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Job Title: Project Manager
Starting Salary: £42,839 progressing to £47,181 per annum - Pay award pending
Hours: 37
Base Location: Farnham House, Stevenage -Hybrid Working. The role is expected to be present in the office 3-4 days a month. Ability to travel across Hertfordshire required, but driving licence not essential.
Contract Type: Fixed Term/Secondment 2 years
Directorate: Childrens Services

About the team

The Improvement & Transformation Team work across the Inclusion & Skills and Education Directorates within Children’s Services, delivering projects and programmes that support the continuous improvement of services. In particular, we focus on Special Education Needs & Disabilities (SEND) and Inclusion, driving improvement work that leads to better outcomes for children and young people.

This is an exciting time to join the team, we are recruiting various project and programme roles to support delivery of the Hertfordshire SEND Reform Plan and SEND Strategy. You will work with partners across the SEND Local Area Partnership including local authority services, health, education, and parent carer representatives, delivering elements of the plan, enabling the partnership to deliver its commitments to reform and the local SEND system, improve experiences for children and young people, and prepare for wider national reforms.

You will be joining a well-established and supportive team with a track record of forging partnerships and delivering high impact within SEND and Inclusion.

About the role

We are looking for two Project Managers to manage projects within SEND improvement and reform.

As a Project Manager, you will take day to day responsibility for coordinating projects, ensuring plans are clear, risks are visible, and activity progresses at pace.

You’ll work closely with Improvement Managers within the service and project stakeholders to keep delivery on track, prepare high quality updates, support delivery boards, and maintain excellent communication with the wider SEND partnership.

This role is ideal for someone who thrives in complex, fast moving environments, and enjoys problem solving. If you’re motivated by meaningful change, thrive in complex environments, and want to help shape the future of local services that support children and young people, we’d love to hear from you.

Key Responsibilities:

• Plan and coordinate delivery of projects, ensuring activities, milestones and outputs are clearly defined, sequenced and actively managed using appropriate project management methodologies and tools.
• Work collaboratively with stakeholders across the SEND system, building and maintaining effective relationships to enable partnership delivery.
• Maintain high-quality project documentation, including delivery plans, risk logs, issue logs and dependency trackers in line with Programme Management Office standards.
• Identify, assess and manage risks, issues and dependencies, escalating where appropriate and working with stakeholders to implement mitigating actions.
• Support process mapping activities to inform service design, helping to document and understand current and future processes.
• Support Improvement Managers in planning, tracking and reporting across wider SEND reform programmes, ensuring alignment to programme priorities.
• Prepare clear and concise reports and papers for governance forums, including progress updates, key decisions, risks and required actions.
• Act as the primary point of contact for allocated projects, ensuring effective coordination of information, queries and updates across stakeholders.
• Support delivery of project benefits, tracking outcomes and contributing to evaluation of impact.
• Contribute to stakeholder engagement and communications, developing project-level communications and supporting consistent messaging across SEND improvement and reform activity.

About you

Essential:

• Experience in end-to-end project delivery: Demonstrable experience coordinating delivery in complex, fast-paced environments, effectively managing tasks, risks, resources and dependencies to achieve successful outcomes.
• Experience of risk and issue management, including identifying, assessing and mitigating risks to maintain delivery momentum.
• Strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to analyse issues, identify practical solutions and support implementation.
• Experience supporting process mapping activities, capturing and clearly documenting processes to contribute to effective service design.
• Excellent organisational and planning skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities, maintain pace and deliver to deadlines.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to adapt style and messaging for different audiences.
• Effective stakeholder management skills, building positive working relationships with a wide range of partners and stakeholders.
• Influencing and collaboration skills, able to bring people together, navigate differing priorities and support effective decision-making.
• Strong presentation skills: Able to prepare high quality reports, presentations and briefing materials that clearly convey progress, risks and recommendations for senior audiences and the wider stakeholders
• Resilience and ability to work in complex environments with a degree of ambiguity. Experience working in a team where priorities evolve, helping provide structure and clarity across diverse activities.

Desirable

• Relevant Project Management qualification
• Delivering projects within a cross-organisational or partnership environment
• Knowledge of national SEND policy, inclusion, and/or support for children with additional learning needs

This role will be at the centre of SEND reform and improvement in Hertfordshire, as part of a growing team. It is a fast-paced area but very rewarding. This is a great opportunity to make a real difference to the lives of children and young people with SEND in Hertfordshire.

We welcome applications from candidates who currently reside in the UK with established proof of right to work documentation. We are not able to offer sponsorship at this time for this role.

This job role is Level 11. Please locate the job profile here: Job profiles: Project & programme

Interview Date: 27th August - Face to Face, Stevenage

Benefits of working for us

How to apply

As part of your application, please upload your most recent CV. Ensure your CV is up to date with your employment history (including any employment gaps), and including any training/qualifications. We encourage you to include examples of where you have demonstrated the requirements/criteria in the advert / job profile to allow the panel to fully recognise your skills and abilities. You will have the opportunity to include a short covering paragraph within your application to give us a little more information about your skills, knowledge, and experiences.

Secondment
This role is open to secondments for eligible employees who work for HCC. If you wish to apply on a secondment basis, you must have your line manager’s approval before submitting your application. You will be asked to confirm this within your application form. If you are not eligible for a secondment (e.g., you are currently on a fixed‑term contract that would end before this positions ends) or you indicate that your manager cannot support a secondment, your application will be considered on a fixed‑term contract basis instead.

Additional information

We are changing
Hertfordshire County Councilis undergoing Local Government Reorganisation (LGR). If you are employed by Hertfordshire County on 1 April 2028, it is expected that most roles will transfer to the newly-created unitary councils on existing terms and conditions under TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings – Protection of Employment) principles.

LGR is one of the biggest changes we will face in a generation. It will reshape how we work and how services are organised and gives us a real opportunity to build something better. To find out more, visit https://www.hertfordshire-lgr.co.uk/

Disability Confident
We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and guarantee an interview to anyone disclosing a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post.

English Fluency
The ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post (for those whose language is a signed language the provision of a sign language interpreter who speaks English to the necessary standard of fluency will be required). Further information about the legal requirement can be found here.