The Role

This is an exciting opportunity to enhance your emergency planning and business continuity skills by working for the London Boroughs of Richmond and Wandsworth, handling the diverse challenges working across two boroughs brings.

Responsible to the Emergency Planning Officer, you will be assisting in the development and maintenance of the Councils’ emergency planning and business continuity arrangements.

With five major town centres and fourteen “villages”, Richmond is the one of the least deprived London boroughs.  A third of the land is open space and with 100 parks, including 2 Royal Parks and over twenty miles of river frontage. A high percentage of the population is over 65, with a low throughput?

Wandsworth has a young, diverse, fast-growing population, and London’s largest redevelopment area.  Nine Elms spans 35 development sites, including the Battersea Power Station development, two new underground stations, 20,000 new residential premises (of which 20% is social housing) and it is home to the new American Embassy.  Wandsworth has the highest number of tower blocks for an inner London borough and has pockets of deprivation; all of which bring challenges for emergency planning response and recovery.

The Emergency Planning Unit sits within Environment and Community Services.  Our primary office is in Wandsworth with hot-desking facilities being available in Richmond.

As the Senior Emergency Planning Assistant previous experience of emergency planning and business continuity is essential and experience of staff management is desirable. You will be required to participate in the Councils’ 24-hour response rota by being on-call standby at specific times.

Working across services in both Councils’ and with multi-agency partners, the post holder will have:

• An understanding of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004
• A working knowledge of how other statutory organisations operate
• Experience of analysing data and presenting information in a clear manner
• The ability to plan and manage conflicting priorities and meet deadlines under pressure.

In return, we can offer you training opportunities, working arrangements that will enhance your work-life balance and a generous holiday allowance of 31 days plus bank holidays.

In addition, we offer a range of staff benefits such as membership of the Local Government contributory pension scheme, childcare vouchers, new technology scheme, interest-free loans on annual travel cards, discounts at many leisure activities, restaurants, shops, and other establishments. A wide range of developmental opportunities are also offered.

Indicative Recruitment Timeline

Closing Date:   10th February 2019

Shortlisting Date: 13th February 2019

Interview Date: 22nd February 2019

Please note that these dates are only indicative at this stage and could be subject to change.

Equality Statement

Richmond and Wandsworth Councils are committed to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone. We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and developing a culture that values differences, recognising that employees from a variety of backgrounds bring important and positive contributions to the Councils and can improve the way we deliver services.

We are pleased to be Disability Confident employer.

Important Information:

This post is exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to this post will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) helps employers make safer recruitment decisions and prevent unsuitable people from working with vulnerable groups, including children. It replaces the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA).

Richmond and Wandsworth Councils are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Richmond and Wandsworth Councils