Emergency Planning Officer

About the Borough

In Sutton, there is much for us to be proud of both as a council and as a borough. This includes high levels of resident satisfaction, the quality of our services, our success in addressing our financial challenges to date, the way that we involve and engage with residents on key issues facing the borough, and the enthusiastic and motivated staff that we employ.

Looking ahead, there are plans for the delivery of new homes and new schools and the London Cancer Hub is being developed, while the Council is also seen as a driving force within the South London Partnership of five outer south west London boroughs focused on strategic growth, regeneration and investment.

All of this demonstrates a good track record and an authority that is ambitious and set to deliver more improvements for the borough. We've set out our vision for the future of Sutton in our corporate plan - Ambitious for Sutton. This strategic plan will shape the outcomes we achieve, the services we provide, and the impact we have on residents, to make Sutton a great place to live, work and raise a family.

Situated in Zone 5, Sutton is less than 30 minutes by train from central London, and south and south west London are easily accessible by public transport. There are 10 train stations which serve key neighbourhoods within the borough providing direct connections to London Victoria, London Bridge, London Blackfriars and St Pancras International. Sutton also has direct rail connections with Epsom, Dorking, Guildford and Horsham, as well as Wimbledon for an interchange with the London Underground and West Croydon for the London Overground. There’s also an extensive road network which provides close and easy access to the M25 and M23.

About the Service and Team

Sutton has a long-standing commitment to reducing our impact on the environment. The council’s corporate plan, Ambitious for Sutton 2022-2027 commits to tackle climate change in becoming a net zero carbon borough. To enable delivery of these ambitions, the council uses its Environment Strategy and Climate Emergency Response Plan. As part of the Council’s forward thinking approach to adapting to climate change, the Council acknowledges the key role emergency planning has to play in response to our climate emergency by ensuring the borough is prepared and resilient for a broad range of incidents as the changing climate leads to more severe weather incidents.

About the Role and Our Ideal Candidate

The role will support the Climate Action and Emergency Planning team in ensuring a safe and resilient borough. The post holder will work with colleagues across the Council to help deliver a robust programme of emergency planning, training and exercising. The role will also form a critical part of Sutton’s response to any incidents and provide specialist advice to help shape the response.

Key activities include:

• • Help ensure the Council are meeting the Resilience Standards for London.
  • Commission and deliver emergency planning training to staff
  • Supporting the Council’s response to any incidents
  • Supporting the Council’s Safety Advisory Group of events

About You

If you enjoy a diverse role that gives you exposure to the broad range of Council services and thrive in working in a challenging yet highly rewarding environment, then we want to hear from you.

You will have experience of working in emergency planning or business continuity, able to adapt to changes of pace and maintain a calm and professional demeanour while making decisions under pressure during any incidents. Within the role you will build relationships with a wide variety of stakeholders and be able to manage competing deadlines.

In order to successfully deliver the responsibilities of the role, you will need to demonstrate:

• a good understanding of relevant contingency planning and integrated emergency planning legislation, regulations and guidance for the local authority context (essential);
• the relevant experience working in an Emergency Planning and/or Business Continuity position(s), and possess the knowledge of how to effectively prepare for, respond to, and recover from, internal and external emergencies (essential);
• a commitment to personal development in order to meet the changing demands of the position (essential);
• effective problem solving skills and be confident in making decisions to resolve situations that arise, including under pressure (essential);
• experience of challenging and critically evaluating information and data, considering the bigger picture and wider implications to the service and Council (essential);
• the ability to confidently communicate effectively with various audiences, including members of the Council’s Corporate Management Team, Councillors, multi-agency partners, internal departments, residents, etc (essential);
• well-developed training and instructional skills in order to formulate training objectives and lesson plans leading to the design and running of training sessions and events (essential);
• the ability to work well under pressure, prioritise work and possess organisational skills to remain effective in the role (essential);
• good interpersonal skills in order to build sound working relationships with key stakeholders and partners (essential).

The postholder will be required to form part of the emergency planning out of hours on-call rota, which will necessitate some out of hours working including evenings and weekends due to the emergency planning on-call rota. There is additional remuneration associated with this. In-person attendance in the borough will also be expected during civil contingencies.

Our Offer to You

As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across - however big or small - will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.

In addition, we offer a modern and flexible working environment for our staff, supported by our IT infrastructure, including Google Chromebooks and Google Apps. Our Flexible Working - Smarter Working Scheme embraces new ways of working. It provides improved work life balance for our staff as it allows staff to work from a variety of locations and staff are not required to work within the office 5 days a week.

Employees have access to a wide range of benefits, some of which include:

• Generous annual leave entitlement plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply)
• General Council Flexi-time (Please note, this applies to roles at grades 1-9 only)
• Public Health Service Localised Flexi-time Scheme - accrual of up to 5 days per year
• Three volunteering days per year in Sutton
• Comprehensive learning and development programme
• Local and national discounts for shopping, eating out and leisure activities
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Car parking scheme
• Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
• Zip car scheme
• Free eye tests and contribution towards glasses
• Confidential wellbeing and counselling support
• Subsidised gym membership

Application Process

Please apply online outlining what skills, abilities and experience you can bring which makes you an ideal candidate for this role. Please ensure you refer to the requirements outlined in the job profile when completing your application.

To support our diversity agenda and reduce the risk of bias in our recruitment activities, our short listing process completely anonymises personal information that can identify job applicants e.g. name, title etc. Our hiring managers review and short list applications based on the information provided as part of your application as to how well you meet the requirements and criteria for the role, as outlined in the job profile.

The closing date is given as a guide. We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received. Therefore, it is strongly advised that you complete and submit your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Additional Information

We pride ourselves on being a diverse, inclusive and welcoming Borough and we aim to create a workforce which reflects the community we serve - the key highlights from our recent Equalities Workforce Report can be seen here. We are respectful of difference and realise the positive value of diversity in our workforce. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds and particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and disabled candidates, as these groups are currently under-represented in our workforce. As part of our Disability Confident Committed status, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum/essential criteria for the role.

We offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums, and inclusive staff networks who help drive our diversity agenda.

The UK has introduced a new points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance.