County Development Officer (Norfolk and Suffolk)

Job Title: County Development Officer (Norfolk and Suffolk)
Responsible to: East of England Campaign Manager
Salary: £24,000 per annum
Tenure: Temporary - until May 2025. 
Hours: Full time (37.5 hours per week) 
Closing date:  11.59pm Friday 18th October 2024

Job Description

We are looking for a passionate and motivated individual to support and grow Liberal Democrat teams across Norfolk and Suffolk. A key aim is to maximise Liberal Democrat gains at the County Council elections next May, and go on to prepare for future local successes.

The successful candidate will be a key part of the team responsible for developing and implementing county wide plans to maximise Liberal Democrat success in May 2025. 

There are three key aspects to the job:

1. Build capacity: encouraging and supporting the existing, small band of key activists to engage in activity to find new helpers, turn helpers into activists and activists into leaders.
2. Training and development: identifying the barriers to achieving this and identifying or delivering training to overcome them.
3. Common literature: artworking template literature, to create similar leaflets for each target division,  and project-managing production across the county, so that local parties can save money and improve quality with bulk buys.

You will be supported in the role by an experienced regional campaigns manager and talented local teams. 

This is a rewarding role that offers the opportunity to deliver real and historic political change and positively impact lives across Norfolk and Suffolk. It will also give you the chance to develop your strategic and political insights and abilities, as part of a possible future career in politics or campaigns. This is an exciting time for the Liberal Democrats nationwide.

Key Tasks

• Work with the regional campaign manager from party HQ to conduct an audit of each local party to identify strengths, weaknesses, and specific development needs.
• Assist local teams and the county campaign team in setting development goals for the target county council seats, focusing on capacity building and activist engagement. Monitor and scrutinise local party progress against agreed goals, offering targeted support and guidance as needed.
• Act as a link between the county-wide campaign team and local teams, ensuring that key activists feel supported and valued.
• Work with Liberal Democrat HQ, key activists, and local parties to develop an activist training programme that addresses identified weaknesses and delivers an overall increase in county-wide campaign skills.
• Together with the county campaign team, monitor and review campaign data to inform decisions and strategy.
• Together with the county campaign team, set a county-wide messaging strategy and integrate this into each local team’s campaign.
• Meet regularly with the HQ campaign manager to review key campaign developments and set targets.
• Work with local teams to produce and deliver a programme of doorstep communication with voters for each local campaign.
• Take a leading role in the production, coordination, and delivery of a county-wide literature plan – with shared, focused messaging and high-quality design and content.
• Work with commercial printers to secure bulk buy deals on printed literature and deliver the best possible value campaign..
• Ensure local parties are producing regular email newsletters for voters, members, and helpers, and facilitate the production of regular (probably quarterly) paper newsletter for members.
• Work with local teams to ensure that members and activists are regularly contacted by phone to increase volunteer engagement and development.
• Attend other meetings and training sessions as required.

Person Specification

Essential

• Strong ability to organise and self-motivate, and to set your own programme of work to meet pre-agreed objectives.
• Skilled in handling multiple projects at the same time, ensuring workload is prioritised to meet stakeholder demands.
• Ability to plan out projects and deadline tasks.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with a high level of accuracy and compelling style.
• Experience of engaging and motivating volunteers. 
• An enthusiasm for developing the skills of others.
• Strong interpersonal skills, with an ability to inspire and persuade.
• Excellent computer skills with up-to-date knowledge of social media and Microsoft Office. 
• Sympathy with the aims and values of the Liberal Democrats.

Desirable

• Knowledge of and experience using Liberal Democrat IT packages, including Connect, Lighthouse and Affinity Publisher.
• Full, clean driving licence and access to a vehicle.
• Experience of delivering training.
• Experience of planning projects or workstreams.
• A good understanding of messaging and graphic design in the political context.

Workplace 

Flexible: your working week will be split between visiting local parties (either with the local party or in the MP’s office), or working from home. You will visit local parties around Suffolk and Norfolk and may be expected to attend occasional staff meetings in Cambridge or London.

Key stakeholders

You will formally report to the party’s Regional Campaigns Manager and work closely with the Chairs of the Norfolk and Suffolk Campaigns Sub-Committees. Other stakeholders include the Campaign Chairs in each Local Party, Council Leaders and the MP for North Norfolk.

How to apply:
Please fully read through the requirements of the job before applying.

• A full CV of no more than two pages and including a telephone number and email address
• A covering letter (no more than one A4 page) setting out why you want the job and how your experience and skills are relevant to it 

To be considered for this position, please submit your application to Stephen.lambert@libdems.org.uk.

 We will be reviewing applications as they come in and reserve the right to appoint prior to the closing date.