London Resilience Support Officer

You will have responsibility for interpreting and applying relevant legislation and guidance to drive the preparation for, response to, and recovery from emergencies in London.

You will be involved in all aspects of emergency planning working closely with a wide stakeholder group spanning public, private and voluntary/community sector partners in London.

These posts have an important role in supporting the response to any large-scale incident, as an on-call manager or supervisor (depending on level of experience). You should have experience of responding to incidents.

You should have experience of multi-agency working, developed knowledge of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (and in particular the London Chapter of the supporting guidance). Knowledge of the London Resilience Partnership structures is desirable but not essential.

You should bring proven organisational, analytical, and problem-solving skills to effectively manage competing priorities.

Strong communication and interpersonal skills are vital to convey complex information clearly and efficiently, building effective working relationships with key stakeholders.

Experience of supervising project groups would be advantageous.

Three similar roles are being recruited to at the same time. The areas of focus for each role are below. You may bring out relevant experience in these areas in your application however all applicants will be considered for all three of the roles (please indicate if you are specifically interested in the fixed term role).

Emergency planning and capability development design and delivery of training and exercises learning and continual improvement You will be expected to fully participate in exercises and testing activities to ensure our own response arrangements remain at the highest professional standard.

About the Team: London Resilience Unit

Working with over 170 organisations, London Resilience Unit delivers and coordinates resilience services across the capital on behalf of the Mayor of London and Local Authorities.

London Resilience Unit supports the multi-agency partnership to assess risks, reduce the likelihood or impact of those risks and, prepare arrangements to respond, recover and learn from emergencies.

About the Directorate: Strategy and Communications

Strategy and Communications sits at the centre of the organisation, bringing together several teams with organisation-wide remits and mutual collaboration opportunities.

The work of the directorate’s teams includes delivery of major events, designing and leading public affairs or marketing campaigns, providing data, evidence and analysis, leading cross-organisational programmes, to making sure we plan for and can respond to emerging events or emergencies in our city.

Principal accountabilities

• Contingency Planning and Integrated Emergency Management
• To support resilience planning arrangements for London that reflect the requirements of the Civil Contingencies Act and associated guidance.
• To lead on the development and maintenance of multi-agency plans, policies and procedures.
• To work on multi-agency risk assessment, training, exercising, learning and improvement, and assurance of emergency response capabilities.
• To develop, maintain and implement policies and procedures for the emergency preparedness of the London Resilience Unit. This includes the London Local Authority Gold (LLAG) arrangements and London Local Authority Co-ordination Centre, including infrastructure, equipment and information resources.
• To take a proactive role in supporting the policy delivery and service improvement for resilience services and to work closely with the London Resilience Manager on specific policy issues.
• To develop and prepare reports for multi-agency audiences, based on research, consultation, analysis to be published on different systems.
• To respond to Emergencies or Major Incidents as part of the London Resilience Unit, and in support of the London Resilience Partnership and London Local Authorities. The London Resilience Forum and Partnership working
• To support the London Resilience Forum and its sub-groups through the provision of secretariat and coordination functions.
• To promote the work of the London Resilience Partnership and provide resilience expertise, advice and support to the Partnership and wider stakeholders
• To support and chair multi-agency meetings and teleconferences as part of routine work and emergency response arrangements.
• To build strong and effective working relationships with internal and external stakeholders at all levels of seniority.

General:

• To lead allocated parts of projects, and to research, prepare and present technical papers and briefing documents as required.
• To use IT facilities for internal communications, document management and for the preparation of plans, multi-media training packages and presentations.
• To utilise specialist web-based systems designed for emergency preparedness and response activity, including data and information management, and mapping.
• To ensure that confidentiality is maintained including the security of sensitive information, in accordance with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation, the Data Protection Act 2018 and GLA policies.
• To carry out the duties of the post in accordance with GLA corporate priorities and policies on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. On-call and emergency response.

London Resilience Unit is available 24 hours a day, 365 day a year, to support the strategic coordination arrangements of the London Resilience Partnership and London local authorities. You will be required to participate in an on-call rota, associated training and exercising, and be available to respond to emergencies when they occur. Typically you will be required to be on-call one week in four. An on-call allowance is paid to staff who are on the on-call rota. You must be able to respond according to the departmental requirements in place as may be varied from time to time. Security Clearance

Due to the nature of the position, Government Security Classifications security clearance is required to Security Check (SC) level (this can be arranged once in post). Key relationships

Accountable to: London Resilience Manager. Accountable for: Occasional supervision of the work of other team members, management/supervision of on-call team (determined depending on experience). Principal contacts: London local authorities, emergency services, NHS England, UK Health Security Agency, Environment Agency, HM Coastguard, utility companies, transport companies, voluntary, community and business sector organisations.

Person specification:

• Technical requirements/experience/qualifications
• Excellent written and verbal communications skills.
• Excellent research and analysis skills, and the ability to write detailed technical reports and presentations.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, and the ability to build strong working relationships and with multi-agency partners.
• Experience of planning and delivery of projects, and co-ordinating the work of a range of stakeholders.

Building & Managing Relationships (Level 2)

… is developing rapport and working effectively with a diverse range of people, sharing knowledge and skills to deliver shared goals.

• Builds rapport quickly with people at all levels and from different backgrounds
• Actively listens to others and is open to their ideas Identifies and resolves conflict between self and others
• Makes others feel comfortable and respected by being positive and friendly
• Understands differences, anticipates areas of conflict and takes action
• Identifies opportunities for joint working to minimise duplication and deliver shared goals

Planning and Organising (Level 2)

… is thinking ahead; managing time, priorities, and risk; and developing structured and efficient approaches to deliver work on time and to a high standard.

• Perseveres and follows work through to completion
• Makes contingency plans to account for changing work priorities, deadlines and milestones
• Pays close attention to detail, ensuring team’s work is delivered to a high standard
• Prioritises work in line with key team or project deliverables Research and Analysis (Level 2)

… is gathering intelligence (information, opinion and data) from varied sources, making sense of it, testing its validity and drawing conclusions that can lead to practical benefits.

• Uses a variety of methods and sources to gather relevant data and information
• Checks accuracy of data and information before using it Looks for trends in data and spots connections to draw meaningful conclusion
• Translates research outcomes into concise, meaningful reports
• Identifies relevant and practical research questions for the future

Communicating and Influencing (Level 2)

… is presenting information and arguments clearly and convincingly so that others see us as credible and articulate, and engage with us.

• Represents self and team positively within the organisation
• Speaks and writes clearly and succinctly, using appropriate language that is easy to understand
• Adapts style and communication to the audience
• Communicates openly and inclusively with internal and external stakeholders
• Clearly articulates the key points of an argument, in both verbal and written communication
• Persuades others, using evidence-based knowledge, modifying approach to deliver message effectively. This role is based at London Fire Brigade’s Head Office (Union Street SE1 0LL)

GLA staff are hybrid working up to 3 days a week in our offices and remotely depending on their role. As part of this, you will need to split your time between home working and coming into the office.

Application Process & Additional Information

Please note all applications for this vacancy must be submitted via our online recruitment system. We do not accept CVs alone for this role.

If you would like to apply for the role you will need to submit the following:

• Up to date CV
• Personal statement with a maximum of 1500 words. Please ensure you address how you demonstrate the essential criteria outlined above in the advert.

Please ensure your CV and Personal Statement have a maximum file size of 1.5MB each and upload your Personal Statement to the ‘Additional Documents’ section of the form, ensuring you address the technical requirements and competencies in your Personal Statement.

Word or PDF format preferred and do not include any photographs or images. Please ensure your CV and Personal Statement are saved with the job reference number as part of the naming convention (E.g. “CV – applicant name - 012345).

Applications submitted without a Personal Statement will not be considered.

London's diversity is its biggest asset and we strive to ensure our workforce reflects London's diversity at all levels. We welcome applications from everyone regardless of age, gender, gender identity, gender expression, ethnicity, sexual orientation, faith or disability.

We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and Minority ethnic candidates and disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce.

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and we are happy to consider flexible working arrangements. We would welcome applications from candidates who are seeking part time work as this role is open to job share.

In addition to a good salary package, you will be paid every four weeks, providing frequent salary payments. We also offer an attractive range of benefits including 30 days’ annual leave, interest free season ticket loan, interest free bicycle loan and a career average pension scheme.

On this recruitment campaign, as part of GLA’s continuing commitment to be an inclusive and equal opportunity employer we will be removing personal identifiable information from CVs and Personal Statements that could cause discrimination.

Reasonable adjustment will be made to working arrangements to accommodate a person with a disability who otherwise would be prevented from undertaking the work.

Application closing date: 22nd October 2024 at 23:59.

Location: South Bank, GB

Posted Date: 10/12/2024