Senior Partnership and Engagement Officer

The Opportunity

Salary: NJC Grade 10 £39,862 to £42,839 per annum

Contract Type: Fixed Term / Secondment until 31 July 2026

Working Pattern: 37 hours per week, full time, Monday to Friday

Location: County Hall, Chichester, with hybrid working. You will be expected to work from the office for a minimum of two days each week. Your office days will be agreed with you upon a successful appointment.

Please note: Internal candidates wishing to apply for this role will be considered for a secondment position. Please can you discuss and agree this with your manager before applying.

You will need a full valid driving licence to be able to travel independently across the county, including to areas that may not be easily accessible by public transport.

Closing date: 20 August 2025

Interview date: 10 September 2025

Are you passionate about making a positive difference to the lives of children and their families?

As a Senior Partnership and Engagement Officer, you will support the full engagement and successful implementation of the Families First Programme (FFP). This is a new role, and a fantastic opportunity to implement and deliver a wide range of engagement strategies for the FFP, seeing this initiative through its lifecycle.

The Families First Programme seeks to improve outcomes for children, young people, and their families, by providing early intervention and support services. It emphasises a family-centred approach and multi-agency working, with a clear focus on prevention.

You will develop and lead the engagement strategy to create an informed workforce and be the lead point of contact for all engagement work.

This role involves connecting and developing strong working relationships; you will report into the Stakeholder, Partnership and Engagement Manager, collaborating with a range of professionals such as colleagues across Children, Young People and Learning (CYPL), external partners, agencies, and stakeholders.

Key responsibilities of the role include:

• Promoting and supporting an inclusive culture.
• Leading on a wide range of activities including content creation and community networking.
• Planning and managing virtual and in-person engagement events.
• Delivering a comprehensive range of engagement activities in-person.
• Producing reports, proof reading, and monitoring documents.
• Being a subject matter expert on FFP and providing professional advice.

About You

WSCC are in the early stages of implementing the Families First Programme (FFP). We are looking for someone who is solution focussed, with a positive and flexible attitude to business need. You will be confident in shaping the service and engaging with others on these changes.

This is a target and pressure driven role, where business need may change as the role and FFP evolves.

You will need written and verbal communication skills to effectively communicate and engage with a wide range of professionals.

Key Skills (used for shortlisting):

1. Excellent analytical skills with the ability to research and analyse data and information from a variety of sources and produce inferences, options and recommended courses of action and plans to address complex problems.
2. The ability to identify opportunities for continuous improvement to ensure effective use of resources and to organise, prioritise and plan own workload and to supervise others to meet deadlines and targets.
3. Excellent IT skills, including word processing, data processing, creating electronic presentations, social media and the ability to investigate and troubleshoot system-related problems and provide solutions, as necessary.
4. Professional approach with the aptitude and confidence to provide clear advice and highly developed negotiation and persuasion skills to successfully influence others to take a specific course of action.
5. Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to present complicated or sensitive information or recommendations to a range of audiences in a clear, concise and accurate manner in ways that promote understanding and encourage the take up of solutions presented.
6. Ability to form relationships and communicate effectively with a wide range of people, from professionals including senior leaders, service providers, members of the public, young people and people with lived experience.

For more information on the Key Skills, Qualifications and/or Experience required, please refer to the Job Description attached. Please refer to the key skills in your cover letter as these will be used for shortlisting criteria.

Benefits

As an employer we recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive and dynamic working environment where employees can achieve their full potential, achieve a healthy work-life balance, and are rewarded for the work they do.

For a full list this can be found at our Rewards and Benefits page.

Upon joining us you will have access to a range of benefits including the following:

Employer Pension Contribution: 18.70% (this alters per annum on the 1 April each year).

Annual leave: 27 days holiday + Bank holidays = 35days.

How to Apply

The reference number for this role is CAFHE05881

For an informal conversation or for further information regarding the role, please contact Sam Boulton, Stakeholder, Partnership and Engagement Manager on 0330 222 5660, or at

To apply, please follow the links below to upload your CV and Cover Letter.

In your cover letter please outline your motivations for applying and explaining the skills and experience you can bring to the role (please refer to the key skills) ensuring that any gaps in employment are covered in your CV. Please ensure you have saved the job description attached to the main advert on our website as, once the job has closed, you may not have the opportunity to download again.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and vulnerable adults.

This post is subject to three years referencing, and an occupational health check.

Equity, inclusion, and accessibility is very important to West Sussex County Council. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, as this helps us build a diverse and talented workforce, that reflects the communities we serve. We ensure our approach to recruitment is flexible and supportive to enable all applicants to be at their best and to ensure they have the best possible chance of success.

We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that have a disability, are a veteran or are a care leaver. More information can be found on our application help page.