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Job summary

Important - To apply for this role you will need to submit a CV and covering letter. These need to be merged 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. There are further details in the Selection Process section further below in this advert. 

This is an exciting opportunity for an ambitious and motivated insight professional to join the Communications team at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Whether it’s levelling up the country, helping more people get onto the housing ladder, housing families displaced by the conflict in Ukraine or ending rough sleeping for good - we’re on the lookout for talented and confident professionals to help us make a difference and improve people’s lives.  

The role of the Insight team is to use evidence, research and analysis to underpin our communication strategies and behaviour change campaigns. It covers all types of communications research including quantitative and qualitative research, web analytics, desk research, and building communities. We use these to build our audience understanding, develop and test hypotheses, creative and messages, and measure results. 

As senior insights officer you will be responsible for managing your own projects, producing intelligence and supporting the team to evaluate and optimise campaigns. You will also work closely with our qualitative and quantitative research agency and Head of Insight to respond to research needs from across the department. You will communicate regularly with policy and communications counterparts to understand specific insight gaps and challenges, using your insight expertise to recommend research solutions. Your projects will range from focus groups to understand public attitudes to anti-social behaviour, to surveys to measure campaign advert re-call, or using social media analytics to understand the public’s reactions to our announcements.  

This is a rich and rewarding role which provides the opportunity to work with a diverse range of stakeholders across the UK. 

There are excellent training and career opportunities in the Government Communication Service and across the Civil Service.  

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

• Commission our standby research agency to conduct a range of quantitative and qualitative projects across a range of policy areas and campaigns 

• Provide advice and best practice to communications and policy counterparts across the department across our three major communications themes: protecting vulnerable people, building a better future for the UK and restoring pride in communities. This will include upskilling communication teams to enable them to design and deliver smaller, ad hoc projects. 

• Present and advise on research and insight across our policy areas, to inform communications plans, prioritisation and risk management. Keep the team abreast of relevant communications and social trends.  

• Proactively identify new insight topics that will enhance the communication output of the department.  

• Upskill members of the wider communication team on insight and evaluation best practice.  

• Represent DLUHC at relevant insight meetings across Whitehall meetings, coordinating when needed.  

Person specification

Essential skills/experience  

• Experience in market research (quantitative and qualitative) project management 

• Experienced in customer insight and audience targeting approaches  

• Experience of using low cost/no cost approaches for research and evaluation  

• Understands the key elements of a research brief and can commission research against specified objectives 

• Identifies underlying issues from complex data and can draw evidence-based conclusions and recommendations  

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including presentation skills  

• Proficient at ad-hoc desk research 

• Ability to work under pressure, at pace and can prioritise and project manage several tasks at once. Meets deadlines and manages expectations along the way.  

Desirable skills/experience  

• Managed a research agency / worked within an agency with a good understanding of how to drive the quality of deliverables  

• Experience of managing UK-focussed market research projects, ideally about topics of interest to DLUHC 

• A good knowledge of the current traditional media and social media landscape  

• Experience of contract management and procurement exercises 

• Experience of delivering communications evaluation plans  

• Experience of monitoring social media using various free and paid for social listening tools  

• Proficient with MS Office, particularly Excel, Word, Powerpoint and Forms. 

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture

• Communicating and Influencing

• Managing a Quality Service

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.

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 

Technical Ability 

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 

The interview will be of a blended nature consisting of behaviour and strength based questions as listed in the advert. The strength based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.  

A short 5 minute presentation will be expected to be delivered at the interview. The brief for this will be confirmed directly with applicants who are successful at the sift stage of the recruitment process. 

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

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

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

Strength: Yes

Behaviours: Yes - Seeing the big picture, Communicating and Influencing, Managing a quality service  

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 Specialist 

• The salary for this role will be £40,390 (London) or £37,064 (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 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. 

Location 

• London 

• Wolverhampton 

• Bristol

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. 

Sift and Interview dates 

Sifting is envisaged to take place W/C 4th September 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. Due to the length of time CTC checks can take, our HR Shared Services team will contact reserve list candidates for London based roles to commence CTC checks. 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. 

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 2 year fixed term appointment with a possibility of permanency.  

For existing civil servants – you will be offered a 2 year 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 

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 

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 

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 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.

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 :Edward Ridout

• Email :edward.ridout@levellingup.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email :recruitment@communities.gov.uk