National Planning and Improvement Project Officer

Job Description

The Improvement Service (IS) is a publicly funded company limited by guarantee, with a total annual budget in the region of £8 Million. We exist to support councils and their partners to improve the health, quality of life and opportunities of all Scottish people through community leadership, strong local governance and the delivery of high quality, efficient local services.

Working for the IS means joining a small family of professionals, who work together to strive for continuous improvement in the public sector and ultimately, better outcomes for Scotland’s communities.

Our company headquarters are based in West Lothian, located conveniently for commuters between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Pay is only one of the benefits of working for the IS, our terms and conditions are progressive and flexible and employees are rewarded with a generous annual leave entitlement of forty days per year as well as a flexible working policy.

The IS is committed to promoting equality and diversity in all its activities to promote inclusive processes, practices and culture.

The IS is a Disability Confidence Committed Employer. We are committed to interviewing anyone with a disability who meets the essential criteria.

The role of an Improvement Champion was included in the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019. This important role is responsible for monitoring the performance of planning authorities, providing advice to them (and others) on what steps might be taken to improve their performance, and identifying and encouraging best practice. The function is grant funded by Scottish Government and sits within the IS.

 

Requirements

We are looking to appoint a Project Officer to support the Champion in the development and implementation of Planning Performance Annual Reports, supporting authorities take forward self-identified areas for improvement, developing approaches to identifying and disseminating good practice and providing guidance, training materials and other tools that help strengthen and build local capacity.

Key tasks and accountabilities essential to this post will be collaborating with a range of stakeholders to:

• support the NPIC to work with planning authorities, and others, to establish a robust performance management model, self-assessment and reporting process for planning authorities; support them to identify areas for improvement; and work with them to address these.
• support the NPIC to identify strategic challenges facing the planning system and work with stakeholders to address them through stakeholder engagement and discussion; evidence gathered from annual performance reports; research and analysis; good practice scoping and interrogation of statistics.
• support the NPIC to work with others to develop approaches to identify, share and support people and organisations to implement good practice.

This is a fantastic opportunity to be involved in ground-breaking work supporting planning authorities to deliver a high performing planning system.

With the NPI Champion’s priorities / objectives being set with input from the High-Level Group on Planning Performance, with CoSLA and Scottish Government co-chairing the group, the successful candidate will be expected to engage with this group. The NPI Project Officer will adopt an approach to support the NPI Champion’s ambitions.

For more information about this role the key tasks and accountabilities please download the full job description.

 

 

Responsibilities

Location :

West Lothian Civic Centre, Howden South Road, Livingston, West Lothian EH54 6FF, with travel throughout Scotland as required. It is anticipated that the role will involve a blended model of office and home working. This flexible approach will be agreed between employee and line manager.

Duration : Fixed Term until 31 March 2026

Hours of contract : Full Time, 36 hours per week

Closing Date : 10 December 2023 - Previous applicants need not apply.

Interviews :

A competence based interview will take place on 18/19 December (shortlisted candidates will be advised by email in advance of the interview).   

For more information about competency-based interviews, see our 'Guide to Competency-based Interviews'. You may also find it useful to read our current Business Plan.