Job Description
Working on behalf of a Local Authority, Aatom Recruitment has a new opportunity for an Sponge Programme Manager.
Job Title: Job Title: Sponge Programme Manager
Contract Duration: 6 Months with possibility of extension
Umbrella Rate: £600/Day inside IR35
Responsible for:
• Delivery of the FCRIP Sponge Programme
• Management of LLFA function.
Number of reports: 2
• Principal Flood Project Officer
• Sponge Project Officer
Financial Responsibility:
• Day to day management of the Sponge Capital Programme up to £5.5m Capex over 25/26, 26/27 and 27/28 (subject to extension of programme).
Main Purpose of the Job:
• Lead on the Sponge Programme and ensure that sufficient resources, expertise, and robust project management is in place to enable the successful delivery of the programme.
• Manage the programme governance, budget, risk management, partners and stakeholders engagement and reporting to the Environment Agency.
• Deliver Sponge Work Package 4 (Strategic Policy and Review)
• Manage the Councils LLFA function.
Project Sponge:
This project is funded by Defra as part of the £200 million Flood and Coastal Innovation Programmes which is managed by the Environment Agency. The programmes will drive innovation in flood and coastal resilience and adaptation to a changing climate. The project has a remaining grant of up to £5.5m to improve flood resilience in the Salt Hill Stream and Chalvey Ditches catchments in NW Slough and southern Buckinghamshire through to March 2027 (with potential to extend). Slough Borough Council is the lead authority for this partnership project including Buckinghamshire Council, National Flood Forum, Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, Environment Agency, Thames Water and Thames21.
The project has two main delivery strands:
• Work Package 1 – Strategic Nature Based Solutions – using a catchment based approach to prioritise strategic opportunities for Sustainable Urban Drainage (SuDS) and Natural Flood Management (NFM) across the study area reviewing previously identified unfunded schemes, identifying new opportunities and incorporating SuDS into new highways schemes and planned highways maintenance.
• Work Package 2 – Community Based Solutions – trialing new approaches of community engagement and community co-production, including building the evidence based for Flood Action Groups (lead by the National Flood Forum) and a new approach led by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust termed ‘Future Proof Neighbourhoods’ to engage residents in addressing climate change challenges to develop community-led schemes for environmental and amenity betterment that will also deliver flood benefits. This work package will also be delivering further river restoration on the Salt Hill Stream to continue to success of the Save Salt Hill Park project, which naturalised a section of the Salt Hill Stream, including a wetland area, in Salt Hill Park .
To support these measures, gather evidence about them and evaluate their success, and help embed nature-based solutions (NBS) into future practices the project is also supported by four additional work packages:
• Work Package 3 – Monitoring & Evaluation – led by scientists from the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust together with research by PhD students
• Work Package 4 – Strategic & Policy Review – looking at how policies, procedures and practices could be improved at Slough Borough Council and how it works with partners/ stakeholders to facilitate future SuDS and NFM integration and projects
• Work Package 5 – Communications, Engagement & Learning –to support the project to reach the communities and stakeholders it needs to in order to deliver the community led approaches.
• Work Package 6 – Governance – ensuring Corporate level compliance and governance of the project and management of the project within the EA’s national programme