planning & Development Office Manager, Active Travel England

Closing date: 11:55pm on Sunday 19 March 2023.

Ref: 270345

Salary: £39,428 - £43,159 - a recruitment and retention allowance may also be applicable for exceptional candidates, these are not guaranteed and will be assessed on a case-by-case basis at appointment stage.

Location: York

Job summary

We recognise the challenges that people with (multiple) protected characteristics may experience on the job market and in their career progression. We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups, including ethnic minorities, people with a disability, and people with gender diverse identities. 

Are you highly organised and motivated with a good eye for detail? 

Can you prioritise and manage workloads to ensure business critical work is fulfilled? 

Do you have experience of working in a fast paced administration role or working as a back office support function? 

If so, we would love to hear from you! 

Job description

 There has never been a more exciting time to be working in active travel, and Active Travel England (ATE) is at the forefront of this high-profile agenda. ATE will help deliver the Government’s ambitious vision for half of all journeys in England’s towns and cities to be walked or cycled by 2030. Joining ATE now represents a genuine opportunity to shape transport policy in a time when other wider considerations like transport decarbonisation and improving public health are central government priorities. 

One of the core functions of ATE is going to be its role in the spatial planning system, namely as a statutory consultee for development management via the Town and Country Planning Act (Development Management Procedure) Order 2015. The Office Manager will lead a planning administration team that provides crucial back-office support to the Spatial Planning and Development Division processing upwards of 3000 planning applications a year and overseeing reporting and information management processes. The Planning Administration Team will also be expected to work closely with other critical back-office functions, like the ATE PMO, to align the work of the Spatial Planning and Development Division with the work of the rest of the organisation.

 Leading of team of up to 4 members of staff, the Office Manager will be responsible for establishing and implementing new administration processes that will allow the Spatial Planning and Development Division to receive, log, assess and provide recommendations on planning applications within the statutory deadline. They will also be the Local Information Manager for the Division, keeping a record of all activities and making sure that the team is able to meet any further statutory duties under DPMO or other legislation like the Freedom of Information Act. 

Person specification

• Highly organised a motivated, with a good eye for detail.
• You will have experience of managing the workloads of others, including effective priortisation to manage resource pressures and ensure that the most important tasks are completed.
• Good knowledge of functional administration processes, and confidence with design new processes that align with those principles.
• Knowledge of information management legislation, like GDPR and the Freedom of Information Act, and the appropriate supporting processes needed to fulfil those responsibilities.
• An understanding of development management and ways of working within local authorities is preferable but not essential. 
  
  

Responsibilities

 Key accountabilities of the role include:

• Designing and operationalising new administration processes for receiving, logging, assessing, and issuing recommendations for planning applications
• Oversight of planning & development correspondence, making sure that inboxes are adequately monitored, correspondence is responded to on time and ownership of products like the Planning & Development Lines to Take
• Identifying opportunities for changing and improving administration processes, including identifying potential efficiency or cost savings, and reporting these upwards
• Responsibility for the Business Continuity plans for the Spatial Planning and Development Division, including in how they pertain to operational resilience, and keeping these up to date and reporting them into the centre
• Reporting into the centre on the performance of the Development Management Casework Team, including upwards into ATE senior management and into DfTc
• Direct line management of a new team of 2x HEOs and 2x EOs, including onboarding and pastoral care as new starters adjust to life and start their career in ATE
• For an in-depth insight into the role please refer to the Role Profile.
  
  

 Additional Information

 A minimum of 40% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace, although requirements to attend other locations for official business, or carry out detached duty in another DfT workplace, will also count towards this level of attendance.

As a Disability Confident Leader employer, DfT is committed to ensuring that the recruitment process is fair, accessible and allows all candidates to perform at their best. If a person with a visible or non-visible disability is substantially disadvantaged, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

Complete the "Assistance required” section in the "Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need during the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at an interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

If you need a reasonable adjustment so that you can complete your application, you should contact Government Recruitment Service via [email protected].uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

Security

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative.

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction.

Contact point for applicants

Isabel Gumpert, [email protected]

Recruitment team, [email protected]

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact Government Recruitment Services via email: [email protected]

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission.