• Suffolk County Council, Ipswich, IP1 2BX
• £30,151 per annum (pro rata if part time)
• 37 Hours per week (part time working considered)
• Fixed Term to 31st December 2025 (funding)

We are committed to flexible working, so please read the Job and Person Profile (docx) to find out about the types of flexible working available for this role.

We welcome applications from everyone. We particularly welcome applications from people from minority ethnic and minority sexual orientation groups because they are under-represented in this Directorate.

Job Details

A rare and rewarding opportunity has arisen to join the Behaviour Change Team within the Growth, Highways and Infrastructure (GHI) directorate as a Project Officer for the Active Travel Social Prescribing Pilot (ATSPP) in Ipswich and Lowestoft.

As a Project Officer working as part of the Behaviour Change Team you will be a key link between Clients, Delivery Partners, and Suffolk County Council. Reporting to the Project Lead, you will work with partners to ensure that the interventions are effective, successful, and accessible to the target groups that the project seeks to work with.

Your skill at coordinating cycling and walking interventions to include courses, classes and community events will be matched by your enthusiasm for the life-enhancing changes that being active can bring to individuals suffering from poor mental or physical health.

Your role and responsibilities

You will need to be organised and whilst thinking and working operationally you will need an eye for detail. The project is one of 11 pilots in England and will be reviewed from within Suffolk County Council, external stakeholders, and the media. Your effective coordination of the project partners will be essential to the success of the pilot and will create a framework that will allow the continuation of the team’s involvement with social prescribing beyond the initial scope of the pilot.

Your responsibilities will include service delivery, finance processing, helpline, and database management. You will be working with our monitoring and evaluation partner to ensure that accurate information is available for project oversight as required by the Department for Transport (DfT) framework.

You will need

• excellent communication skills will be vital to your success in the role, both verbal and written with the need to liaise with all stakeholders on a regular basis

• experience of delivering projects on time will be a contributory factor to your success in the role.

You can view a full list of requirements in the Job and Person Profile (docx). If you think you have what it takes to be successful in this role, even if you don’t meet all the requirements, please apply. We would appreciate the opportunity to consider your application.

The team

The Behaviour Change Team works with individuals, businesses, and education settings. We facilitate ‘active travel’ contributing to positive health outcomes for individuals and supporting the move to ‘Net Zero’. Additionally, we work across schools throughout the county to ensure that Road Safety Education is delivered effectively to the greatest possible number of young people. Although based within Transport Strategy, the team also touches on areas involving public health, such as air quality. As part of the work on the social prescribing pilot we will look to extend and embed the outcomes across both our Growth, Highways and Infrastructure and Public Health and Communities directorates.

We will offer you

• experience participating in a project which has the potential to gain national recognition
• experience of working alongside a recognised educational establishment that have been procured to monitor and evaluate the project outcomes
• the opportunity to grow and develop project management and networking skills
• exposure to Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprises, Integrated Care Boards, GP, NHS, and Social Prescribing contacts. Along with other local authority specialists across the UK and an array of colleagues from Suffolk County Council, East Suffolk Council, Ipswich Borough and Mid Suffolk and Babergh District Councils.

Travel and workplace requirements

We positively encourage the use of technology to communicate, but in this role, you will need to travel to locations away from your contractual base, so you must either hold a full and current driving licence and have access to personal transport or meet the mobility requirements of the role through other reasonable and suitable means. If you require a reasonable adjustment due to a disability to meet the travel requirements of this role, please speak with the contact detailed below.

This role supports hybrid working, a broadly even balance between working from home and working from an office base. Please speak with the contact detailed below if you wish to discuss how that might impact your working arrangements. #LI-Hybrid

For more information

For an informal discussion, please contact Lorraine Baker (she/her)] by calling (01473) 260438 or emailing lorraine.baker@suffolk.gov.uk.

To apply please ensure

• you read the Job and Person Profile (docx), before applying for this job opportunity
• you upload a copy of your CV (with no name or personal details included) when completing your online application
• when writing your Supporting Statement template, please answer the following questions (max 500 words each):

Question 1 – Please detail any significant involvement that you have previously had with programmes / projects, whether within SCC or externally. Please include information about the timescales and exactly what your involvement was. How long did the project(s) continue for? What was / were the outcomes?

Question 2 – Please explain what you understand by social prescribing, how it might be delivered in Ipswich and Lowestoft (the areas for the pilot) and what you would need in place to be successful.

Closing date: 11.30pm 29 May 2023

Interview date: w/c 5 June 2023

This authority is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. DBS checks or police vetting will be required for relevant posts.

We offer a fantastic, inclusive working environment including diverse and active staff networks, great flexible working options and many benefits, as well as the opportunity to improve the lives of Suffolk residents.

Benefits include:

• Performance-related annual pay progression, in addition to an annual cost-of-living pay increase
• The opportunity to join a large, diverse organisation, with career opportunities across our services
• A supportive culture, underpinned by our WE ASPIRE values
• Access to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)
• Up to 28 days annual leave entitlement, plus UK bank holidays and two paid volunteering days
• An occupational sick pay scheme
• Learning and development opportunities, including a range of work-based apprenticeships
• Flexible working options, with the right to request flexible working from your first day
• A range of staff networks centred around equality groups
• Plus more

If you would like to know more about our benefits, values and equality commitments please visit our Working for Suffolk County Council pages (www.Suffolk.gov.uk/careers).