Job Opening: Business Support Programme Manager
Cumbria LEP (CLEP) is widely regarded as a high-performing Local Enterprise Partnership with a passion for supporting growth in our economy and businesses.
The LEP has ambitious plans to continue to support Cumbria’s growth and make sure that our businesses and people benefit from this. We are now looking for ambitious, high-performing people to join us to deliver these plans. If you are as committed to Cumbria’s success as we are, then we would love to hear from you.
CLEP has recently secured grant funding from Westmorland and Furness Council to deliver the Business Support, Start-Up and Growth strand of the Shared Prosperity Fund in the Westmorland and Furness area. This activity will run until 31 March 2025.
The Programme Manager will be an important appointment within the organisation, based within the Cumbria Accelerator Team, who will be responsible for the implementation of the Programme. They will need to ensure that this is complementary to the Department of Business and Trade’s national business support programme and other business support activity delivered through the Shared Prosperity Fund.
Terms and Conditions
| Job Title: | Business Support Programme Manager |
| Contract: | This is fixed term appointment until 31 March 2025 |
| Salary: | Circa £42,000 per annum |
| Hours: | 37.5 hours per week, with flexible working to suit business needs. |
| Holidays: | 25 days annual leave per annum plus Bank Holidays and time off at Christmas. |
| Pension: | A contributory pension scheme at 5%, 7% or 10% with the LEP providing a matching contribution to that paid by the employee. |
| Location: | Hybrid home/office working with an expectation that the successful candidate will attend the office at least once per week. |
| Other Terms: | Generous enhanced redundancy scheme for those employed for over 12 months. |
Purpose
The Programme Manager will be responsible for managing the delivery of all elements of the Programme, which is a combination of both advice and support to businesses, including specialist innovation advice, alongside capital and revenue grants. The successful applicant will be responsible for managing a range of sub-contractors and ensuring that they deliver on all aspects of their contract to time, cost, outcomes and impacts.
Responsibilities
- Develop and deliver an implementation programme to ensure that all aspects of the programme are delivered in line with the Grant Funding Agreement.
- Effectively managing 10-12 sub-contractors to ensure that they deliver their contracted activity in line with requirements.
- Monitoring the quality of delivery to ensure that this meets the requirements of the client, contract and delivers the necessary economic impacts.
- Prepare all claims, reporting and evaluation requirements in line with the Grant Funding Agreement and submit these to Westmorland and Furness Council to time and standard.
- Oversee the appraisal of all grant applications (capital and revenue) from businesses in line with Cumbria LEP’s decision making processes.
- Ensure that all necessary application and reporting requirements are effectively delivered on time and to the required standard.
- Proactively generate leads and identify businesses that would benefit from advice and also reach out to businesses through referrals from CLEP colleagues and external partners.
- Ensure that all business interactions are effectively recorded on the LEP’s CRM System.
Person Specification
The successful applicant will be an experienced manager with the ability to become immediately operational, once appointed. Candidates should have experience of delivering publicly funded contracts and meeting the reporting requirements in relation to these. The successful applicant will also understand Cumbria’s economy, sectors and businesses and preferably have established and effective networks within Cumbria.
The successful candidate must have:
- Effective programme and project management skills with a strong track record of delivering publicly funded programmes to time and standard.
- Proven ability to effectively manage subcontractors and ensure that their delivery is in line with contract and programme requirements and that all necessary records are completed accurately and to time.
- Ability to build, develop and maintain effective working relationships, both internally and externally, with businesses and other key stakeholders.
- Self-starter with the ability to quickly get to grips with complex project requirements and ensure that these are effectively communicated and implemented.
- Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced environment.
- Strong IT skills with a high degree of competency in all applications.
- Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to develop high quality written reports.
Equality Statement
CLEP is committed to representing the communities that we serve and creating a diverse and inclusive workforce, which allows people to succeed on merit. CLEP aims to go beyond compliance with equality legislation. It aspires to be a champion of best practice in all aspects of equality, diversity and inclusion, and seeks to create an inclusive working where all are equally valued. We therefore welcome all candidates regardless of their sex or gender reassignment; marital status (including civil partnership); sexual orientation; race, language, ethnic or national origins and nationality (including citizenship); religious belief; disability and / or medical conditions; age; and whether they have dependents.
Applications
Please submit your CV together with a covering letter explaining why you would be well-suited to this role to Paul Foster, Head of Programmes at paul.foster@thecumbrialep.co.uk by 5pm on Friday 20th October 2023.