Community Flood Engagement Officer

Community Flood Engagement Officer

Contract Type: Permanent Full time

Permanent: Full time

Salary: £34,723 - £39,493

Working Hours: 37

Location: Lichfield Surveyors Office, Trent Valley Road, Lichfield

Job Category: Highways/Transport/Traffic

Directorate: Economy, Infrastructure and Skills

Business Unit: Highways & the Built County 

The Flood Risk Management Team at Staffordshire County Council are currently setting up a new Community Flood Engagement Team and are recruiting to 4 permanent full-time posts and this is one of them.

This new team will help in making the priority of making Staffordshire more sustainable and encouraging good health and wellbeing, resilience and independence a reality.

The Flood Risk Management Team also provide a similar service to Black Country Authorities and comes under the wider remit of Highways and the Built County.

You will largely carry out the powers and duties of the Lead Local Flood Authority function as described in the Flood and Water Management Act (2010) in addition to managing a large portfolio of flood alleviation schemes.

We have been awarded funding for the project under Defra/Environment Agency's Flood & Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme. The project is called the FAIR Project (FAIR standing for flood aware, informed, resilient) and covers the Staffordshire and Black Country Authorities' area. More detail of this project and its context can be found here:

A FAIR Approach to Community Flood Risk | Engage Environment Agency (engagementhq.com)

Main Responsibilities

This is an exciting post that will put you at the cutting edge of local flood risk management.

With the support of the Community Flood Engagement Team Leader, your main responsibilities are to:

• Develop and maintain strong working relationships with a range of internal and external stakeholders.
• Engage with communities to co-design flood reduction measures and community plans, through innovative means, to improve community flood resilience.
• Proactively engage with local members and their communities to gather and feedback community insight to positively influence the FAIR project delivery, processes and procedures.
• iliaising with, and understanding, community local knowledge of flood risk.
• help co-design solutions with the community and experts in the field of flood risk management to bring about innovative solutions.

In addition, you will have the Community Flood Engagement Team Leader and will work with flood charity staff, active postgraduate students and others in the County Council. This includes colleagues in the wider flood risk management team, highways and emergency planners. You will also be working in Black Country Authority areas.

The Ideal Candidate

What you need to bring to this role:

• degree qualification in a technical subject ideally relating to flood risk or substantial experience in a similar role.
• an effective team player who is effective at engaging with communities, Councillors and other organisation
• experience of community engagement and managing customer/public interface, maintaining good internal/external stakeholder relations, and co-creating ideas through the expert-community interface
• knowledge of flood risk management solution
• experience in using ICT (e.g. GIS)
• experience in flood risk management/environmental profession and/or community engagement/liaison
• effective communication skills with a high level of influencing and persuasive skills across diverse geographical areas and organisations

About Staffordshire County Council

We are no ordinary county council:

Our Values:

The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively.

Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy:

We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future.

We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too.

Our benefits:

We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance.

In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to a range of benefits.

Our recruitment process:

As an Authority we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Staffordshire County Council is an equal opportunities organisation and Disability Confident employer. We encourage applications from all background and communities

As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a Silver Award Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as your application meets the minimum criteria for the post.

Closing date: 5 June 2023.

For more information or to apply to this role, please press the 'APPLY NOW' button below.