Senior Project and Policy Officer

​Working for City Hall makes a difference to the lives of Londoners. Our staff are at the centre of long-term planning and development for our great city.
 

This is an exciting time to join the GLA’s Housing and Land directorate to deliver programmes and services for specific groups of Londoners facing multiple barriers to accessing housing and support.

We are recruiting for three posts – one permanent post supporting capital delivery of specialist and supported housing and two 12-month fixed term posts working on rough sleeping programmes focusing on women homelessness or migrant homelessness.  

Please note, we will be operating a merit list for candidates from this campaign who are deemed appointable. The merit list candidates may be used to fill any upcoming grade 9 roles in the team, for the next twelve months.

Housing and Land

The Housing and Land directorate is responsible for the Mayor’s plans to deliver new and improved homes and strong communities.  Working closely with boroughs and partners, we manage the Mayor’s housing investment programmes and land and property assets to support the building of affordable homes, job creation and regeneration.

About the team: Specialist Housing and Services

The Specialist Housing and Services (SHS) Team delivers the following areas of work:

• Rough Sleeping: delivering the Mayor’s work to tackle rough sleeping in London. The team commissions a wide range of frontline services, manages a variety of different projects aimed at reducing rough sleeping and oversees the revenue element of programmes which deliver more accommodation for this group of Londoners. Find out more.
• Specialist and Supported Housing: managing capital investment programmes to deliver specialist and supported housing for groups of Londoners who may be marginalised by the housing market. People experiencing homelessness, survivors of domestic abuse, adults with learning disabilities and older people are just some of the groups the team supports. Find out more.
• Housing Mobility: delivering two services which support particular groups of Londoners to move home either within or outside of London, according to their needs. The homes freed up as result of these moves are used to meet other Londoners’ housing needs, including by preventing and alleviating homelessness. Find out more and more.
• Domestic Abuse Safe Accommodation: working in partnership with the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) to deliver the Mayor’s duties under Part 4 of the 2021 Domestic Abuse Act to support victims/survivors of domestic abuse and their children in relevant safe accommodation. This includes commissioning and grant funding a range of services and providing capital funding to deliver safe accommodation. Find out more.

About the roles

The roles will support the development and delivery of housing and support-services  in line with the strategic outcomes set out in the Mayor’s Rough Sleeping Plan of Action, Domestic Abuse Safe Accommodation Strategy, Housing Strategy and associated plans. This will include putting in place plans and partnerships to ensure the delivery of those policies, projects and programmes, and to support the Mayor in directing the use of London’s capital and revenue funding to better meet the needs of Londoners marginalised by the housing market.

The permanent post will focus on overseeing the Mayor’s capital investment programmes to deliver specialist and supported housing.

One of the 12-month FTE posts will have a specific focus on coordinating and delivering activities at a strategic level to help ensure that rough sleeping for women can be prevented where possible and where it occurs is rare, brief and non-recurrent. The other 12-month FTE post will have a specific focus on contract managing specialist rough sleeping services for non-UK nationals, such as immigration advice services for migrants sleeping rough, as well as other wider rough sleeping responsibilities.

What your day will look like

• Driving forward projects and services to deliver on the Mayor’s priorities to tackle rough sleeping and meet the diverse housing needs of Londoners.
• Engaging, and coordinating engagement, with central and local government partners as well as charitable partners on issues affecting people sleeping rough.
• Monitoring the delivery of existing schemes, supporting partners to deliver projects to time and budget, closely monitoring delivery challenges and identifying lessons learned
• Working in partnership with government bodies to advocate for and develop new funding programmes aligned to emerging needs of Londoners.
• Collaborating with colleagues in other GLA teams on cross-cutting issues;
• Taking part in procurement activity and overseeing the development and assessment of new schemes via the GLA’s capital and revenue funding programmes.

Skills, knowledge and experience

The following are essential criteria for these roles:

• A good understanding of issues and policy relating to specialist and supported housing or an equivalent social policy area;

• Experience of contract monitoring for homelessness, domestic abuse, social care services or capital housing programmes;
• Building and Managing Relationships (Level 2);
• Planning and Organising (Level 2);
• Problem Solving (Level 2);

Given that the fixed term roles will be supporting specialist work over a limited period, it would be advantageous if the successful candidates were able to get up to speed as quickly as possible after starting in the roles. For this reason, prior knowledge of or experience in the following areas are  desirable (but not essential) criteria for each of the respective fixed term roles:

• Women’s homelessness and rough sleeping in London.
• Migrant homelessness and rough sleeping in London.

The GLA Competency Framework Guidelines further detailing each competency and the different level indicators can be found here: GLA Competency Framework    

How to apply

If you would like to apply for the role you will need to submit the following:

• Up to date CV
• Personal statement with a maximum of 1500 words. Please ensure you address how you demonstrate the essential and desirable criteria outlined above in the advert.

Please ensure your CV and Personal Statement have a maximum file size of 1.5MB each and upload your Personal Statement to the ‘CV and Cover Letters’ section’ of the form, ensuring you address the technical requirements and competencies in your Personal Statement.

Word or PDF format preferred and do not include any photographs or images. Please ensure your CV and Personal Statement are saved with the job reference number as part of the naming convention (E.g., “CV – applicant name - 012345)

If these instructions are not followed, your application may not be considered.

As part of GLA’s continuing commitment to be an inclusive and equal opportunity employer we will be removing personal identifiable information from CVs and Personal Statements that could cause discrimination. 

If you have questions about the role

If you wish to talk to someone about the role, the hiring managers, Lidia Estevez Picon (for the fixed-term roles) and Laura Parry-Billings (for the permanent role), would be happy to speak to you. Please contact them at lidia.estevezpicon@london.gov.uk and laura.parry-billings@london.gov.uk .

If you have any questions about the recruitment process, contact the glaopdcrecruitment@tfl.gov.uk who support the GLA with recruitment.

If you have a preference between the three roles, please set that out in your supporting statement.

Assessment process

Once you have submitted an application, your details will be reviewed by a panel.

If shortlisted, you’ll be invited to an interview/assessment. The interview will involve questions on the criteria set out above and the assessment will be designed to assess your level of Excel and writing skills.

The interview/assessments will take place in early/mid August (exact dates TBC).

Equality, diversity and inclusion

London's diversity is its biggest asset, and we strive to ensure our workforce reflects London's diversity at all levels. We welcome applications from everyone regardless of age, gender, gender identity, gender expression, ethnicity, sexual orientation, faith or disability.

We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and Minority ethnic candidates and disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce.

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and we are happy to consider flexible working arrangements. We would welcome applications from candidates who are seeking part time work as this role is open to job share. 

Please note we are a Disability Confident Employer so for candidates who wish to be considered under the scheme and meet the essential criteria, they will automatically be invited to interview. Please note, should you require any adjustments through the process, we will accommodate as much as possible. Please contact the recruitment team for further information if required.

Benefits

GLA staff are hybrid working up to 3 days a week in our offices and remotely depending on their role. As part of this, you will need to split your time between home working and coming into the office.

In addition to a good salary package, you will be paid every four weeks, providing frequent salary payments. We also offer an attractive range of benefits including 30 days’ annual leave, interest free season ticket loan, interest free bicycle loan and a career average pension scheme.

Additional Information

Please note, all candidates will need to confirm that the information provided in this application form is true and correct. Should a candidate deliberately give false information, including the use of AI software, they understand that this would disqualify them from consideration.

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record (DBS) check but some roles may require additional security screening. 

Find out which DBS check is right for your employee - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Secondment Opportunity

If you are a GLA employee applying for an internal fixed-term position, as an internal secondment opportunity, you must ensure you satisfy the following secondment policy criteria listed below before applying 

• On a permanent contract or a fixed term contract where the time left on the contract at the point at which you apply for secondment is longer than the secondment period;
• successfully completed your probation period and are performing to the required standard for your current role; and
• at least 18 months service with the GLA 

If you do meet the criteria listed above, you will need to complete the Approval for secondment application form and gain line manager approval, before emailing the fully completed form to the Resourcing Assistant who is managing the vacancy. This form must be received by the closing date of the vacancy. Failure to provide this form will mean your application cannot be progressed.

If you are unable to satisfy all of the criteria, unfortunately, you are not eligible to apply for this vacancy as an internal secondment.  For further information, please see Secondment Policy and Procedure.

IMPORTANT: If you are a current GLA employee on a fixed-term contract, which is due to end BEFORE the end date of this vacancy, you DO NOT NEED to complete the Approval for secondment application form as it is not a secondment.

If you are successful in securing this secondment opportunity, you will need to be released from your existing role, so please ensure that you make your line manager aware of your application

More Support

If you have a disability which makes submitting an online application form difficult, please contact resourcingteam@london.gov.uk.

The GLA is proud to be a Level 2: Disability Confident employer. We are committed to becoming a more inclusive and accessible organisation, and creating a truly inclusive and accessible workplace and culture for our disabled staff. We have named Disability Equality as a key corporate priority within our EDI Strategy. We welcome and encourage applications from disabled applicants. Should you wish to opt into the scheme, please let us know during your application.

Please note all applications for this vacancy must be submitted via our online recruitment system. We do not accept CVs alone for this role. Please upload a personal statement with a maximum of 1500 words to the ‘Additional Documents’ section of the form, ensuring you address the following technical requirements and competencies in your personal statement. Word or PDF format preferred and do not include any photographs or images.
 
The GLA Competency Framework Guidelines further detailing each competency and the different level indicators can be found here: GLA competency framework.

GLA staff are hybrid working up to 3 days a week in our offices and remotely depending on their role. As part of this, you will need to split your time between home working and coming into the office.

London's diversity is its biggest asset, and we strive to ensure our workforce reflects London's diversity at all levels. We welcome applications from everyone regardless of age, gender, gender identity, gender expression, ethnicity, sexual orientation, faith, or disability. 

We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and Minority ethnic candidates and disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce. We are a disability confident employer who guarantee an interview to any disabled candidate who meets all of the essential criteria.

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and we are happy to consider flexible working arrangements. We would welcome applications from candidates who are seeking part time work as this role is open to job share. 

In addition to a good salary package, we offer an attractive range of benefits including 30 days’ annual leave, interest free season ticket loan, interest free bicycle loan and a career average pension scheme.