Overview
Many residents in Waltham Forest are facing persistent and entrenched challenges - from rising living costs to an affordable housing crisis. These pressures are not felt equally. Long-standing inequalities mean some residents experience poorer outcomes and face more barriers to living the life they want to lead. To meet these challenges, we must maintain a razor‑sharp focus on where inequality is emerging, where it is deepening, and where it can be prevented. We want to help the Council confront these realities head on, ensuring that our ambition for a more equal borough is translated into practical, evidence‑led action that reduces disparity and supports long term resilience. To this aim we are seeking to recruit a highly experienced Strategy and Policy Manager (Equalities) to drive the development and delivery of high quality policy and strategy in support of our missions and the cross‑cutting challenges facing the borough and the Council.
Key Responsibilities
* Lead the delivery of a first‑class external equalities function for the council.
* Lead the strategic input into the council's priority projects and programmes, driving them forward and championing the outcomes.
* Develop the Strategy and Policy service offer, within the Strategy & Change Directorate.
* Provide urgent support and advice to Council departments and the Cabinet as needed.
* Build relationships with key stakeholders and partners across the borough and region.
* Keep abreast of latest policy ideas and best practice across areas of interest in the public sector.
Key Qualifications and Requirements
* At least 3 years' experience of strategy or policy development in central, local government, public body or think tank with a focus on tackling inequality.
* Working with politicians and senior stakeholders.
* Collaborative strategy or policy development with external organisations.
* Managing large complex projects and programmes.
* Partnership working with a range of public or private agencies.
* Ability to develop participatory approaches with communities to tackle inequality.
* Highly skilled influencer, negotiator, and networker.
* Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
* Ability to respond rapidly to requests for written briefs and information.
* Ability to conduct and analyse research.
* Ability to work flexibly and quickly get to grips with new areas and support others to do so.
* The ability to work creatively to solve problems.
* A good understanding of the issues facing local government and the way in which local government broadly operates.
* Understanding of the public policy making process.
* The ability to operate with sensitivity within a political environment.
* Prepared to challenge existing thinking in a positive manner.
* Working with residents/stakeholders to meaningfully shape strategy development.
* Educated to degree level or equivalent standard, 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.
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