Job Title: School Planning Officer Starting Salary: £33,366 progressing to £36,124 per annum Hours: 37.0 Location: Hertfordshire Mainly home working but attendance at Stevenage office as required. Contract Type: Permanent Directorate: Childrens Services About the team The School Planning Team in Children's Services commissions schools and school places as part of the Local Authority's statutory duty to ensure a sufficient supply of school places across the County. It negotiates the supply and demand for school places through the adjustment of admissions numbers, expansion and contraction of school size, opening new schools as well as school closures. These 'alterations' require transparent statutory processes which allow for public consultation and published decision-making by County Councillors. About the role This permanent position is ideally suited to a self-starter and team player who is able to research, map and analyse a range of datasets to support the review of school place provision across Hertfordshire. You will need to timetable and administer the tasks behind our statutory processes and ensure their efficient implementation with minimal supervision, including the co-ordination of public meetings. You will be responsible for collating data, drawing initial conclusions from your analysis and playing a key role in delivering datasets to the wider team to inform school planning decisions, including our published annual forecast, supporting Department for Education data collections and maintaining the School Planning webpages. About you Essential : Excellent administrative skills Good written and oral communication skills Organisational skills Strong numerical and analytical skills Teamworking Excel spreadsheet skills including pivot tables and the use of formulae (there will be an Excel test as part of the interview stage) Desirable : GIS mapping Database knowledge This is a great opportunity for you to utilise your analytical, administrative and communication skills whilst also gaining a deeper understanding of the school place planning landscape in Hertfordshire. The successful candidate will be part of a small analytical and administrative team which supports the School Planning's team wider statutory responsibilities. You will need to have a high level of numerical competence and a good understanding of MS Office, Excel, Word and preferably GIS mapping (Access db also desirable). This job role is within the Community Services, level COM9 job profile. Please locate this via: Job profiles - Community services To hear more about this opportunity please contact Gary Gant at gary.ganthertfordshire.gov.uk. Interview Date: Thursday 20th February 2025 Benefits of working for us How to apply As part of your application, please upload your most recent CV. Ensure your CV is up to date with your employment history (including any employment gaps), and including any training/qualifications. We encourage you to include examples of where you have demonstrated the requirements/criteria in the advert / job profile to allow the panel to fully recognise your skills and abilities. You will have the opportunity to include a short covering paragraph within your application to give us a little more information about your skills, knowledge, and experiences. Disability Confident We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and guarantee an interview to anyone disclosing a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post. Safeguarding This role has been identified as requiring a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check. English Fluency The ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post (for those whose language is a signed language the provision of a sign language interpreter who speaks English to the necessary standard of fluency will be required). Further information about the legal requirement can be found here.