The Change Officer role is a integral role within both Area and National Change Delivery teams which work across Prison and Probation. Change Officers are expected to work directly to either Area Change Managers, or in the case of the National Directorates, to the National Head of Change delivery. This role is pivotal in overseeing, and in the delivery of, both local and nationally identified change initiatives. Change Officers will work across a number of prisons or probation establishments and may be identified as the lead (main point of contact) for a specific prison establishment or geographical area. Change Officers will be expected to use digital systems and tools (such as Gateway Management System, GMS, and Project for the Web, PftW) to appropriately tier, record and track change management activity and identify progress against articulated success metrics.
Key Responsibilities:
Team Role: Providing support and working collaboratively with colleagues. Provide, and also seek, opportunities to support the professional development of themselves and others where appropriate. Ability to provide oversight of change projects they are actively supporting or leading on. They will engage in quality assurance and peer review of projects. To uphold civil service values and model principles of equality, diversity, inclusion, and belonging across the team.
Stakeholder Engagement: Building and maintaining effective working relationships with regional, or national, change agent stakeholders across prisons and probations. This may include colleagues from within the Change Directorate but will also include staff such as Business Managers, Heads of Business Assurance, Area Executive Directors, Regional Probation Directors, Prison Group Directors, Prison Governors, Heads of Service. Support the development and execution of effective communication strategies for the change projects as required. Attending and presenting at local/group/regional/ national meetings, including governance boards and stakeholder groups as required.
Compliance: Ensuring compliance with the Gateway Management System (GMS) is a critical aspect of the role. The Change Officer will uphold the professional standards of their team by working in according to national expectations as defined in our service level agreement and protocols for GMS and PftW. They will ensure accuracy and completeness of project records and actions and monitor compliance with relevant policies and procedures.
Change Management Excellence: The Change Officer will apply the best practices in change management to all projects. They will personally manage projects, ensuring successful delivery and alignment with organizational goals. Leading task and finish groups, project meetings, and focus groups to drive project success.
Performance Monitoring and Reporting: The Change Officer understand and contribute to the collation of monthly reporting within Prison Groups and Probation Regions including bespoke analysis at establishment level, for example, if required. They will be responsible for providing regular project updates to line managers, to demonstrate continuous improvement with PftW and GMS systems are accurate and up to date. Track the impact of changes based on performance data, they will identify and escalate issues where milestones are missed or progress is not being made
Risk Management: Proactively identify risks, decisions, and opportunities, and develop mitigation strategies, making escalations to line managers as appropriate. Maintain and update risk registers for change activity, ensuring all potential risks are documented and addressed.
Continuous Improvement: Apply continuous improvement and lean methodologies to identify system improvements and enhance project delivery. To actively seek ways to improve knowledge of operational change and its potential impacts and share insights with the team.