Community Engagement Officer (School Streets)

About the role
Are you an enthusiastic and capable problem solver with a desire to help more children walk and cycle to school? We are looking for someone with enthusiasm and commitment to manage our School Streets programme.  A School Street is a restriction on motor vehicles on streets around the school at drop off and pick up times to provide a safer, cleaner and healthier environment for all, and enable and encourage more walking and cycling. Many pupils and parents would like their children to walk or cycle to school if they felt safer, and many schools and communities suffer from increased traffic and parking related to the school run.  You will help schools to  manage issues traffic and parking at the school gates by working with them to implement new school streets.  School streets contribute to the Dorset Council Plan priorities of protecting our natural environment, climate and ecology and creating stronger, healthier communities.  This is a full time post within the Transport Planning team.

What you can expect to be doing

In your new role you will be responsible for developing, growing, leading and implementing Dorset’s School Streets programme. You will be the main contact for schools and work closely with the road safety and traffic teams to deliver new school streets projects. You will manage and respond to customer feedback on the above.   You will also deliver community engagement activity and events to accompany new active travel infrastructure projects.  You will work closely with the road safety, traffic regulation, and communications teams.
About you

This role would suit someone with experience of managing community projects or someone with a background in communications. Experience of working with schools, road safety or traffic management is desirable but not essential. This role is best suited to someone with a friendly, approachable and outgoing personality who can bring enthusiasm and a can do attitude to the role.

You should be an effective communicator, have strong project management skills and be willing to respond to schools and communities to help overcome barriers to success. This role will sometimes involve early starts.

Interviews will be confirmed following shortlisting.
Further Information

Dorset Council offers a wide range of staff training and support and is embracing a hybrid working culture that encourages a flexible mix of home and office working.

For more information about this role, please contact Laura Russ [email protected] 01305 228228
This post requires significant travel. You must have a vehicle (or transport we deem suitable) available for use as needed.

This post involves working with children and/or vulnerable adults and/or having access to significant information about them. It will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service check. See our policy on the employment of ex-offenders.
About Us
We’re passionate about making Dorset a great place to live, work and visit. Working for us should be no exception.

At Dorset Council we:

provide more than 450 services to over 300,000 residents
have ambitious aspirations
are excited about our future
care about Dorset and all the people who live here
know that all roles make a difference and that our employees are key to our success
You will:

have access to a range of employee benefits
be part of an organisation that supports each other to grow and succeed
have access to range of training opportunities which will help with your personal development and career progression
We are challenging ourselves to become a more diverse and inclusive organisation.

We recognise that recruitment and inclusion of individuals with diverse skills, perspectives and backgrounds will bring real strength to the council and our communities. We have a commitment to equality and welcome applications from everyone.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We offer an interview to everyone who declares a disability and meets the essential criteria for the role.

We are keen to make our interviews accessible. Let us know on your job application if you have a disability and need any reasonable adjustments.

We also look for applicants who share our commitment to our behaviours. We will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.

If appointed, the personal information we collect from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. If any of these are detected, you could be refused certain services or employment. Your personal information will also be used to verify your identity. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, and your data protection rights, can be found at https://www.cifas.org.uk/fpn.

This role is UK based and we will need to establish your Right to Work as part of the appointment process.