Programme Planner

Tender description

Summary of the work The Programme Planner will establish and maintain the End-to-End Plan, holding relevant teams accountable for updates, and facilitating the planning sessions with a range of stakeholders, including at very senior levels. They will maintain dependency and milestone tracking to feed reporting and generate MI, and drive Planning and Reporting standards. Specialist role Programme manager Expected Contract Length 3 Months initally, but may extend depending on progress and success Latest start date Monday 1 July 2019 Maximum Day Rate 700 inclusive of expenses to base location, and excluding VAT Early Market Engagement None Who Speclialist Work With Programme Director, Programme Planning Team, Project Managers, Business Partners, Policy Directors What Specialists Work On Defra requires a Programme Planner to support a diverse portfolio of complex IT-enabled change projects and transformation initiatives. Skills & Experience • Provide evidence of experience of working as a Programme Planner on large scale, complex IT and change programme(s). • Provide evidence of expert proficiency in MS Project including dependency management and critical path tracking. • Provide evidence of experience driving multiple stakeholders to ensure the master, Programme plan (and associated reporting artefacts) are provided in line with regular governance cycles. • Provide evidence of experience in generating Management Information (MI) reports, ideally automatically, for multiple audiences including project reviews, programme delivery review, leadership team and board executives. • Provide evidence of experience of succesful management within large, complex IT-enabled change programmes, preferably within the Public Sector Nice to Haves • Provide evidence of an understanding of the Government Digital Service’s Design Principles and Digital Service Standard • Provide evidence of a suitable qualification in Project and/or Programme Management, such as Prince II, Managing Successful Programmes, PMP, APMG etc Work Location London Working Arrangments Onsite London, expenses will be paid for travel and working outside M25 Security Clearance CTC or above. Defra will sponsor NSV clearances if required Additional T&Cs None No. of Specialists to Evaluate 3 Cultural Fit Criteria • Transparent and collaborative when making decisions and recommendations. • Have a no-blame culture and encourage people to learn from their mistakes • Demonstrate simplicity (for example, take simple steps to goals, do less but better, mitigate failures, talk straight with respect) • Demonstrate enthusiasm (for example, bring whole self to work, celebrate success, share passion and energy with others, optimistic) • Demonstrate an ability to work with stakeholders with low technical expertise Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 70% Cultural fit 10% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. Can you confirm the IR35 status? The role has been assessed as being outside IR35 2. Is there an incumbent in place? No, this is a new requirement 3. Can the Authority confirm if they are working with an incumbent supplier ? No, this is a new requirement. We have a variety of suppliers providing planning resources across Defra, and do not have any single preferred supplier or an incumbent for this opportunity. Any supplier that is approved on this framework is welcome to provide a response. 4. Is there a preferred supplier and / or individual which Defra have already identified as suitable for the role? No and No. Please see above response that confirms there is no incumbent and no preferred supplier. 5. How confident are we on the extension of the contract? There is no 'confidence' implied or given regards the likelihood of extension. Any extension will be based on a number of factors including performance of specialist, internal recruitment options and the overall progress of the Programme. We can confirm the Programme is intended to run to at least April 2020. 6. Is Monday 1st July 2019 the latest start date that can be considered for this opportunity as this is less than 2 weeks away? We would prefer that specialists are available for a 1st July start of services, but for exceptional resources and given it is holiday season we could permit a short on-boarding extension. Resources must be available to start within 1 week of the intended 1st July start date at the latest. 7. Please, can you let us know the London address? Seacole Building, 2 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DF (or) Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London, SW1P 3JRBoth are within 5 minutes walk of each other 8. Is an SC cleared candidate eligible or do we need to look specifically for CTC cleared only? Any UK NSV Clearance at CTC or above will be acceptable.A non-cleared specialist successful in the selection process will be sponsored for CTC by Defra 9. Could you give a bit more detail on the types of projects this role will be covering please? The Specialist will cover a range of Technical Projects of varied complexity and scope at various stages of the delivery lifecycle. We expect the Specialist to be experienced in a wide range of project types. 10. The start date is stated as 1/7/19, is this definitive or would the organisation consider a start date of end of August? Please see response number 6. Resources must be available to start within 1 week of the intended 1st July start date.