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Job summary

The Local Government Engagement Division has a reputation for excellent stakeholder management. Our twin priorities are making sure that local councils are involved in the cross-government policy development cycle, and that critical information flows freely between central and the local government. This is high profile work, which cuts across the heart of major government policy agenda items from Levelling Up, Resettlement/Asylum, LG Finance, Public Health, service delivery (Adults and Children), climate change, and into evolving local government policy for the future.  

We have two roles available within the team. 

Briefing and Engagement Manager 

In this dynamic and varied role, you will be supporting engagement and events with a variety of internal and external stakeholders including senior officials in other government departments, sector bodies and representative bodies. You will be responsible for delivering a variety of written products and channels including for Ministers and senior officials.

This role also leads on supporting the needs of local government following the UK’s exit from the European Union. You will represent the impact of changes to border policies and other arrangements on local authorities to other government departments and external bodies to ensure that their requirements are understood and delivered upon.

Senior Policy Advisor 

You will work collaboratively and at pace within sensitive political environments managing conflicting priorities whilst maintaining trusted relationships and delivering engagement messaging. You will play a leading role for the division on a number of key policy areas for councils, including climate change, children’s services and cyber. You will work closely with stakeholders and policy colleagues to ensure both local and national government needs are met. As an experienced presenter you will lead regular meetings and cut through complex issues, identify trends and ensure stakeholder intelligence is built into policy and operational decision making. 

Job description

Both roles will require excellent interpersonal skills and an ability to build relationships in sensitive situations. You will also need excellent written skills, as you will be drafting advice for Ministers, crafting briefings and collating intelligence. You will be getting involved in a broad range of policy areas and working with teams right across the department.  
 
These are exciting roles that offer the opportunity to demonstrate leadership skills in driving forward the work of the team and managing the expectations of ministers/senior officers within DLUHC; the ability to establish and maintain important relationships with councils and senior civil servants; and the ability to shape new policies across government. Local Government Engagement are a friendly and supportive team who prioritise team culture and wellbeing, and emphasise personal development.  

Briefing and Engagement Manager 

The successful candidate will be expected to:  
•    Feed into Ministerial and senior official events and engagement activity where real dialogue happens between Whitehall and local areas.  
•    Provide high-quality briefing in support of ministerial and senior official engagement. 
•    Support and develop the range of products and events LGE produces to share communications across the Local Government sector including the Local Government Bulletin. 
•    Contribute to our national crisis response function, collaborating with other directorates and departments and ensuring effective communication with local government. 
•    Lead our ongoing relationship with post-Brexit and borders work. 
•    Contribute to a range of products LGE produces to share intelligence appropriately across the department and OGDs.  

Senior Policy Advisor 
The successful candidate will be expected to:
•    Build effective relationships with policy leads to ensure key policy areas (e.g. on Climate Change, Children’s Services, Cyber etc) in DLUHC and OGDs:
      o    Are developed in a way that factors in local intelligence
      o    Are understood and communicated well to councils
      o    Benefit from early engagement with councils, the LGA and other sector bodies. 
•    Collate and share evidence from regional leads and intelligence database with relevant policy leads 
•    Contribute to a range of products LGE produces to share intelligence appropriately across the department and OGDs.
•    Feed into Ministerial events and engagement activity where real dialogue happens between Whitehall and local areas.

Person specification

•    Communicating and influencing, with exemplary written and verbal communication skills, producing a wide range of products
•    Delivering at pace, overseeing delivery of workstreams against challenging deadlines 
•    Working together, demonstrating a talent for partner management and the drive to achieve collaborative success
•    Seeing the big picture, aligning organisational priorities and ensuring communications are in context

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Communicating and Influencing

• Seeing the Big Picture

• Working Together

• Delivering at Pace

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £38,732, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities contributes £10,457 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 average employer contribution of 27%

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Strengths.

We are for everyone 

At DLUHC we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce. We promote equality of opportunity in all aspects of employment and a working environment free from discrimination, harassment, bullying and victimisation. 

We would strongly recommend that applicants get in touch with the vacancy manager to find out more information about this role.  

We are for everyone 

DLUHC 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).  

At application stage you will be asked to upload a CV document. Unless stated otherwise in the advert, your CV will not form part of the assessment but will be used for information purposes and only shared with the panel at interview stage. 

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!) 

At sift, we will be assessing 

Behaviour 1 (lead behaviour) - Communicating and Influencing

Behaviour 2 - Seeing the big picture

Behaviour 3 - Working Together

Behaviour 4 - Delivering at Pace

There is a 250 word limit per question. 

In the event that we receive a large number of applications, we may conduct an initial sift using the lead behaviour listed in the advert. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progress straight to assessment/interview  

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

Behaviour – Communicating and Influencing, Seeing the big picture, Working Together, Delivering at Pace

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

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

Behaviours: Communicating and Influencing, Seeing the big picture, Working Together, Delivering at Pace

Strengths: Yes

We do not consider direct CV applications to our Recruitment mailbox – 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. If you apply for a role that requires a transfer of location, for example if you are transferring from London to a National location, your salary will be adjusted in accordance with our policy on transfer between HQ pay ranges. 

Please note that the average employer pension contribution is based upon the National minimum salary for this role. Should your agreed starting salary for this role be different, the average employer pension contribution will be calculated accordingly. If you are a Secondee, this will not apply as you will remain on your home organisation’s terms and conditions.   

BENEFITS: 

Transfers across the Civil Service on or after 4 October 2018: 
Any move to DLUHC 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 DLUHC employees, please see the attached Candidate Pack. 

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION: 

• Wolverhampton 

• Darlington* 

• Bristol

• Leeds

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 (DEC) 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.  

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 Thursday 11/01/2024 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 n 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. 

Candidate Pack Information 

Please see attached Candidate pack for further information. 

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 DLUHC candidate pack regarding nationality requirements and rules 

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 DLUHC as a participating government organisations. DLUHC 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.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

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

Nationality requirements

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)

Working for the Civil Service

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.