Our aim is for everyone in the National Church Institutions (NCIs) to feel that they belong, and are valued for who they are and what they contribute. Together, our people contribute in different ways towards our common purpose, whichever NCI they work in and whatever their background.

The National Safeguarding Team provides professional safeguarding advice to the Church of England on matters of national policy as part of its wider transformation plan, which includes the development and implementation of national policy, training, quality assurance and audit, and work with survivors. The national safeguarding team also leads complex casework and supports dioceses in their safeguarding of children and adults.

As a project support officer, you won’t only perform routine administrative duties like minute taking – rather, your responsibilities will be inextricably tied to the success of the project you are working on. Driving everything forward from planning to implementation, your actions will directly influence the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the project.

Every project is different and therefore your duties will change accordingly. However, for the most part, you will be responsible for monitoring project schedules, tracking tasks progress and liaising with key stakeholders.

As the project manager’s right-hand person, you will play an important role in project planning and risk and issue management. Moreover, you will log, manage and analyse information on the progress of the project, using different planning tools.

You will be highly organised, dynamic, flexible, punctual and proactive suggesting process improvements to help move the project ahead

For an informal discussion about this role, please email joanne.geddes@churchofengland.org

Candidates are encouraged to apply early. Interviews may be held on a rolling basis and we reserve the right to close the advert earlier than the date advertised

To provide high quality business support to projects, programmes and quality assurance activities undertaken by the National Safeguarding Team.

The main responsibilities for this role are:

• Maintaining project management structures/documentation, frameworks and tools, and supporting project managers and other colleagues to use these consistently and effectively.
• Contributing to the development of project documentation by liaising with relevant stakeholders
• Analysing all data and project deliverables and ensure adherence to all timeframe and budget requirements.
• Proactively maintaining resourced project plans, RAID logs, task logs, benefits logs, including allocation of work packages where appropriate and liaising with stakeholders on actions progress.
• Proactively maintaining central project records and maintaining project controls as established by a PM, keeping the project team members aware of the project status and any outstanding/overdue tasks.
• Actively flagging and reporting to PM any overdue tasks and actions during system configuration, testing and cutover stages
• Providing secretariat to Project Boards as needed and attending Project team meetings
• Managing the full action process (picking out of minutes, adding to log, chasing and updating).
• Forethought of actions timeline and project governance - planning ahead with stakeholders and coordinating actions ahead of time.
• Burndown charts and project progress reporting (whether on Asana or Excel).
• Admin of project supporting tools such as Teams, Box.com, Asana. Owning these areas and ensure maintained
• Providing flexible, hands-on delivery support and assisting with effective communication between project management and stakeholders. This can include responding to basic project questions and managing invoice handling/tracking budget, sending doodle polls, liaising with various PAs on diaries for meeting scheduling.
• Managing meetings logistics - booking meetings, meetings rooms
• Maintaining meeting schedules, ensuring zooms are managed with waiting rooms, owning responsibility
• Organisation and coordination of events, including virtual events, as necessary
• Undertaking other duties not specifically stated which from time to time are necessary without altering the nature or level of responsibility as requested by the Project Manager or Senior Responsible Officer
• Implement and maintain appropriate systems to enable effective planning and scheduling of project activities.
• Proactively engage with NST staff and project teams, including Project Board members and subject matter experts, on a variety of topics.
• Maintain constructive relationships with a broad range of internal and external stakeholders.
• Develop and maintain networks internally and externally, including national networks.
• Participate in relevant internal and external working groups/projects, services and initiatives to provide information, advice and support.

The ideal candidate should have:

Essential

Skills/Aptitudes:

• End to end understanding of an IT project lifecycle and methodology
• Highly IT literate and proficient with common applications such as Microsoft Office and Project Planning software (JIRA, Monday/Asana or similar), as well as web-based applications and ability to learn new relevant software packages
• Highly organised, proactive and able to plan ahead.
• Accurate, with an eye for detail.
• Able to analyse quantitative and qualitative data and draw out key themes.
• Able to present the data analysed using a range of presentation tools.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills for a range of audiences.
• Ability to build and maintain effective relationships with a range of individuals, including those who are survivors of abuse.
• Ability to work flexibly whilst working to tight deadlines.

Knowledge/Experience:

• At least 2+ years’ experience supporting large/complex system implementation projects in a PMO Analyst capacity in a fast-paced, multi-stakeholder environment
• Governance knowledge - Project Healthcheck reporting, Dashboard reporting
• Experience of working in a role requiring a sensitive and considerate approach.
• Experience of data analysis and reporting.
• Experience of diary, meeting and events administration
• Time management skills

Personal Attributes:

• “Can do”, problem-solving approach to work
• Passionate about contributing to the protection of children and vulnerable adults
• Effective development and management of relationships with a range of people.
• Good interpersonal and professional communication skills
• Demonstrates personal initiative
• Ability to work under pressure
• Understanding and empathy for the mission of the Church of England.
• Team player

Desirable

Knowledge/Experience:

• Experience of working in a setting with either children and families or vulnerable adults, for instance local authority, social care or NHS settings
• Knowledge of safeguarding
• Have experience working on internal and external communications such as newsletters and websites.

Circumstances:

• This role might include some national travel

In the National Church Institutions (NCIs), we support the mission and ministries of the Church of England. We work with parishes, dioceses, schools, chaplaincies and other ministries, and with national and international partners including mission agencies, and other denominations and faith groups.-.

Find out more about working for the National Church Institutions by visiting Careers | The Church of England

NCI values

• We strive for excellence
• We collaborate
• We act with integrity
• We show compassion
• We respect others

We welcome everyone and we accept and value people for who they are and what they contribute, treating others in the way we would wish to be treated ourselves. We actively listen to and include others, encouraging and enabling everyone’s voice to be heard in discussions and decisions. When we disagree, we aim to disagree well with respect and kindness.

We want to encourage applications from a diverse group of people. Even if you have never thought about working for us before, if you have the skills and experience we’re looking for then we would like to hear from you. If there is anything we can do to support you in your application please get in touch via email to hr.recruitment@churchofengland.org.

• As a Disability Confident Leader, we actively look to attract, recruit and retain those of you who are disabled.
• We are a member of the Armed Forces Covenant, and welcome applications from those of you who have served in our Armed Forces and their families.