Head of Place

Head of Place Role specific additional information

The Head of Place role is responsible for a range of place-shaping functions within Gloucester City Council, with specific functional areas currently including:

•    Planning - Development Management, Enforcement, Policy (jointly with Cheltenham and Tewkesbury Councils), Community Infrastructure Levy and Section 106 agreements
•    Economic Development and Regeneration
•    Heritage
•    Major Capital Works Delivery
•    Oversight of strategic property matters (e.g. leasing, disposal, acquisition)
•    Building Control

The post holder can also be expected to undertake a range of wider corporate responsibilities, including at present acting as the Council’s Board Member for the UBICO Teckal waste company, and to deputise for the Managing Director on occasion (to whom the postholder will directly report).

This is an outwardly facing role, and the postholder will need to be comfortable building and sustaining positive relationships. This is particularly relevant to the development industry, national government departments, key employers and influential organisations (e.g. the further and higher education organisations in the City), and elected representatives.  Important skills/attributes for this post, in addition to the common attributes required of all Heads of Service, include:

•    The ability to identify, manage and mitigate risk, particularly in the context of development, and to ensure that appropriate governance arrangements are in place
•    The ability to communicate complex, technical situations/issues to a wide range of audiences
•    A commercial approach to public sector capital development
•    Ability to negotiate relatively complex ‘development’ agreements. Experience of working with the development industry would be helpful.

Although the Council operates an agile working policy, this particular postholder is expected to be physically present in the City several days per week on average.

As with all senior appointments, the postholder would also be expected to attend a range of committees (Cabinet, Overview and Scrutiny, etc), many of which take place in evenings.

Equality and Diversity

We recognise the positive value of equality and diversity and pride ourselves on growing a high-performing workforce that is diverse, skilled and talented.

We aim to recruit a diverse pool of talent and will recruit the person who is most suited to the job without regard to their race, colour, religion or belief, age, nationality, ethnicity, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, caring responsibilities or disability.

We are a disability confident employer committed to removing barriers to employment to those with disabilities or long-term health conditions. Reasonable adjustments will be made to the recruitment procedure to ensure that no-one is disadvantaged because of disability, impairment, neurodiversity, or long-term health/ mental health condition. Please contact the recruitment team if you require support or reasonable adjustments during the application or recruitment process. Recruitment@Gloucestershire.gov.uk

Further information on reasonable adjustments can be found Here (Accessibility). Our commitment to Equality and Diversity can be found Here (Equality and Diversity).

Special notes

Gloucester City Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people or vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

It is a legal requirement, under the Immigration Act 2016, that anyone appointed to a ‘customer facing role’ must be able to demonstrate an ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence in fluent English.

Please note that Gloucestershire County Council deliver recruitment services for City Council so responses may come from both City and County Council.