Strategy and Policy Officer

Our benefits

We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage…

• A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family
• Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro-rata) through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances
• Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings
• Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth
• Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day
• Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network
• Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards
• An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in-store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes

Take a look at our Employment Benefits Brochure attached to this advert to find out more.

About the role

Are you looking for a position where you can make a real difference locally within Cambridgeshire?

Are you passionate about improving local services and improving policy at Cambridgeshire County Council?  

Cambridgeshire County Council is on an ambitious journey to embed a culture where evidence and insight drive the decisions that improve services and change lives. We’re looking for a Strategy and Policy Officer to play an important role in delivering that vision.

Reporting to the Strategy and Policy Manager, you’ll ensure that robust evidence on new policy interventions is captured, tracked and reported, so that policies and strategies are examined to assess their effectiveness. 

The role will sit within Cambridgeshire County Council’s newly formed Policy, Performance & Intelligence Service, who provide data, analysis insight and policy expertise to support the operational management and strategic planning of services.

We are a family-friendly employer and will be happy to negotiate on working arrangements to achieve a good work / life balance.

The role is currently available on a fixed term basis for 9 months with the option of flexibility from full-time to a minimum 30 hours per week, with a provision for home working.

Please refer to the person specification when completing your supporting statement, as applications will be shortlisted against the required experience, knowledge, and skills of the role.

For more information or an informal discussion, please contact Hannah Parkinson, Strategy and Policy Manager, at Hannah.Parkinson@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.

What will you be doing?

As a Strategy and Policy Officer you will be responsible for:

• Staying abreast of changes in Central and Local Government policies and strategies and understanding the implication of these for council
• Writing policy briefings to clearly and concisely disseminate evidence
• Support the development of and updating of corporate policies and strategies, including recording creation/review dates
• Engaging with services and senior management to present changes in policy or strategy alongside the implication for the council and its services
• Contributing to the collation of evaluation evidence to assess the effectiveness of policies
• Work closely with Insight colleagues to ensure policy and strategy development and evaluation is supported and informed by local evidence and insight
• Analyse, interpret and explain complex issues relating to policies and strategies to a wide range of audiences, presenting information in a clear and meaningful way

About you

We are looking for an individual  who can develop evidence-based strategies and policies. You’ll bring:

• Awareness of the National and Local Government agenda, including policy agenda, current issues and challenges
• Ability to gather local information from a range of sources and using it to inform the development of strategies and policies
• Awareness of a range of evaluation frameworks and methodologies
• Ability to approach problem solving in a creative and insightful way to provide innovative solutions
• Skilled at writing and supporting the preparation of papers, with the ability to identify and adapt to meet the needs of a range of audiences
• Ability to work at fast pace to deadlines and be proactive

Good communication skills, both oral and written, are essential for this role, as the post holder will need the ability to interpret and explain complex issues to a wide range of audiences, presenting findings in a clear and meaningful way. 

About us

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.

Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.

We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities. If you don’t meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don’t be put off.   We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered.  We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Some examples of adjustments could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.

Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion. 

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/jobs-and-careers