What's involved with this role: Labour Group Assistant/Admin – Political Services Job Ref: Merton 5258443 & 5258442 Pay Rate: £42,840 per annum Hours per week: 37 Monday – Friday, normal working hours Role Length: Permanent City: Morden, London Hybrid working available for the right candidate The purpose of the role is to provide support to the Labour Group enabling its effective contribution to the work of the administration and Council, providing policy, communications and administrative support, and acting as a link between the Leader of the Council, Cabinet and wider Group. Key Responsibilities: Support Group meetings through working with the Leader and Cabinet members on their reports to Group and preparing for Group discussions, including producing briefings, and liaising with the Group Chair and Secretary on the agenda, distribution of papers and organisation of meetings. Support Group in preparing for Council meetings, including preparing motions, amendments, questions, coordinating speakers, providing briefing, research and information, and liaising with the Chief Whip on Group attendance. Develop effective working relationships with the Council’s Corporate Management Team and officers at all levels in order to stay abreast of developing policy, in order to best support the Leader and Cabinet members in undertaking their roles, and to enable Group to make an effective contribution to the work of the administration, working closely with the Cabinet Support Officers. Support the Leader, Cabinet and Group members through preparing high-quality policy briefings, research and information, and by carrying out specific projects. Support the Leader, Cabinet and Group in developing effective communications, narrative and messaging around the priorities and progress of the administration, including drafting speeches, articles, press notices, social media content and newsletters, liaising closely with the Council’s Communications Team. Ensure Group members are kept up-to-date with local, national and London-wide issues, policy and legislation and how they affect Merton. Support the Leader, Cabinet members and Group in liaison with key local external stakeholders, and wider community engagement, including organising community meetings and visits, and disseminating information. Support the ongoing training and development of Group through organising training sessions, discussions, events and awaydays. Provide administrative support to the Group as required, and to support with administrative and office functions to support the effective running of the Leader’s Office, including providing cover for essential functions when required. Qualifications: NVQ Level 2 in a related area or relevant experience. Skills & Experience: Minimum of 12 months recent experience in a similar role, or context and ideally within a public sector organisation. Experience operating in similar roles or public affairs roles which have involved lobbying or promoting aims, profile of the organisation. Experience working independently with little supervision, managing competing priorities to demanding deadlines. Experience in roles providing high-quality policy briefings and research. Experience developing effective communications, narrative and messaging. Excellent experience of operating in a political environment. Ability to build strong, trusted relationships with the Leader, Cabinet, Group members, Corporate Management Team, officers and external partners and stakeholders. In-depth understanding of local government, its structures, governance arrangements and decision-making processes. Understanding of the relationship between the political administration and the Council’s officer team. Excellent understanding of the current and emerging national policy agenda facing local government. Strong IT skills including Microsoft packages or equivalent (e.g. G Suite). Please quote the Job Title & Vacancy Reference No. in your application, or we will be unable to match your CV to the role being applied for. Clients are generally looking for candidates who are local to, or who can commute easily to the place of work. It will help your application if your CV states, in broad terms, where you reside – there is no need for a full address. Please feel free to apply to us direct via jobstclrec.com by quoting the job reference and exact job title. To help speed up the process of uploading your CV to the client we would ask that you send us your CV in Word format (or equivalent) if possible, not as a PDF. If you are successful in securing this role, please note that for the entire duration of this contract, regardless of extension, you will be working at the PAYE rate that has been advertised. For absolute clarity, we only work on a PAYE basis, rather than umbrella pay terms. We do not offer Ltd/umbrella or outside IR35 rates. If you wish to understand PAYE vs Umbrella more, please let us know and we can send you some additional information for clarity. Due to the number of CVs being sent to us under current market conditions, unfortunately we cannot respond to all applications. If you have not heard from us within 3 working days, please assume that you have not been shortlisted on this occasion. We will, however, be very happy to receive future applications from you for other roles. S Please note that clients invariably ask us to strip out contact details from CVs before we submit them for consideration. This is always quicker and easier to do if you send your CV to us in Word format, rather than as a PDF please