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Job summary

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) is driving forward the Government’s key priority to level up every part of the United Kingdom, creating opportunity for everyone, regardless of where they live, and putting UK citizens at the heart of our work. We are looking for people to provide support to senior leaders in the Levelling Up group.   

The Levelling Up Group was responsible for writing the Levelling Up White Paper, which was published last year, and now coordinates the work necessary to implement this ambitious programme of change. This includes driving progress on the 12 missions, developing new policies and strategy to reduce spatial disparities, delivering devolution deals, undertaking place-based deep dives to better understand the specific challenges and opportunities in places across the UK, and delivering our ambitious commitment to develop a plan for simplifying the local funding landscape.  

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

These are stretching but rewarding roles, with a high level of responsibility at this grade and plenty of scope for further development opportunities as the successful candidate progresses in the role.  

You will directly support one or more of the Levelling Up group’s senior leaders, and their wider teams. If we have multiple high-scoring candidates, there may be opportunities to be considered for similar vacancies in these teams via our reserve list. 

This is an exciting time to join the team as we take forward major policy agendas across the Levelling Up brief and would offer an excellent opportunity for anyone looking to learn more about how departments operate at senior levels and build networks with a wider range of people across and beyond Government. If you have any questions about the role or would like to have an informal chat prior to applying, we’d encourage you to get in touch through the contact details at the bottom of the advert. 

The exact role will depend which part of the LU group you are assigned to and what that team’s exact requirements are, but we expect all roles will include these core elements: 

• Organising the LU senior leaders’ time and diary according to their priorities.  

• Commissioning briefings for meetings from policy officials, ensuring these are of a high standard and compiling these each day. 

• Managing inboxes and alerting senior leaders to priority requests, making judgements on emerging issues and ensuring actions are appropriately delegated to other members of the team where appropriate 

• Supporting with business management activities for the team you are supporting including managing headcount within agreed thresholds, budget management and keeping documentation up to date (e.g., organisation charts). 

• Managing internal communications to the team(s), including disseminating key information and signposting and briefing senior leaders ahead of all staff calls/events. 

• Supporting the wider team’ people priorities and corporate objectives, and those of your senior leaders. 

• Building excellent relationships with other senior support staff across the LU group and wider DLUHC, including the Permanent Secretary’s office and minister’s offices. 

The successful candidate will be encouraged to undertake a professional learning qualification as part of the role through a Level 3 Business Administration programme, if this is in line with both business needs and the individual’s development needs. This is not a mandatory condition of accepting the role. 

Person specification

We are seeking someone with a track record of building trusting and professional relationships with colleagues. The post holder will be expert at and sharing information appropriately, confidently commissioning, and bringing together the right people and information, to ensure senior colleagues are able to make the right decisions at the right times. The post holder will also champion the corporate life of the LU group. 

We are looking for people: 

• Can work on multiple complex issues at pace, using careful judgement and strong organisational skills to prioritise. 

• Is resilient and able to adapt quickly to new demands, working flexibly to deliver quality outcomes for senior leaders under pressures. 

• Can work autonomously and thrive on solving problems; communicating with team members to make sure that effective, high-quality solutions are found. 

• Is confident and enthusiastic and can act as a strong ambassador for the Directorate across the department and with external stakeholders at all levels.  

• Will have excellent relationship building skills and can clearly explain complex issues to colleagues at all levels. 

• Depending on the candidate’s interests there will be opportunity in time to take on discrete projects within the wider LU group. 

Behaviours

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

• Working Together

• Changing and Improving

• Managing a Quality Service

• Delivering at Pace

Benefits

• 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).  

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)  - Working Together

Behaviour 2  - Changing and Improving

Behaviour 3  - Managing a quality service

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:    

Behaviours - Working Together,  Changing and Improving, Managing a quality service, Delivering at pace

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

Candidates will be expected to prepare a presentation, details of which will be sent on invitation to interview. 

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

Behaviours: Working Together,  Changing and Improving, Managing a quality service, 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. 

EO salary 

• The salary for this role is £25,324 (National). 

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

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION: 

• Bristol

• Leeds

• Manchester

• Wolverhampton 

• Darlington* 

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 from 11/05/2023 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. 

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 Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK

• nationals of the Republic of Ireland

• nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with settled or pre-settled status or who apply for either status by the deadline of the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)

• relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service

• relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the Civil Service

• certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals

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.