Overview

Buckinghamshire Council is looking for a dynamic and experienced cultural professional to join our new Culture Development team. This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to a fresh approach to the delivery of our cultural strategy.

About us

As a relatively new unitary council, Buckinghamshire Council is going through a series of service reviews to ensure best delivery of services countywide for our residents.

The Culture, Sport and Leisure service has just finished its restructure which has resulted in a number of new roles, one of which is a Culture Development Officer. In this role, you will be part of the Culture Development team (of four people) and will be part of the wider Culture team which covers the Buckinghamshire Film Office and Buckinghamshire Archives.

The Culture Development team works with key partners internally and externally to support projects and initiatives that deliver against the outcomes of the Bucks Cultural Strategy. This new team has an important role to advocate for the benefits of culture and its contribution to a number of wider council priorities.

This is an exciting time to be part of the Culture team – and the Council – as it transforms service delivery.

About the role

Working closely with the independent cultural partnership, Bucks Culture, you will support projects and activities linked to the cultural strategy action plan and help to develop a framework and model for a new countywide festival of stories, with new collaborations and funding opportunities.

You will be developing and growing the existing WhizzFizz children’s arts festival to build on previous successes and increase partnership delivery across the county. Together with colleagues in the Libraries team, you will support the development of Bucks libraries as cultural hubs with a wide and varied cultural and creative programme.

You will be promoting and strengthening understanding of the contribution culture makes to cross-cutting priorities and outcomes, including health and wellbeing, planning/placemaking, regeneration and economic development, by building relationships with other internal services.

About you

We are looking for an exceptional cultural professional at least 3 years’ experience of working with and/or in the cultural sector and a demonstrable track record of delivering outcomes that require collaborative approaches across different organisations.

Partnership working is key to this role and demands a successful track record of engaging with others and building productive partnerships with key stakeholders in the public, private and voluntary sectors.

You will need to have experience of developing and delivering cultural/creative projects to specified outcomes and budgets. You will ideally have some experience of working with library services and knowledge of cultural/creative festival development, working with artists and creating artists’ briefs.

Advocacy work, particularly with internal colleagues, requires excellent influencing skills and a strong understanding of the national and local cultural landscape, emerging opportunities and key issues.

Other information

For further information on this role please see the attached job summary.

The team is currently working flexibly with at least 2 days per week in the office.

Number of positions available: 1

Closing date: 9th April 2023

Interview date: w/c 24th April 2023

Interview type/process: In person

If you would like to have an informal conversation with the recruiting manager, please contact: Ruth Page, Head of Culture, ruth.page@buckinghamshire.gov.uk

This post is covered by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare:

– Unspent convictions and/or unspent conditional cautions only

For further information on how long it takes for convictions and conditional cautions to be spent, please refer to Nacro’s guide on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act.

We reserve the right to close the vacancy once we have received sufficient applications, so please be advised to submit your application as early as possible.

Our values and culture

We have a set of values, which our employees have chosen, that represent what we are – Proud, Ambitious, Collaborative and Trustworthy.

At Buckinghamshire Council, we know that our biggest strength comes from the people that work for us, and that’s why we’re working hard to ensure we continue to be an accessible and inclusive organisation.

From dedicated staff networks overseen by our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group, to proudly standing as a Disability Confident employer, it’s important to us that all our colleagues feel engaged, listened to, and valued. Our offer of flexible working empowers a productive and happy workforce and allows employees to combine work with other responsibilities and commitments.

We believe our workforce should reflect the diverse communities we service in Buckinghamshire, and are looking for like-minded individuals to join us in promoting equality, fairness, and inclusion for everyone.

About the Business Unit

Our Communities directorate works across the county to deliver a number of the key customer-facing services that our residents, businesses and visitors rely on every day.

Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme

Disability Confident

About Disability Confident

A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.