Role Profile = DRAFT
1 PURPOSE OF YOUR JOB
Provide leadership and strategic direction, inspire team working and high standards of service delivery ensuring that mechanisms are put in place to sustain, achieve and maintain corporate working that enable the Council to deliver excellent service to our customers and support for communities.
To encourage resilient and resourceful communities to gain more control over their lives. To increase access to culture, leisure, learning, skills and employment to improve equalities and enhance residents lives.
To work in partnership with organisations across the city and beyond to deliver improved quality of life for York’s residents.
The specific areas of responsibility include the following:
· Customer and Digital
· Customer Services including Registrars and bereavement services
· Health & Safety
· Business Support
· ICT
· Communities and Culture
· Explore York
· Leisure facilities
· York Museums Trust
· York CVS
· CA York
· Make It York
· other cultural organisations and projects
· Communities and Equalities
· York Learning
2 DIMENSIONS = roughly from 2 ADs, to update (+ any from CEC?)
Revenue Income £4,148,000 + £48m(?) +?
Revenue Expenditure £ 8,958,000 + £51m(?) +?
5 Year Capital Expenditure £ 5,121,000 + ?? +?
Direct reports 4
Indirect reports 190 + 160 +?
Principal Accountabilities
a. Manage the Council’s relationship with the cultural and heritage sector to deliver the city’s cultural strategy
b. Manage the Council’s relationship with the voluntary and faith sectors, working with CVS to create a shared vision and strategy for the sector
c. Lead partnership arrangements to ensure the Council’s contribution to York City of Human Rights and progress is delivered against the priorities identified in the city’s indicator report
d. Accountable for the council’s equalities performance including “voice of experience” arrangements to ensure that the needs of York’s various communities of identity / people with protected characteristics are identified and their voices heard
e. Deliver a robust neighbourhood working function: enabling ward members, as informed community champions, to engage residents effectively, leading ward teams in the delivery of local priorities, increasing community capacity with greater participation in devolved decision-making, volunteering, and increased local area pride
f. Commission / contract manage services including: Explore York, the council’s leisure facilities, York Museums Trust, York CVS, CA York, Make It York, other cultural organisations and projects
g. Manage York Learning to deliver learning opportunities that improve people’s skills for work and improve their health and well-being
h. Takes lead responsibility for seeking opportunities to develop the revenue of CYC through partnerships, new ventures and delivers activity that grows revenue and minimises cost without detriment to services.
i. Is responsible for sponsoring and delivering complex programmes of work that improve performance of CYC and delivers exceptional service to residents and partners
j. Works in partnership, where applicable, with other public sector organisations and other sectors to deliver joint services under a single and/or combined management structure
k. Undertakes the statutory responsibilities of the Proper Officer for the York Register Office
l. Accountable for the delivery of customer service and ensuring financial control eg payroll, council tax, business rates, adults social care income, benefits and recovery
m. Experience of working in partnership with third sector organisations to deliver improvements in welfare support and financial inclusion in the city
n. Takes lead responsibility for the effective utilisation of resources, e.g. financial, people, premises (where applicable), electronic, and hardware, identifying efficiencies and savings where appropriate without detriment impact on service and performance
o. Lead the necessary cultural and other changes to ensure that the citizens of York and other service beneficiaries are at the centre of service provision using effective partnership working with all sectors (private, voluntary, community and public) in order to focus resources jointly on improving outcomes
p. Support the Council and Chief Operating Officer in the corporate management of the Council. Lead, plan and deliver the Council’s corporate priorities including existing and new legal responsibilities and functions conferred upon the council.
q. Develop strategic plans to set direction and deliver key organisational objectives.
r. Facilitate corporate working across services, encouraging innovation and creativity to help build integrated service delivery and improvements and ensure a corporate response to the development of services.
s. Is responsible for sponsoring and delivering complex programmes of work that improve performance of CYC and / OR delivers exceptional service to residents and partners.
t. Take lead responsibility for putting in place arrangements to meet the requirements of external inspectors in respect of annual and other performance assessments
u. Represent the organisation at high levels with stakeholders across the Yorkshire Region and nationally, where applicable.
v. Identify and work with key stakeholders to align priorities and resources to deliver improved partnership working and services that achieve better outcomes for York’s citizens.
w. Develop and maintain a corporate performance management regime ensuring the monitoring and reporting of performance, early identification of potential issues in order to take decisive and effective corrective action
3 JOB CONTEXT
The postholder has to work closely with politicians of all parties, delivering objectives within the legislative and statutory frameworks.
The post is primarily concerned with city leadership being the council’s principal lead in the areas of culture, community engagement, and equalities / human rights.
York is increasingly recognised internationally for its unique interface between exceptional heritage and contemporary art, and that York residents and businesses are proud to be engaged with the city’s arts and heritage offer, leading to greater investment and increased participation.
The council encourages resilient communities, less reliant on the council and other agencies for help, equipping people to play a part in community life and enabling residents to be more resourceful and to have more control of their own lives.
Provides a conduit for dialogue between the council and the community sectors through championing community activities; assisting the change in culture from one of service provisions to one of self help, where assistance is provided to enable communities to grow and develop their own volunteer provision. Putting in place appropriate support mechanisms to achieve independence longer term.
Ensures that elected Members are fully aware of the city’s strategic plans and that they are positively, pro-actively and appropriately engaged, and enabled to provide appropriate leadership and to respond effectively to the expressed ambitions of the cultural sector
Access and equalities are increased for York residents through delivery of the Fairer York strategy and development of York City of Human Rights
The Council’s learning services support York residents to achieve the best they possibly can through learning, skills and employability programmes that suit their needs
Responsible for client/management relationships for groups such as “Make it York” whose remit is inward investment, business support, destination management, tourism strategy, events and marketing for York. The board’s membership is diverse with representatives from all sectors including two councillors and this post. It is proactive and independent, but requires support from this role to link it to the council’s strategic agenda and maintain strong relationships with the council’s executive.
Commissioning services using appropriate frameworks to ensure service improvement, capital investment, long-term sustainability, and reduced reliance on council funding. Managing the reporting arrangements to scrutiny and relationship with the wider council and members, as well as with other agencies. Relevant services including:
· Explore York (the city’s library service), which is so much more than just a library service, maintaining provision and re-inventing the experience, becoming community hubs.
· The council’s sports and leisure facilities
· York Museums Trust
· Make It York
· York Learning
Neighbourhood Agenda – develops the council’s approach to neighbourhood working. Supporting ward members to develop well-informed ward priorities, drawing on residents’ views and informed by a robust statistical ward profile, the intelligence of other agencies and community partners working in the ward, and the broader council agenda, e.g. around public health. Developing capacity, through supporting local residents to get involved in local decision making and communities to take increasing responsibility for taking initiatives to address local issues and priorities.
Developing partnership arrangements capable of driving implementation of the city’s cultural strategy and increasing investment in cultural product from a more diverse range of sources including businesses in the city. Ensuring that York maximises the benefits of its UNESCO City of Media Arts status by raising awareness within the city, putting together governance arrangements to drive it, and developing international links with other cities with the same status to open up tangible benefits.
Providing a platform to promoting York’s unique offer in terms of destination, economy, education and lifestyle, providing opportunities to forge new partnerships and grow the York brand.
Responsible for maintaining and reviewing the equalities priorities for the council, ensuring there are effective mechanisms so that the council is held accountable for its performance and people with protected characteristics are identified and have a voice. Such as setting up the armed forces covenant to support service personnel and families.
The role leads the Directorate management team and the job holder contributes to the strategic and operational management to ensure achievement of both directorate and corporate aims and objectives.
This role is part of the emergency planning rota and the job holder is on call for out of hours emergencies.
This role is an Information Asset Owner and must carry out the responsibilities of an Owner as required and set out in the council’s ‘Information Governance/Data Protection Roles and Responsibilities Rules’.
The job holder deputises for other Directors as required.
4 IMPACT & INFLUENCE
They must be able to communicate effectively with all groups, at political, business and community levels.
The postholder sits on local partnership boards influencing and steering these both for future strategies and for funding programmes, as CYC and regional plans feed into each other.
This role contributes to the development, articulation and communication of a clear vision for the development of key aspects of York as a successful city, and provides a framework to ensure an effective and shared programme of joined up strategy with key partners.
The job holder is in a position to identify opportunities which impact on the wider community to the benefit of all, it requires imagination and vision to see potential; to see how supporting projects can generate positive outcomes. Using their influence and networks to bring interested parties together to achieve these ends. The net benefit to the public is that York is a more prosperous place, offering a rich cultural experience, making it a better place to live and work.
The job holder works across the council, highlighting key themes from the council’s principal agenda and linking them into the wider community, working with relevant stakeholders across the city to ensure their understanding of the council’s direction of travel, forging closer ties and identifying opportunities for joint working and collaboration.
The job holder is responsible for seeking opportunities to develop the revenue of CYC through partnerships, new ventures and delivers activities that grow revenue and minimises cost without detriment to services. They also are instrumental in engaging and maximising investment from others in the cultural sector to improve the cultural offer and support key strategic agenda items e.g. tourism, economic strategy, health and wellbeing, the Local Plan, One Planet York the city’s strategy, for example: Engaging the city’s key cultural institutions to support their development and connect them to the city’s agenda and engaging Arts Council England and other relevant national bodies to maximise their investment in York.
Communication and attaining cooperation is a key function in this role. Most activities now focus on the move away from prescribed services to a position of self-help, where the post holder uses their extensive experience and connections to assist in the setup of independent community based groups; persuading new ways of thinking and working, connecting ideas and working solutions which involve challenging the current practices.
Pursuing new ways to raise the profile of the city, such as trying to attain recognition as a World Heritage site. This post is a member of working group set up to try to gain this status. Lending their considerable experience and expertise, assisting the bid by gathering evidence to prove York merits this recognition, which may identify other ways to promote the unique offer of brand York.
Carry forward existing partnerships and lead work with partner agencies to establish strategic priorities for the Council seeking to align resources of all partner agencies with jointly agreed priorities that complement and reflect corporate priorities.
5
ORGANISATION 
6 HARDEST MOST DIFFICULT PART OF JOB = to revise?
Being able to demonstrate the impact of the role in the short-term as much of the work has long-term outcomes. In the case of some measures it is hard to isolate the impact of this post from that of other partners given the collaborative nature of the role and in any event the impact is only visible through the ability to review progress over a longer time period, often many years. The benefits to the public are that lifestyles are enhanced by a diverse cultural offer, with available leisure opportunities; economically there is greater prosperity with higher value jobs greater health and wellbeing and the additional benefits that brings, making York a great place to live, study and work.
Managing the changes in political leadership which can change focus so that it is at odds with the current direction, the challenge is to sell the cultural focus and bring sides together to see the benefits.
7 Knowledge Skills & Experience
· Knowledge and understanding of local government, organisation structure, operations, decision making channels, planning processes and systems and the ability to identify opportunities for improvement. Specifically will need a thorough understanding of the role of culture and tourism in the delivery of economic, social and health and wellbeing benefits.
· Wide experience of building, leading and maintaining strategic inter-agency partnerships to deliver strategic outcomes with demonstrable success in developing effective collaborative working with a range of stakeholders to achieve objectives.
· Experience of deploying community engagement and development techniques, facilitating community led service delivery, co-production, and social enterprises to address identified need and assist cohesion
· Understanding of equality, diversity and human rights practice and the Public Sector Equality Duty at a level commensurate with providing organisational and city leadership to place fairness and equality at the heart of all strategic activity.
· Experience of negotiating significant contracts, commissioning services and monitoring provision
· Corporate and service planning skills that ensure effective resource management, service delivery, best value and continuous improvement
· A track record of working in and forging successful partnerships with a wide range of internal and external bodies including governmental and non-governmental organisations, the private and voluntary sectors to successfully deliver cross sector projects that meet City of York Council’s corporate objectives OR
· Experience of operating in partnership with other public sector organisations and other sectors to deliver joint services under a single and/or combined management structure
· Experience in managing a wide and varied range of Support Services
· Develop and implement a range of corporate strategies and policies relating to:
o Financial Inclusion
o Commercial income generation
o Business Assurance and Performance frameworks
o Customer service
· Awareness of current issues relating to ICT and digital transformation in local government
· Highly developed awareness, and passion for, the delivery of customer services and associated digital service delivery strategies including channel shift and digital inclusion
· Knowledge and understanding of major financial systems and operating excellent financial control eg council tax, business rates, adults social care income, benefits and recovery, payroll & pensions.
· Experience of developing, implementing and leading corporate performance and business assurance frameworks.
· Experience of working in partnership with third sector organisations to deliver improvements in welfare support and financial inclusion in the city
· Evidence of success in building and enhancing the reputation of an organisation with external bodies, the community and the media
Substantial experience at senior management level, working in a political, complex, multi-functional organisation which should include:
· Experience of developing and delivering strategies to meet organisation objectives and achieve planned results
· Experience of strategic and operational resource management, with strong analytical skills and an aptitude for developing clear vision and direction to overcome complex problems
· Ability to manage large and complex budgets with an emphasis on value for money and efficiencies.
· A detailed knowledge and understanding of leading edge service delivery and the ability to translate this into service transformation.
· Ability to provide visible and supportive transformational leadership, empowering, enabling, motivating and developing the workforce to achieve significant, sustainable service improvements and outstanding results.
· Ability to operate effectively within the democratic processes, with the political acumen and skills to develop productive working relationships with Council Members.
· Outstanding interpersonal and communication skills to relate effectively to employees, Council Members, the general public and other stakeholders to engender respect, trust and confidence.