Project Manager - Commissioning, Children and Families Social Care Fixed Term, Full Time £46,860 to £55,129 Per Annum Location: Chelmsford Working Style: Anywhere worker Closing Date: 26th May 2025 Interview Date: Potentially 3rd & 4th June 2025 This is a fixed term contract or secondment opportunity for 18 months Essex has a reputation of being at the forefront of innovation. This is an exciting opportunity for a Project Manager to join the Children and Families Commissioning Team to project manage a strategic innovation partnership between ECC and the national children's charity Barnardo's. The innovation partnership will initially focus on designing an approach for families experiencing domestic abuse. The role will primarily work on the innovation partnership with some delivery across other areas of the children and families commissioning portfolio. This role is accountable for managing projects which contribute to the delivery of Essex County Council's (ECC) strategic aims. The Project Manager is responsible for driving and overseeing the delivery of projects to ensure project objectives are clearly defined and can be delivered within the agreed timelines. As an exemplary and experienced manager familiar with working in a complex project environment this role is key in ensuring a robust project infrastructure is in place underpinned by governance and assurance processes. Influencing and working with senior stakeholders to ensure agreed project outputs are delivered to enable benefits to be realised. Accountabilities · Responsible for managing a project, which contributes to ECC's strategic aims, to deliver agreed outcomes within time and cost constraints. · Responsible for undertaking day to day management of both the project and the project team. · Responsible for ensuring a robust business case has been agreed ensuring expertise and specialist knowledge has contributed to the development of the business case in order to align project deliverables to the organisation's expectations. · Responsible for developing and monitoring the project progress to ensure this stays within the agreed budget. Set out resource requirements to be prioritised by the Portfolio/Programme Manager. · Responsible for managing, leading and motivating a team and ensuring current capability is matched against project requirements. This incorporates support and coaching for individuals and the team, as appropriate, to develop a high performing team. · Responsible for ensuring agreement with customers of quantified benefits to be realised & metrics required to monitor impact. Designing and actively managing the project plan to ensure the outcomes are achieved. · Responsible for highlighting project risks and issues and ways in which these can be mitigated and escalated as appropriate. · Responsible for ensuring effective Change Management processes are in place and changes to deliverables as agreed with stakeholders are documented. · Responsible for ensuring an effective governance and assurance framework is in place to support decision making and ensure regular reporting on progress through pro-active engagement with project sponsors. Work collaboratively with and manage internal stakeholder relationships together with external partners. · Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework. The Experience You Will Bring · Educated to degree level or equivalent by extensive experience. · Evidence of continuing professional development and expert knowledge in relevant professional area, such as, AMP practitioner or Prince 2. · Evidence of having successfully completed several projects and experienced contributing to a range of other projects and/or programmes. · Experience of working with a diverse range of individuals at different levels within a complex organisation and engaging with them, finding ways to overcome obstacles. · Experience of working within a political environment with knowledge of a public sector setting and involvement in a large, complex environment. · Good management skills in leading and managing a team and evidence of developing others. To read more about our business area, please visit: Children & Families Please take a look at our 'No Magic' Children & Families video Why Essex? As one of the largest and most dynamic UK local authorities, Essex offers a stimulating public service environment. Covering over 1,420 square miles and serving 1.8 million residents, we're committed to transformational change and delivering better quality at lower cost. Recognised in the top three of the latest IMPOWER index for productivity, we ensure everyone matters in Everyone's Essex. With flexible working options and a focus on innovation, whether you are looking to develop your career or contribute to the local community, Essex is the ideal place for you. In February 2025, Greater Essex was accepted onto the Government's devolution priority programme, which will see local authorities in Essex work towards establishing a Mayoral Combined County Authority by May 2026. You can read more about devolution and local government reorganisation (LGR ) on our careers site. Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We're committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process. We're also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying. Once you've secured your role within Essex County Council you will receive many great employee benefits, including support for unpaid carers and flexible working arrangements to accommodate their needs. At Essex County Council, we value integrity and ethical behaviour. We kindly ask that you embrace our code of conduct and the Nolan principles, including throughout the recruitment process. Your commitment to these standards helps us maintain a positive and respectful workplace for everyone. As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment. If you would like to be kept up to date on other relevant opportunities, blogs, news, events and industry related news at Essex County Council, please join The Essex Talent Community If you have queries on this role or require anything further, please email resourcing.team@essex.gov.uk Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Further details can be found on our careers page. Downloads Pay and Reward | Our Ways of Working | About Us | Organisation Behaviours