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Here at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. (MHCLG), we work on things that make a real difference to people’s lives.  

Whether it's through the homes we live in, the work of our local councils, or the communities we’re all part of, our work is at the top of the political agenda. We have ambitious and far-reaching outcomes to achieve this year and, if you’re thinking of joining us, there’s never been a more exciting time. 

We have over 3,500 staff who are based in 20 offices across the UK. With ambitious and far-reaching goals this year, there’s never been a more exciting time to join us.

MHCLG is seeking exceptional people to help us transform into an agile, user-centred digital organisation. We’re working with policy teams to apply digital, user-centred thinking to big important problems like homelessness and job creation. As part of our work with policy and service teams, we’re helping those teams get the most out of software as a service (SaaS) options to make their processes more efficient, user-centred, secure and cost effective.

We expect you’ll use your experience of administering SaaS products to help optimise and maximise their use within MHCLG. You’ll manage relationships with and collate feedback from policy, digital, and data analysis teams, to ensure the tools available are meeting team needs. You’ll be responsible for MHCLG’s internal support and guidance to these teams, maximising their reuse and availability for the right problems and use cases across MHCLG. You will be responsible for establishing policies and standards for appropriate use of these products in MHCLG, and working with the right teams to ensure these are considerate of good practices including user experience, cybersecurity and cost.

We particularly welcome candidates from an ethnic minority background and other underrepresented groups to apply, as we work to continually improve our ability to represent the places and communities we support through our work. 

Find out more about what it's like to work in a digital, data and technology role at MHCLG including our culture, ways of working, career progression and staff benefits. You can also read the MHCLG Digital blog to learn about the work we're doing. 

There are two roles available: one permanent and one Fixed Term Appointment (FTA) covering 12 months of maternity leave. The candidate who scores highest on the merit list will have first choice between the permanent and FTA roles.

We’re looking for someone to lead the running and continuous improvement of some core SaaS products for MHCLG.

These tools help teams and users across the Department to do a number of activities, including, but not limited to: 

• run service desks using ticketing software for external and internal facing services

• provide whiteboarding options to visualise and map processes and services, and run co-design sessions and collaborative workshops with external and internal users

• communicate across different devices and organisations with ease

• produce low-fidelity prototypes for sharing internally and externally

We will use the essential criteria below to evaluate you during the recruitment process. Make sure your CV and cover letter details how you meet the criteria.

As a Live Services Manager, you will need:

• to document processes for consistency and knowledge sharing

• to be able to take complex language and questions and make them simple to understand

• to be willing to challenge assumptions and explain your decisions to stakeholders who are new to using products

• to be able to map processes, determine key pain points and ideate around practical improvements to be made

• to have familiarity with a service support structure that follows ITIL guidance

• to establish some key performance indicators for these products, and use this data and the right feedback loops to continuously improve their use

• to liaise with suppliers to support tools in use in the Department

This post is aligned to the IT Service Manager job profile in the Government Digital Data and Technology Profession Framework, although it is not a pure Service Manager role. You’ll need to show evidence of user-centred design concepts, use data appropriately, and make decisions regularly about appropriate uses of these products. This is a unique opportunity to help shape the way a Department thinks about policy and digital, and make a meaningful difference to the lives of users.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £38,732, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £11,220 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role

• An environment with flexible working options

• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity

• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Transfers across the Civil Service on or after 4 October 2018: 

Any move to MHCLG from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk. 

For further information about the benefits available to MHCLG employees, please see the attached Candidate Pack. 

Things you need to know

MHCLG want to bring in a diverse workforce at all levels.

Our application system is designed to remove as much bias as possible from the recruitment system – this means that a hiring manager does not know your name, your details, see your whole application in one go (or have your CV at review stage unless stated otherwise).

Your answers are randomised and chunked up. This means that each assessor views sets of responses to questions for example all candidates’ responses to ‘Seeing the Big Picture’ rather than seeing a candidate’s full application. The science behind this is that recruitment can be subject to ordering and fatigue effects and we want to reduce this as much as possible.

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that each of your answers would be viewed by different assessors.

When writing your application, remember:

• The assessor won’t be reading your answers sequentially.

• Do not assume that the same assessors will have read all of your answers.

• If talking about something in your first answer, make sure that you write the second answer as if you had not written the first (and so on!)

CV and Cover Letter Declaration

We recruit based on your knowledge and skills, and not background, gender or ethnicity - this is called anonymous recruitment.

Please remove references to your:

• name/title

• educational institutions

• age

• gender

• email address

• postal address

• phone number

• nationality/immigration status

You will need to merge your CV and covering letter into one document. When submitting your application Applied will ask you to upload a CV, when doing this you should upload your merged document of your CV and covering letter. 

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that your application would be viewed by different assessors. 

At sift, through your CV and covering letter we will be assessing: 

• Technical

• Experience

Your covering letter should be no more than 2 pages referencing how you meet the criteria set out in the job description. Please make sure to upload your cover letter and CV together in the same document.

The interview will be of a blended nature consisting of the following success profiles elements:

• Behaviours: Changing and Improving, Making Effective Decisions, Managing A Quality Service

• Strengths

In full the campaign will test the below Success Profile Elements:

• Technical

• Experience

• Strengths 

• Behaviours: Changing and Improving, Making Effective Decisions, Managing A Quality Service

Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description.

Technical questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description.

The strength based questions will require natural responses from the candidates. 

We do not consider direct CV applications – you must apply for this role via the application link on Civil Service Jobs: 

Please note that near miss offers may be made at the lower grade to candidates who do not meet the grade criteria for this campaign.

SEO salary 

• The salary for this role is £38,732 (National).

• For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable. 

Benefits 

Transfers across the Civil Service on or after 4 October 2018: 

Any move to MHCLG from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk. 

For further information about the benefits available to MHCLG employees, please see the attached Candidate Pack. 

Location 

Wolverhampton

Darlington

Manchester

There may be opportunities for candidates to work flexibly depending on the business needs. This will be discussed with the vacancy manager on a case-by-case basis if you are successful for the role. 

*Please note: The Darlington Economic Campus is a pioneering new cross-government hub which will bring together people across departments and public organisations to play an active role in the most important economic issues of the day. The work of the Campus will make a real difference to people both across the UK and internationally. There will be substantial career opportunities and exciting prospects - a career at the Campus means you will be working at the heart of Government, with access to the benefits and fantastic opportunities offered by the civil service.  This role is based at DLUHC and we will be joined on the campus by:

• HM Treasury

• Department for International Trade

• Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

• Office for National Statistics

• Department for Education

For further information on the DEC, please take a look at the attached DEC candidate pack.

Sift and Interview dates

Sifting is envisaged to take place from 19th of November 2024 with interview dates to be confirmed. All interviews are currently being held remotely via videocall. 

Reserve List 

In the event that we identify more appointable candidates than we currently have posts available, we will hold applicant details on a reserve list for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made. This may include roles at a lower grade. Candidates placed on a reserve list will be informed of this. Those candidates who do not wish to remain on the reserve list should contact recruitment@levellingup.gov.uk to be removed from the reserve list. 

SC (Security Check):

Important note

The level of security needed is Security Check and the process can take up to 8 weeks to complete.

Please note that successful candidates will need to pass the Security Check – this requires you to have been resident in the UK for the past 5 years. Please refer to the MHCLG Notes on Security Clearance section of our Candidate Pack for further information on Security Check (SC).

Candidates should also note that with effect from 1st August 2018 the department will also check all applicants who are successful at interview, against the Internal Fraud Database (IFD) held by the Cabinet Office. In accordance with the Civil Service Internal Fraud Policy, any applicant who is included on the IFD will be refused employment by MHCLG. Please see the Candidate Pack for further information on the Internal Fraud Database.

Fixed Term Details

For external candidates– you will be offered a 12 months fixed term appointment with a possibility of permanency.

For existing civil servants – you will be offered a 12 months loan opportunity. Before applying for the role, you will need to seek approval from your parent department to take up a loan appointment should you be successful.

For MHCLG employees  - you will retain your existing contract

Before starting your application it’s very important to make sure that you are eligible to apply and meet the Civil Service nationality requirements. All candidates are expected to read the information provided in the MHCLG candidate pack regarding nationality requirements and rules

Candidate Pack Information

Please see attached Candidate pack for further information.

Internal Fraud Database

The Internal Fraud function of the Fraud, Error, Debt and Grants Function at the Cabinet Office processes details of civil servants who have been dismissed for committing internal fraud, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned.The Cabinet Office receives the details from participating government organisations of civil servants who have been dismissed, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned, for internal fraud. In instances such as this, civil servants are then banned for 5 years from further employment in the civil service. The Cabinet Office then processes this data and discloses a limited dataset back to MHCLG as a participating government organisations. MHCLG then carry out the pre employment checks so as to detect instances where known fraudsters are attempting to reapply for roles in the civil service. In this way, the policy is ensured and the repetition of internal fraud is prevented.

For more information please see- Internal Fraud Register

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window). See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals

• nationals of the Republic of Ireland

• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK

• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)

• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)

• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020

• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants. We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Job contact :

• Name :DDaT recruitment Team

• Email :digitaldatajobs@communities.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email :digitaldatajobs@communities.gov.uk