Intelligence and Policy Manager - REQ003581

INTERNAL ONLY VACANCY. This post is open to existing Leeds City Council employees only. Applications will not be considered from external candidates.

Job title: Intelligence and Policy Manager
Salary: PO6 £51,356 - £54,495
Hours: 37
Contract: Permanent

Do you want to be part of something bigger and play a key role in driving forward our Leeds Ambitions?

Are you someone who can lead in a way that brings our values to life, with a strong track record of successfully collaborating with others and an interest in strategy and policy development?

About the role

We are looking for an enthusiastic and proactive person with a passion for improving the lives of people in Leeds to join the council’s Policy team. The successful applicant will provide leadership and management for the team’s strategic planning and policy development functions, working closely with colleagues from across the council and in partner organisations to support and further develop our approach to evidence-led strategic planning and delivery of the Leeds Ambitions.

Working closely with the Head of Policy, the postholder will be a confident people manager responsible for a small team playing a key role in delivering policy and analysis focused on improving city outcomes and supporting our Team Leeds approach. You will need to bring energy and enthusiasm as well as the ability to ‘get things done’ as we take forward the Leeds Ambitions, manage the provision of accurate and insightful intelligence through the Leeds Observatory, and have an interest in connecting with policy thinkers and makers at the local, regional and national level. The postholder will also contribute to ongoing development of enhanced policy-research collaboration between the council and the city’s universities.

This is an exciting and varied role at the strategic heart of the council, which offers the opportunity for fantastic personal development. It will require significant cross-council and cross-partnership working and success will depend on building and maintaining strong, positive relationships with a wide range of people from different backgrounds. Demonstrable knowledge and experience of strategic planning and policy development alongside strong influencing and negotiation skills would be desirable.

About the team

The council’s Policy team has a broad remit to provide a range of insight to decision-makers with the aim of improving services and outcomes. While this post will be predominantly focused on policy and strategy, core elements of the team’s wider role include:

Data analysis – including the analysis of population outcomes and need, demographics, activity impact, service performance and quality assurance activity and surveys.
Business planning – comprising the council’s corporate planning, risk management, performance management, and consultation and engagement.
Policy development and support – including co-ordination and leadership of the wider policy community, policy influencing and regional/national partnerships, and academic-civic research collaboration.

We promote equality, diversity and inclusion and want a workforce that reflects the population of Leeds.

Don’t meet every single requirement? We know that for some groups there are barriers to recruitment which can deter their application. If you are excited about the role but don’t meet every requirement – we encourage you to apply anyway!

For an informal chat about the role please contact Mike Eakins, Michael.Eakins@leeds.gov.uk

We welcome applications from everyone and actively seek a diverse range of applicants from all backgrounds and cultures. We particularly encourage applications from, but not limited to, women, carers, veterans as well as LGBT+, ethnically diverse, disabled and care experienced people.

This role is based in the UK. Home Office guidance states that candidates must evidence their right to work in the UK prior to commencing employment, either as a UK or Irish citizen, under the EU Settlement scheme or having secured any other relevant work visa.

If you do not have the right to work in the UK, you must consider your own eligibility for sponsorship for a particular role through the Skilled Worker visa route before applying. To be eligible for sponsorship you'll usually need to be paid the standard salary rate of at least £41,700 per year or meet one of the other eligibility criteria. Ensure you are eligible before applying.

Job Description

Job purpose

The post-holder will provide leadership and management of one or more functions and service responsibilities within Leeds City Council’s Intelligence and Policy Service (IPS). IPS provides a wide range of insight to frontline services, senior managers, elected members and partners with the aim of informing decisions and improving services and outcomes. This happens at locality, service, city and wider levels.

IPS’s functions include:

Data analysis – including the analysis of population outcomes and need, demographics, activity impact, service performance and quality assurance activity and surveys
Business planning – comprising the council’s corporate planning, risk management and business continuity management, performance management and consultation and engagement
Policy development and support

The post-holder will work flexibly as part of the IPS management team and with internal and external colleagues to support the development and implementation of the authority’s strategic approach in one or more of the functions outlined above. The role will require significant cross-council and cross-partnership working; as such, success depends on building and maintaining strong, positive relationships with these stakeholders. This will include the management of key relationships with specific service areas, key partnerships and other support services. The post-holder will also need to demonstrate knowledge and experience of delivering significant aspects of one or more of the IPS functions and of leading staff and teams.

Should the role require specialist knowledge, skills and/or experience in a particular functional or service area, this will be detailed in the job advert, though the post-holder will need to be flexible with the role evolving in line with the council’s and IPS’s priorities. The post-holder will also have cross-council responsibilities.

Responsibilities

The post-holder will play a lead role in the development and delivery of IPS priorities in one or more of the following areas.

Data Analysis

Provide responsive, timely and accurate intelligence and analysis that meets the needs of stakeholders.
Build intelligence capacity through enabling self-service, encouraging innovation, involving partners and thereby making data more accessible, better integrated and readily used; in a manner that is consistent with good information governance.
Ensure intelligence informs improvement conversations and consequent actions, supporting managers and leaders to own and use intelligence, linking data with other evidence and taking consideration of trends, benchmarking, forecasting, underlying need and equalities characteristics including disadvantage.
Lead further developments, improvements to and implementation of intelligence and data analytical systems and processes, including support to underlying data quality and the promotion of data as an asset. These may include Business Intelligence tools, GIS and specific applications such as the Leeds Observatory. This will include cross-council, city partnership and regional/national sector best practice.

Business Planning

Support the development of the council’s corporate plan, working with colleagues to ensure consistency with other key council and partnership strategies and in line with the authority’s policy direction and strategic narrative.
Lead further developments of and improvements to the corporate risk management and performance management frameworks, facilitating informed decision-making, benchmarking and service improvement.
Lead further developments of the corporate business continuity management framework, providing advice and guidance to support the council in preparing for and responding to significant service disruption.
Provide strategic leadership of a co-ordinated approach to online and offline consultation and engagement, including survey design and analysis and community engagement.

Policy Development and Support

Provide support to senior managers and elected members around key national, regional and local policy areas.
Collaborate with colleagues across the organisation to improve cross-policy co-ordination and promote a common strategic narrative, aligned with the council’s corporate plan.
Provide and communicate socio-economic insights and analysis to inform council and city policies, priorities and decision-making.
Represent Leeds City Council at external policy meetings, ensuring the views of the council are reflected.
Work with partners across the Leeds City Region, including the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, to provide proactive input to policy development.

General Responsibilities

Promote, demonstrate and evidence the council’s values and expected behaviours through your own role and through the work of the service.
Lead the delivery and improvement of key areas of work within IPS, ensuring that strategic and service outcomes and priorities are delivered successfully to a high standard.
Work flexibly across the service and wider organisation to meet council and city priorities and exploit opportunities for personal development.
Work closely with commissioners of IPS services to inform both service prioritisation and the evaluation of service delivery.
Maintain knowledge of local, regional and national issues as they relate to IPS functions.
Develop and manage staff within the service, especially those whom the post-holder directly line manages, including agreeing responsibilities and objectives, ascertaining training and development needs, work planning, monitoring performance, assessment and appraisal.
Lead the procurement, implementation and ongoing management of IPS technical solutions and processes, maximising the use of technology to facilitate efficiencies and improve performance.
Build strong, dynamic relationships and networks, positively engaging with relevant stakeholders.
Prepare and deliver briefings, reports and presentations to senior managers, elected members and partners.
Manage and control delegated budgets, resources and assets effectively and efficiently and in line with the council’s financial and contract procedures rules.
Ensure compliance with relevant legislation, national standards and best practice in pursuit of excellence in service delivery.
Work within all relevant policies, procedures and systems established corporately or locally. These include the council’s arrangements for Health and Safety, Human Resources, Information Governance and Equality and Diversity.

The duties outlined are not meant as an exhaustive list and will also comprise any other duties within the spirit of the post commensurate with the job evaluation outcome for this post.

Qualifications

Relevant qualifications are welcomed but not essential.

Essential requirements Candidates will only be shortlisted if they can demonstrate that they meet all the following essential requirements.

Able to manage and monitor performance, setting clear objectives for the review of individual, team and service level performance and to lead cross-service teams
Able to engage and influence senior managers and partners
Able to analyse and interpret complex qualitative and quantitative information from multiple sources
Able to effectively communicate and distil complex information and challenging messages in person, in presentations and in writing
Able to write reports and communicate in a business context for a variety of audiences
Able to undertake a senior role promoting organisational values within the service and in relationships with other services and partners
Able to negotiate service commitments, ensuring these are manageable and that resources are being used for the greatest benefit
Able to work flexibly, at pace and manage a demanding workload
Able to develop resolutions to complex issues
Able to work across a range of simultaneous initiatives and as part of a larger team adapting to changing needs and priorities
Able to use Microsoft packages proficiently
Project leadership and project management skills
Change management skills
Use of analytical software and tools appropriate to the focus of the role
A good understanding of Leeds City Council strategies, policies and current direction
An understanding of the council's political context, including the pressures facing public services in their drive to improve service delivery and outcomes
Detailed and up-to-date knowledge of one or more of the Intelligence and Policy functional areas, as described in the job advert. This includes good practice, methodologies and legislative / regulatory requirements.
Knowledge of the area of public service this role is focused on, as outlined in the job advert, including national policy direction, the local authority role, sector-led improvement, intelligence needs, practice requirements and performance expectations.
Experience of working at a senior level in one or more of the specific responsibility areas outlined in the job advert: data analysis, business planning and/or policy development and support
Extensive experience of managing staff
A record of building positive and collaborative relationships that have enabled the effective application of insight to improve services and outcomes
Leading teams to deliver performance improvement
Managing and contributing to delivery within complex environments involving various stakeholders to achieve positive outcomes
Managing and prioritising competing work pressures and the relationships underpinning these
Delivering work to expected quality and to meet deadlines
Experience of changing and evolving how services are delivered in terms of approaches used, service priorities and service relationships
Prepared and able to pick up and lead new areas of work as required
Take personal responsibility for delivering work on time and for managing your own and your team’s workload

Essential behavioural and other characteristics

Understand and embrace Leeds City Council values and behaviours and codes of conduct
Committed to continuous improvement in all areas and work towards delivering the leedsambitions.co.uk of Health and wellbeing, Inclusive growth, Thriving strong communities, and a Resilient sustainable city
Able to understand and observe Leeds City Council policies and procedures
Carry out duties having regard to an employee’s responsibility under Health, Safety and Wellbeing
Participate in appraisal, training and development activities to ensure up, to date knowledge and skills
Be aware of and support difference and ensure equality for all working in an anti-discriminatory manner, upholding equality and diversity of Leeds City Council
Recognise and appropriately challenge any incidents of racism, bullying, harassment, victimisation, and any form of abuse, reporting any concerns to the appropriate person
Flexible and adaptable to change to assist other services as required commensurate to grade.
The Council has adopted a flexibility protocol and the role will be expected to work within these parameters

Desirable requirements Candidates are not required to meet all the following desirable requirements however these may be used to distinguish between candidates.

Knowledge of national frameworks and sources of intelligence specific to the focus of this role, as outlined in the job advert. This includes, where relevant, the local authority role in the management, collection and submission of the underpinning data.
Controlling and managing budgets
Managing and / or commissioning research projects
Managing the specification and contracting of technical solutions and processes

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