Governance and Scrutiny Officer

**Governance and Scrutiny Officer**
**£36,160 - £36,172 per annum 37 Hours per week**
**Permanent**
**Witney**

West Oxfordshire District Council is focused on enabling a fulfilling and meaningful quality of life for our residents with opportunities for all to flourish. We provide a range of important services including planning, housing, waste and recycling collections, leisure, community safety and environmental health. The Council has an ambitious Council Plan focused on a range of important priorities including putting residents first, climate and ecological action, affordable housing, and helping our economy to grow. We want to deliver excellent services whilst ensuring the financial sustainability of the Council. We also want to continue working in close partnership with our local communities and other important partners.

**About the role**

We are dedicated to ensuring transparency, accountability, and high standards of governance across our operations. We are seeking an experienced and knowledgeable Governance and Scrutiny Officer to join our team and play a pivotal role in enhancing our governance frameworks and scrutiny processes.

As the Governance and Scrutiny Officer, you will provide technical expertise, advice, and direction to both internal and external customers, helping them solve complex problems and manage risks. You will lead and manage sensitive, high-stakes projects and reviews, including community governance assessments, and will play a crucial role in supporting the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and its task and finish groups.

**Key Responsibilities**:

- ** Scrutiny Support**: Lead the implementation of specialist technical support to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and its task and finish groups. This includes managing scrutiny review projects, producing briefing notes, scoping documents, and evidence-based reports with recommendations to the Council’s Executive or other bodies.
- ** Promotion of Scrutiny and Governance**: Advocate for effective scrutiny and good governance practices across the Council. You will manage committee work plans, engage with Council departments, and provide officer and member training and support in scrutiny and governance.
- ** Improvement Projects**: Assist the Democratic Services Business Manager with implementing improvement projects and delivering service plans to enhance departmental efficiency and effectiveness.

**You will need**
- A qualification in your area of expertise, equivalent to a degree or relevant experience of five years
- Experience of working flexibly as part of a team and collaborating with colleagues and stakeholders
- Experience of being involved in continuously improving services and developing products to meet customer need
- Ability to remain calm and confident when dealing with challenging customers and environments

**Special Conditions**
- Ability to travel
- BPSS Check

For more information about this role please see the Job Description/Person Specification.

**What can we do for you **
- Agile working allowing a mix of home and office working
- Flexible working arrangements _(depending on the role)_
- 26 days paid annual leave (pro rata if you are working part time) plus bank holidays, which increases to 29 days after five years’ service and 32 days following 10 years’ continuous service
- In addition you will have an extra two volunteering days a year for you to support a charity of your choice
- Renewed again for another year there is a Health cash plan giving you cash back on health, dental and eye care
- Generous contributory local government pension scheme
- Employee Assistance Programme 24/7, providing positive, preventative and supportive advice and counselling to deal with everyday events and issues
- Cycle to work scheme
- Salary sacrifice car lease scheme with significant tax and NI savings to be made on electric cars
- Generous sickness cover above statutory entitlements

Terms and conditions apply

These are just a handful of the benefits that you can enjoy when you join us