Hybrid INTERNAL APPLICANTS ONLY Programme Manager at London Borough of Waltham Forest
London Borough of Waltham Forest · Walthamstow, United Kingdom · Hybrid
- Professional
- Office in Walthamstow
***Internal Applicants Only***
Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest
Salary: PO8 £57,663 - £60,819
Contract Type: Full-time; Temporary
Working hours per week: 36
Application Deadline: 31/08/2025
Proposed Interview Date(s): To be confirmed
Reference: 1808
About Us:
Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work.
We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents.
London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London’s Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.
The Council’s preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email [email protected] so we can arrange an alternative application method.
About the role:
We are looking to recruit an ambitious Programme Manager to lead the delivery of the Family First Partnership, a major transformation of early help and child protection services. This is a unique opportunity to shape a more integrated, preventative system that intervenes earlier and reduces reliance on statutory intervention.
The role sits within the corporate Transformation team, part of the wider Strategy and Change service, but the focus of the work will be principally with Children’s Services. The Programme Manager will drive the service design elements of the reform, working across operational and strategic partners to co-develop new models of practice, pathways and roles that reflect a whole-family, early intervention approach. They will lead the coordination of multidisciplinary input, ensure reforms align with national policy and local priorities, and support the shift towards more collaborative, outcome-focused ways of working.
Alongside this, the role carries broader programme leadership responsibilities: managing complex interdependencies, overseeing governance and risk, and ensuring the programme remains focused on impact. The postholder will work closely with senior officers and elected members, build consensus across a large and diverse workforce, and keep the wider service aligned to a clear, ambitious vision for the future of children’s social care.
Key Responsibilities:
- Manage programmes and projects to ensure they deliver the required outcomes and benefits.
- To plan, direct, and coordinate activities to manage and implement interrelated projects from proposal or initiation to final operational stage.
- To build strong working relationships with key stakeholders across the Council
- Manage complex multiple project teams as required to ensure that they meet their objectives and address any issues as appropriate.
- Develop robust governance frameworks for the constituent projects and programmes including project plans, risk/issue logs, and reports on programme activity for stakeholders including programme boards, executive directors, management board, scrutiny committee, cabinet.
Qualifications and Requirements:
- Experience of managing Change programmes and projects, working to time, budget and quality in a large organisation using appropriate agile methodologies, techniques and tools.
- Experience of building excellent relationships with Senior managers and Members, with a view to ensuring that programme visions are delivered and that an excellent customer service is experiences by those stakeholders.
- Experience of planning and managing a mixed and varied workload of conflicting priorities responding effectively to the needs of all customers.
- Experience of report writing and communicating complex issues to a broad range of audiences.
- Experience of working in a risk management environment with effective tracking and mitigation of risks.
- Possess in depth understanding of Agile, its values and principles, including backlog grooming, release and sprint planning, burn-up/down charts, and more.
- Competent budget manager with experience in deploying, reallocating and reassessing resources in a dynamic, multi-project environment.
- An ability to respond to unpredictable volume of work, with a positive attitude and a willingness to learn new ways to accomplish work activities and objectives.
- An exceptional communicator able to operate and empathise with stakeholders and business groups, influencing and gaining commitment to objectives.
- Strong leadership, influencing, people engagement, and people management skills.
- Excellent planning and organisational skills coupled with a strong focus on the delivery of the objective.
- Creative and innovative in finding solutions to complex problems.
- Ability to lead on multiple and wide-ranging programmes and manage competing demands.
- Possess strengths in organisational, attention-to-detail, reasoning, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.
Terms and conditions:
The below terms and conditions apply to this role:
Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks;
Satisfactory declaration of interest;
As a public authority, we must ensure that members of staff in public-facing roles are able to speak fluent English. This means that they must have a command of spoken English, with confidence and accuracy, sufficient for the effective performance of their role. This requirement does not refer to any particular English language qualifications, regional or international accents, dialects, speech impediments or the tone of conversations. It does not require staff to speak only in English.
How to Apply:
Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the ‘Apply’ button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy.
We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.
Equal Opportunity Employer:
Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.
To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.
We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.
For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-opportunities/working-us.
Contact Information:
If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Daniel Hibbs-Woodings at [email protected]
If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at [email protected].
Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice.
