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Job summary

Here at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), 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 are all a 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 are thinking of joining us, there’s never been a more exciting time.      The department has circa 3,500 staff who are based in 20 offices across the UK. 

The Private Rented Sector (PRS) Division is leading an ambitious reform programme at the heart of a thriving regeneration policy group in DLUHC.  

The PRS Division leads on work to improve the experiences of landlords and tenants in the PRS, aiming to drive improvements to quality, security and fairness. This includes a flagship reform programme, including legislation, to deliver manifesto commitments to reform the sector and deliver on commitments to level up. 

Part of this reform package includes introducing a new digital property portal for the private rented sector.  The new service aims to support improved health and safety standards in privately rented properties by providing local authorities with consistent intelligence on those properties, by helping landlords understand their responsibilities when letting property, and by providing private renters with a new information source about a private landlord and rented property.   

DLUHC have conducted scoping research into developing the new service through Discovery and Alpha phases. We are now preparing to take forward development of the service into Beta to support the ambition for a new service to be operational as soon as possible following the passage of necessary primary and secondary legislation.  

You will lead a growing service team taking forward development of the new service and work closely with the policy team. You will influence policy and delivery teams to ensure that they are considering the needs of users in all aspects of their work.  You will build an in-depth understanding of your service and the policy area. You will use digital thinking, culture, service design and delivery practices to develop, iterate, and improve the new service. You will be accountable for the quality of the service to senior leaders and will represent the service and its users’ needs at all levels within the organisation.  

We are seeking someone who will lead delivery of the new service, acting as an advocate for user-centred design practices across the Department. If you would like to read more about how we see the role of a Service Owner at DLUHC, you can read this blog.  

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.  

Job description

As the Service Owner for the new service, you will:    

• Build a delivery team, setting direction and providing supportive decisive, and visible leadership. This will include providing advice on which tools and methods to use on a digital service which is focused on meeting various user needs

• Contribute to the development of legislative elements required for the new service, building strong relationships with the policy team and provide the policy team with insights to inform their work.  

• Encourage multi-discipline working, supporting a policy and delivery team to maximise return on investment through consideration of user needs, organisational goals, technical risk, team capabilities, and commercial considerations.

• Promote the consideration of innovative approaches for the design of the new service. 

• Be accountable for the quality and usage of your service, iterating and improving the service based on user feedback.

• Identify and progress opportunities to reduce costs and duplication by actively promoting simplification.

• Encourage the maximum possible take-up of the digital service by effective marketing and specify/manage the requirements for assisted digital activity to supplement this.

• Ensure the necessary business processes are followed and participate in the governance of the service, including acting as a point of escalation for the delivery teams.

• Own the budget and allocate funding to areas of the service based on decisions about priorities.

• Implement an approach to communicate the benefits and performance of the service.

• Build and maintain strong relationships across government, with local government, and with external stakeholders to implement the new service.

• Actively participate in networking with other Service Owners inside and outside government and share good practice and learning. 

Person specification

Essential skills and experience: 

• A track-record of leadership in successful design, delivery and continuous improvement of high-quality digital services.  

• An understanding of service design principles and a systematic approach to solving problems.

• Experience of working with senior stakeholders to persuade them of the benefits of agile and service design techniques, alongside supporting decision making through the implementation of a digital service.

• Experience of building and delivering against strategies to transform and join-up digital or non-digital services, focusing on delivering maximum return on investment.

• Experience of building and managing high performing teams, delegating decision making to the most effective level, and empowering teams to deliver to the best of their abilities. 

• An ability to translate complex aims and needs into compelling vision statements and clear and manageable plans. You will be able to communicate these in an open and transparent way through a variety of channels. 

• Experience of managing the expectations of stakeholders with conflicting needs and demands, engaging with senior stakeholders, and developing a pipeline of customer adoption. 

• Experience of working closely with policy colleagues to use a systematic approach to solving problems develop and iterate new digital products.

• Experience of assessing risks, scoping resource requirements, and managing budgets, and operating costs to ensure value for money and sustainable development of teams and services.

• Expertise in gathering, analysing, and using user insight and performance data to design and continually improve digital services to ensure responsiveness to changing needs and technical developments. 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £61,599, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities contributes £16,631 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%

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.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

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

CV and Cover Letter Declaration

We recruit based on your knowledge and skills, and not background, gender or ethnicity - this is called name blind 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:

Experience 

Behaviours: leadership, changing and improving, seeing the big picture, and managing a quality service

Your covering letter should be no more than 1 page referencing how you meet the criteria set out in the job description. 

In your CV and covering letter, please include:       a. why you are interested in the role;   b. how you meet the essential skills and experience required 

Please bear in mind the following behaviours when writing your covering letter –leadership, changing and improving, seeing the big picture, and managing a quality service. The CS Behaviours can be found here.  

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

Behaviours: seeing the big picture, changing and improving, leadership, and managing a quality service 

Experience

Technical

Strengths

The strength based questions will require natural responses from the candidates. Technical and Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description. 

The hiring manager has also requested that candidates will be asked to prepare a 5 minute presentation. Details of this will be provided to candidates who will be invited to interview in due course.  

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

Experience 

Behaviours: leadership, changing and improving, seeing the big picture, and managing a quality service

Technical

Strengths

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.

Grade 6 salary

• The salary for this role is £61,599 (National) or £67,889 (London).

• 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 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.

Locations

• London 

• 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. 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 the week following the closing date 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. 

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 

CTC (Counter-terrorism Clearance):

Important note

Successful candidates for roles based in our 2 Marsham Street building must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check and the process can take up to 8 weeks to complete. Please note that successful candidates will need to pass the CTC security checks – this requires you to have been resident in the UK for the past 3 years. Please refer to the DLUHC Notes on Security Clearance section of our Candidate Pack for further information on Counter Terrorism Clearance (CTC).

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 DLUHC. Please see the Candidate Pack for further information on the Internal Fraud Database.

Fixed Term Details:

For external candidates– you will be offered a 23 months fixed term appointment with a possibility of permanency.

For existing civil servants – you will be offered a 23 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 DLUHC employees  - you will retain your existing contract

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 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 

Please note feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

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

Security

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 counter-terrorist 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.

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.

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.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name :DDaT Recruitment Team

• Email :DDaTrecruitment@levellingup.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email :DDaTrecruitment@levellingup.gov.uk