Programme Support Officer

***We are recruiting for several fixed term opportunities until 31 March 2026, with extension possible but not guaranteed***

Location: Westminster or home-based

About us

The Local Government Association (LGA) is the national membership body for local authorities. We work on behalf of our member councils to support, promote and improve local government.

We are a politically led, cross-party organisation that works on behalf of councils to ensure local government has a strong, credible voice with national government. We influence and set the political agenda on the issues that matter to councils to help them deliver local solutions to national problems.

We also provide councils with the tools and resources to respond to challenges present and emerging, and support improvement across the sector.

We value diversity and encourage applications from all sections of the community to this high-profile role.

About Planning Advisory Service (PAS)

The Local Government Association, working in partnership with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and Natural England, is helping councils to improve their planning services. The Planning Advisory Service (PAS) delivers help, advice and training to officers and councillors across England that is designed to help them understand and respond to the Government's reform agenda.

PAS has been operating since 2004 and has a well-established reputation for the quality of its work. We work to improve the capacity and capability of local government teams with an ever-expanding selection of skills, experiences and professions.

We are a majority home-working team but some of us are based at our office in Westminster. Our work can require regular visits to regions and conferences that may sometimes require staying away from home. In line with our funding this role is initially offered as a fixed term post until 31st March 2026.

About the role

Programme Support Officers (PSOs) provide a wide range of help to our team of 15 consultants. We deliver 14 projects each of which will have its own timetable of design, delivery and evaluation. PSOs help organise and coordinate throughout the project life cycle, and need to be able to cope with the peaks and troughs of a highly variable workload.

The role requires an individual who can: work independently across multiple projects at any one time, be very confident in the use of a corporate finance system and be able to report and analyse spend and budgets, chase external stakeholders for information, plan and prepare meetings and events, take minutes, raise orders and invoices, monitor budgets, routinely keep project information and records up to date, understand and follow corporate policies and processes.

About you

Successful applicants will need to be: a team player who is flexible and capable of working with minimal supervision; well organised with the ability to plan and deliver a varied workload; highly capable and well-motivated; excellent communicators with people at various levels of seniority. They will also need to have strong interpersonal skills and have excellent attention to detail.

We are also looking for someone who can help improve the structure of our website, but the finance and budget work is essential too.

You must have the right to work in the UK, the LGA are unfortunately unable to offer sponsorship visas. Evidence for the right to work in the UK will be requested at the interview stage.

To apply

If you would like to be considered for the role, please complete the online form and include a supporting statement detailing how you meet the criteria for the role before the closing date.

We are specifically assessing candidates against the following criteria:

1. Understanding of Local Government and the LGA’s values
2. A high standard of written work
3. A high standard of numerical skills and Excel
4. Experience of problem solving and working in partnership with a range of stakeholders
5. Bringing relevant skills and knowledge that complement and widen the PAS team’s strengths

Closing Date: 5pm, Monday 5 May 2025

Interview Date: Thursday 15th and Friday 16th May 2025 in person at 18 Smith Square

At the LGA we celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. Our recruitment decisions are based on fair, open competition, with appointment on merit. The LGA are proud to be awarded a “Disability Confident Leader”. If you require a reasonable adjustment, which is a change to the format or conditions of the recruitment process to accommodate any disability-related needs you may have, please contact us via recruitment@local.gov.uk

Our benefits

• LGA annual leave entitlement is 29 days, rising to 31 days after three years’ service and to 33 days after five years’ service, plus all UK public holidays (pro rata for fixed term and part time contracts).
• Flexible & agile working – office-based staff are required to work in the LGA’s London office two days per week as a minimum, subject to business need and this may vary significantly between different roles and from week to week.
• Future development – face-to-face and virtual courses are scheduled in line with developmental goals.
• The LGA offers 24/7 access to a free, confidential employee assistance programme managed by Health Assured. This service is also available for Dependants.
• Family friendly policies.

For more of LGA’s benefits and working with us, please view our webpage https://www.local.gov.uk/benefits-and-working-lga

Our values & behaviours

Our Values and Behaviours are there to give us an understanding of who we are as an organisation and who we want to be. They are a framework to help us understand:

• how we work with each other
• how we work with our members and stakeholders
• our expectations for ourselves and each other

Our values are:

Collaboration – We value collaboration, to pursue shared goals by encouraging and utilising diverse perspectives and working with internal and external colleagues across the organisation.

Inclusion – We value inclusion, where everyone feels valued, understood, and supported to contribute meaningfully.

Ambition – We value ambition, reflecting our desire to achieve best possible outcomes for local government, communities, and individuals.

Respect – We value respect, to ensure fairness, recognition, and shared accountability.