Project Support Assistant

We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging. To find out more about how we do this visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity.

Prison Leavers is a project to improve the social inclusion of people leaving prison. It received £20million funding from the HMT Shared Outcomes Fund, which supports innovative approaches to complex challenges which ‘cut across’ multiple departments.

The Prison Leavers Project recognises that to solve the intractable and interconnected challenges that people face when leaving prison, we need to work in new ways. It adopts a systems-led approach, bringing together more than 30 organisations including government departments, local authorities, police and charities, to establish joint ownership of the problems and solutions for people leaving prison. By building a better understanding of the entire system, we aim to identify key points of leverage where interventions might have a wider ripple effect, and adopt new approaches which address the barriers which people face on release, increasing their ability to participate and feel included in their communities. In doing so, we will improve the experience and outcomes for our service users, and support key Government priorities such as reducing reoffending, ending rough sleeping, supporting people to enter work and enhancing social mobility.

The job holder will support a team of facilitator Practitioners hosting group-based support for males nearing release from prison. This role is to serve a fixed term pilot and will involve liaising with the central team to support external evaluation of the work. The role is available as a secondment or as a fixed term appointment. This is a non-operational job without clinical, or line management responsibilities.

The job holder will be home-based and working remotely to support Practitioners to integrate well with local prison processes that support group work - some flexibility needed to travel to sites infrequently as required. Reporting to the Project Coordinator, the job holder will work closely with site staff to maintain safety of participants, and to sequence the activity with other pre-release activities.

Overview of the job

This role will support the work of the programme and project teams.

Summary

The job holder will be expected to support the programme/project team by assisting with an appropriate range of tasks relating to the assurance and approval of projects within the programme.

Responsibilities, Activities & Duties

The job holder will be required to carry out the following responsibilities, activities and duties:

· Collect data and forecast and assist with compilation of reports.

· Update plans supporting the Secretariat function for the relevant governance boards

· Develop and maintain project files

· Establish document control procedures

· Administer and when necessary attend meetings as secretary producing a first draft of minutes and action logs

· Contribute in the use of specialist tools and techniques such as planning and control, tools, risk analysis

· Maintain and update the programmes documentation such as Quality Register, Configuration Items Records and any other register / logs delegated by the Project Manager

· Chasing action owners for updates on their actions

· Maintaining the Terms of Reference, membership and distribution lists

· Filing, archiving and enacted version control on all meeting documentation

The duties/responsibilities listed above describe the post as it is at present and is not intended to be exhaustive. The Job holder is expected to accept reasonable alterations and additional tasks of a similar level that may be necessary. Significant adjustments may require re-examination under the Job Evaluation scheme and shall be discussed in the first instance with the Job Holder.

Behaviours

· Making Effective Decisions

· Delivering at Pace

· Working Together

· Managing a Quality Service

Essential Experience

For the purpose of selection the following Project Delivery Profession Skills

· Managing project lifecycles

· Administration and organisation

· Good written and oral communication skills

· Good interpersonal skills

Technical requirements

· The job holder will be required to have a PRINCE 2 Foundation or be willing to undertake the necessary training required.

· Knowledge of corporate or programme management standards applicable to the project

· Intermediate/expert skills in MS-Office applications, especially Word, Excel and PowerPoint.