Title:Project Manager

Title:Project Manager

Children’s WorkerNon-core

Group: Children’s Team

Reports to:Children’s Team Director

Location:Various Regional

The Ministry / The Ministry for Vulnerable Children, Oranga Tamariki works to advance the wellbeing and positive long-term outcomesof children and young people. We support families and whānau to provide a safe, stable and loving home for their children. We protect children and young people who are not having their needs met at home, and address the impact of any harm they have experienced. The Ministry prevents and responds to offending by young people and addresses the rights and interests of victims of offending. We support care-experienced young people to successfully transition to adulthood.
We develop strategic partnerships with others, particularly iwi and Māori organisations, to help realise this vision. We ensure a common approach with our partners to understanding the return on investment from our activities.
The Ministry’s core outcomes are:
-All children and young people are in loving families and communities where they can be safe, strong, connected, and able to flourish.
-Improved outcomes for all children, especially Māori tamariki and rangatahi.
Our guiding principles / In everything we do, the wellbeing and bestinterests of children are paramount. The voices of children and young people underpin the design and operation of our services. We seek to strengthen the relationships between children and young people and their families, whānau, hapu and iwi, and we respect children’s sense of belonging and identity. We recognise the importance of whakapapa and whanaungatanga to the mana and wellbeing of tamariki Māori.
Purpose of role / The purpose of the Project Manager role is to support the Children’s Team Director with the provision of high quality project management leadership and support for the expansion of the Children’s Team to the full District Health Board boundary. The role is also expected to provide high quality advice and support to project-related personnel by assisting with the project planning and executing and implementing the project plan. The Project Manager will be responsible for establishing and maintain working relationships with NGOs and to influence others and gain buy in to the project deliverables and desired outcomes.
The position will ensure that best practice project management tools and methodologies are used and material remains relevant. The Project Manager will be responsible for meeting the agreed project deadlines and tracking of milestones as well as be responsible for keeping the project to the agreed budget.
The role is expected to identify and bring to the attention of the Children’s Team Director, potential risks to the delivery of project outcomes and recommendations for mitigation.
Local Governance Group / The Local Governance Group (LGG) is responsible for ensuring and providing the capacity, resources and services to the Children’s Team. At each site the LGG will include representatives from the core VCB agencies (Ministries of Education, Health, Social Development, Te PuniKokiri and NZ Police). The total composition of local governance will be determined locally to include other key partners such as Iwi, Local Government, Whānau Ora Collectives and NGOs. The Children’s Team Director will be a member of the LGG, and will report to the LGG on the Children’s Team activities.
The Children’s Teams / Children’s Teams are one part of the Government’s wider plan to support vulnerable children through the MVCOT. A Children’s Team is a panel of skilled frontline practitioners and professionals from across government agencies, NGOs, iwi and the community. The teams are trans-disciplinary and made up of people with diverse perspectives and experiences. Children’s Teams are appointed by the community, so they respond to the needs of at-risk children and their families/whānau within the unique context of each area.
Children’s Teams will ensure:
-Processes are in place in the Children’s Team Directorate are supported to ensure vulnerable children are referred to the Children’s Team, and accepted into the care of the Team or referred to a more appropriate response as appropriate.
-Vulnerable children’s needs are assessed.
-Vulnerable children have a single plan covering all of their needs.
-The right services are delivered, the plan monitored and reviewed, and outcomes achieved.
-Children’s Teams assign each child with a Lead Professional, and are responsible for approving, monitoring and reviewing the plan the Lead Professional develops with the team for each child.
Key accountabilities / Project Management
-Define and implement key project management standards, guidelines, processes, roles, and responsibilities.
-“Hands on” leadership, management and coordination of designated project work streams or participation as a project team member where required.
-Ensure that the project undertaken is appropriately managed, and deliver a quality product within the required time-frame.
-Deal with unanticipated events with minimal disruption to business-as-usual planned projects.
-Accountable for monitoring progress against specific project deliverables, proactively anticipating and managing risks, and providing timely feedback to the Children’s Team Director.
-Co-ordinate interdependencies, and any risks and other issues that may arise.
-Manage the screening, prioritisation and resolution of project management issues and escalate these to the Children’s Team Director.
-Prepare and coordinate reports to the MVCOT Directorate, the Local Governance Group (LGG)and other relevant parties within the Children’s Workforce.
-Develop, maintain, and report on project timelines and keep the Director informed of any slippages in timeframes.
Work programme development and relationship management
-Assist with the development of an integrated work plan for the establishment of the Children’s Team approach that has key stakeholder buy-in.
-Build and maintain effective networks/relationships both within and beyond MVCOT.
-Provide timely project management advice and support to the MVCOT management team as required.
-Ensure all relevant stakeholders provide input to the Children’s Team establishment.
-Actively network with business teams, key line managers and other clients to build credibility and ensure that initiatives/projects are relevant, practical and well understood by those with responsibility for implementation.
Leadership / -Maintain a high standard of personal integrity in all matters as required by the Ministry’s code of conduct.
-Provide leadership to relevant working groups as required, creating an environment where results are achieved that best meet children’s needs.
-Understand and implement your manager accountabilities. Ensure health, safety and security policies and procedures are understood, followed and implemented by all employees.
Specific skills and experience / Technical/Professional knowledge and experience
-Proven project management skills and experience (e.g. PRINCE2 certified), ideally with some in the public service arena.
-Good knowledge of techniques for planning, monitoring and controlling programmes.
-Demonstrated ability to see the "big picture" and understand the strategic context of projects.
-Proven decision-making experience and leadership demonstrated in co-ordinating and integrating projects.
-Proven experience in managing a range of projects.
-Ability to use office software packages, such as word processor, spreadsheets, project planning etc.
-Demonstrated ability to understand financial data and information, cost out all options and support recommendations with quantitative data.
-Ablility to work with numbers and produce and interpret relevant statistics.
-An appropriate tertiary qualification is desirable.
Attributes/success factors
-Excellent communication and documentation skills - able to convey technical information to the understanding of the audience, high standards of written and oral communication.
-Highly effective project management skills – able to plan, schedule and sequence activities, identify resources required, as well as risks and opportunities; works with a systematic and structured approach to goal accomplishment.
-Excellent self-management skills - able to manage own workload, prioritise and contribute towards team goals.
-Excellent interpersonal skills - able to adapt these to suit the needs of the audience, able to convince others to accept ideas/strategies.
-Strong partnership builder – able to establish, build and maintain effective working relationships at all levels of an organisation.
-Exercises sound judgement and political sensitivity.
-Strong business acumen - has a strong bias to business decisions rather than purely technical ones, able to apply a mix of proven technical and business ability and acumen to managing programme delivery.
-Strong leadership skills and motivational skills - able to lead and motivate a team towards the achievement of goals, understands leadership styles and their influence.
-Strong problem resolution and decision making skills - able to clearly identify problems, seek alternative solutions, identify risks and benefits, seek input from others and make sound decisions based these considerations.
Key internal partners / -Children’s Team Director, MVCOT
-MVCOT Managers and relevant staff
-Partnering for Outcomes Relationship and Contract Managers
-MVCOT staff.
Key external partners / -Relevant stakeholders including (but not limited to) iwi, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, New Zealand Police, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Social Development managers and staff
-Other Non-Government organisations as appropriate
-Local Government.

Position Description – Project Manager

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