Democratic Services Officer

This role sits within Democratic Services team and works at the heart of the council's decision-making process supporting our committees, councillors, and residents. You will work closely with councillors and senior officers to ensure that decisions are properly taken and that the council is held to account by its scrutiny committees and residents. This is a fantastic opportunity to bring your experience, skills and ideas to support the political governance of the Council and make a real difference to people's lives., You will be responsible for:

• Supporting committees and other council meetings
• Preparing agendas, reports and minutes
• Providing procedural advice to councillors and officers
• Helping residents, partners and others access the democratic process
• Developing briefings and advice on policy matters for councillors and senior leaders, The London Borough of Waltham Forest only advertises vacancies via our official website and approved recruitment platforms (e.g. Jobsgopublic).
We will never ask for payment or request sensitive personal or financial information as part of our recruitment process. If you are contacted by a third party claiming to represent the Council, please verify the vacancy via our official careers website before sharing any information. If you have concerns about a job advert or communication, please report it to


• Experience supporting committees or governance processes
• Strong planning and organisational skills
• Experience of providing services to senior leaders (councillors and officers) in a fast paced, political environment with resilience in the face of contradicting priorities and demanding workload
• Experience of writing high quality communications, including briefings, minutes and committee reports
• Excellent interpersonal and presentational skills, with proven ability to communicate effectively with a wide range of audiences.
Good understanding of the context in which Waltham Forest Borough Council operates, including major issues facing local government, key stakeholders and relevant national policy context. Terms and conditions:
• Satisfactory employment references
• This post is politically restricted therefore the post holder is disqualified from undertaking certain political activities under the Local Government Officers (Political Restrictions) Regulations 1990.
• Satisfactory declaration of interest;
As a public authority, we must ensure that members of staff in public-facing roles are able to speak fluent English. This means that they must have a command of spoken English, with confidence and accuracy, sufficient for the effective performance of their role. This requirement does not refer to any particular English language qualifications, regional or international accents, dialects, speech impediments or the tone of conversations. It does not require staff to speak only in English.

Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work. We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents. London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment., Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value. To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy. We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.