Licensing Enforcement Team Leader

About the role

Purpose of the job

To oversee the Licensing Enforcement Team which is responsible for ensuring compliance with licensing law, statutory guidance, and local policy. The Licensing Enforcement Team Leader will lead investigations, manage enforcement actions, and support the Team’s development. The role includes preparing and presenting reports to senior managers and councillors and fostering effective working relationships with internal and external services and agencies to ensure Council resources are targeted appropriately.

What will you be doing?

Principal responsibilities

1. To line manage the Licensing Enforcement Team, allocating work, determining priorities and monitoring performance to ensure the standards laid down by legislation, statutory guidance, codes of practice and Council policies and procedures are met.
2. To undertake a personal caseload of assessing licence applications and enforcement work and to oversee the gathering of evidence in accordance with PACE and RIPA, the undertaking of PACE interviews, the preparation of prosecution files, liaison with legal advisors and senior managers and to give evidence in court in accordance with law, policy, and guidance.
3. To work in partnership with other council services, the police, other local authorities, and agencies and participate in multi-agency enforcement operations, including intelligence gathering and sharing where required.
4. To assist the Licensing and Service Support Manager to prepare and deliver a workplan for the Team, considering relevant service-level information and intelligence as well as external partner’ information, to ensure resources are appropriately targeted.
5. To assist the Licensing and Service Support Manager by contributing to the review, drafting and implementation of new and existing policies, procedures, training materials and website guidance.
6. To act as a source of expertise within the Licensing Service, taking a lead on complex and contentious matters (including time-sensitive actions, such as the serving of notices or organising urgent licensing hearings), where necessary directing, accompanying, and supporting Licensing Enforcement Officers and other colleagues on such cases.
7. Develop and contribute to knowledge sharing across the team and the wider Environmental Health Service, including training programmes, mentoring, coaching and provide day to day technical support for the Licensing Enforcement Team.
8. To undertake personal learning development to maintain up-to-date specialist technical knowledge including attending training courses, conducting own research, and reading as required, to ensure the Council meetings its statutory obligations.
9. To represent the Licensing Service at internal and external meetings and lead on outreach and consultation meetings with the licensed trade.
10. To work in collaboration with the Systems Administrator to ensure that all aspects of the licensing enforcement function are effectively and efficiently managed within the licensing database, including the extraction of performance information and other reports which support service delivery.

General responsibilities applicable to all jobs

1. Demonstrate awareness/understanding of equal opportunities and other people’s behavioural, physical, social and welfare needs.
2. Comply with the Council’s policies and procedures including (but not limited to) safeguarding, financial regulations, promotion of equalities, customer care, agreed audit actions and health and safety (ensuring that reasonable care is taken at all times for the health, safety and welfare of yourself and other persons).
3. Understand the councils commitment to Corporate Parenting and take responsibility to support this commitment. Enable the council to be the best corporate parents possible to children and young people in our current and previous care.
4. Carry out any other duties which fall within the broad spirit, scope and purpose of this job description and which are commensurate with the grade of the post.

This job description reflects the major tasks to be carried out by the post holder and identifies a level of responsibility at which they will be required to work. In the interests of effective working, the major tasks may be reviewed from time to time to reflect changing needs and circumstances. Such reviews and any consequential changes will be carried out in consultation with the post holder.

About you

Educated to 2 A Levels or equivalent standard.

IoL Professional Licensing Practitioners Qualification.

Detailed knowledge of licensing law, statutory guidance, codes of practice, in relation to the Licensing Act 2003 and Hackney Carriage and Private Hire licensing and sound knowledge of other licensing regimes to include the Gambling Act 2005, Animal Licensing, Sexual Entertainment Licensing, Street Trading, Charitable Collections, Cosmetic procedures among others.

Knowledge of enforcement procedures, law and guidance, including PACE and RIPA.

Knowledge of other Council services and how they interact with the Licensing Service.

Demonstrable experience of managing teams.

Demonstrable experience of dealing with members of the public.

Experience of working effectively in partnership with a range of stakeholders.

Fluent in spoken and written English.

Excellent written and verbal communication and presentation skills.

Able to produce clear and concise and persuasive written reports and letters for the public, senior officers and members.

Able to demonstrate skills in planning and organising, including working to tight deadlines and managing a caseload.

Computer literate with experience of using management information systems.

Ability to lead others in technical and specialist areas and projects and undertake performance monitoring.

Self-motivated and able to work with minimum supervision.

Ability to demonstrate awareness/understanding of equal opportunities and other people’s behaviour, physical, social and welfare needs.

Full car driver licence and access to a vehicle for work.

Willing to attend work outside of normal office hours and to attend evening meetings as necessary

Our Benefits

Here at North Northamptonshire Council, we’re transforming for the better, using all our creativity and imagination to create the best life for our local people.

You’ll find that we have a wide range of careers that may be more surprising than you think!

Why choose us?

We offer a vibrant working environment with:

• a competitive salary
• a pension scheme, where we pay a significant contribution on top of your contribution. It provides life cover and ill-health protection.
• lots of opportunities to develop your skills, knowledge and potential in a large unitary council
• generous leave entitlement (28 days, rising to 33 days) and bank holidays, plus the option to buy up to an extra 10 days
• hybrid and flexible working arrangements, where practicable for service needs to help you with a healthy work-life balance.

We provide a range of great benefits such as an Employee Assistance Programme, an Employee Benefits Scheme, wellbeing support, travel rates at HMRC rates, as well as supporting a range of active Employee Network Groups.

About us

Our Values and Behaviours

Our values define who we are and how we operate, by forming the foundation for how we interact with our customers, colleagues and provide our services. They are also at the forefront of our decision making and delivery and are:

Customer-focused
Respectful
Efficient
Supportive
Trustworthy

Our Key Commitments

Our key commitments help ensure that the priorities we make, now and in the future, maintain the necessary breadth of focus in those areas that we believe matter most.

We are proud to be a recognised Disability Confident Employer and is committed to providing an inclusive recruitment process and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role.

North Northamptonshire Council re-signed the Armed Forces Covenant in June 2024 which highlights the Council’s pledge to support the Armed Forces community. The council obtained the silver status award for the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) and we are now currently working towards achieving Gold status.

Further information can be found at Jobs and careers | North Northamptonshire Council (northnorthants.gov.uk)