Job introduction Join Our Team as Head of Parks and Leisure at Brighton and Hove Council. Do you want to play a key role in making Brighton and Hove an attractive and sustainable environment for all those who live, work, learn in and visit the city? Are you passionate about modernising the way Parks and Leisure services can be delivered? Do you have a talent for deploying new technologies and innovative strategies that make a positive difference to the lives of our residents? If this sounds like you, we would love to hear from you. This new role has been created to work collaboratively with elected members, senior officers, and partners in the city to help implement the council’s strategic vision, underpinned by our Corporate Plan. Key dates Closing date : 17 th February 2025 Shortlisted candidates contacted : week commencing 17 th February 2025. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to interview, and will also be asked to submit a 2 minute video by 26 th February 2025 Interviews : 3 rd or 4 th March 2025 For an informal discussion, please contact Chenine Bhathena Chenine.Bhathenabrighton-hove.gov.uk to arrange a call About the role As Head of Parks and Leisure within our Environment and Culture Directorate, you will be part of the service management team and the council’s extended leadership team. You will have a specialised remit, including: Leading on strategic and operational delivery of the development and provision of effective parks, green spaces, cemeteries/crematorium, sport and leisure facilities in the city. Driving the continuous improvement and development of the council’s approach to new ways of working and embedding of good practice. Ensuring compliance with all relevant legal/regulatory requirements relating to your portfolio of services. Leading on the modernisation of service delivery and value for money. You will have: Ambition for your service and the council with the drive to achieve excellence. Proven experience in managing and leading a large multi-functional workforce. Highly developed negotiation skills and the ability to build trusting relationships to successfully balance a diverse range of needs, whilst taking assertive action. Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to provide innovative solutions in complex and varying contexts that are legally compliant. Experience of offering technical or specialist advice within a large and/or complex operation or service and working collaboratively with a range of stakeholders. In return, you will receive: competitive pay full induction and on-going development and training paid annual leave Local Government Pension Scheme family friendly policies staff discount scheme and staff travel benefits, cycle loan rental deposit scheme and more We are looking for a senior leader who can drive the council to: · Be connected : to enable a connected organisation that has a clear one Council mission to create “a better Brighton and Hove for all.” Building a leadership that connects and brings critical resources together to address the knotty and challenging issues we face as a city. Creating a structure with clear accountability, communication and transparency that empowers Officers to make decisions as close to the front line as possible. · Be innovative and diverse: to enable the organisation to become more dynamic. To build a diverse workforce and leadership, which reflects the communities of Brighton and Hove that we serve. To support a network of leaders at all career stages. · Be confident: to build working practices that are agile and take a test & learn approach. To embed reflective practice, and a growth mindset culture where we all learn from our mistakes and use these experiences as opportunities to grow as an organisation. Build the workforce skill and acumen to work in complexity and be courageous leaders. · Be creative: to build the space and capacity for experimentation, reflection, and innovation. To enable creative policy development. To become a City Council that is an influencer and leader in key policy that will change the lives of our residents. To be a Council that embraces AI and new technologies to create efficiency and space to deal with the critical challenges our residents face, while recognising their limitations. Creating the space for our great staff to learn and grow with technological change so they can grow their careers with the skills they need and a culture where focus on efficiency and value for money is embedded in our ways of working. · Be healthy and psychologically safe: to create a trusted environment, enabling everyone to bring their best selves to work. To build a resilient workforce that looks after its health and wellbeing. This role is politically restricted. For further information on what this means for employees in post, please click on the document attachment below. Additional information Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only. We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us (brighton-hove.gov.uk) Company information Encouraging a diverse workforce Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, female or trans. Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and How we create a fair and inclusive workplace .