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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. 

As our new Head of User Centred Design, you’ll lead DLUHC’s design community. You’ll use your experience of design in an agile, digital operating environment, working closely with our Digital Delivery Leads to coach and advise policy and operational teams. You’ll help ensure that UUCD approaches can have an impact in these areas and find pragmatic ways of influencing teams operating at pace in ambiguous environments to incorporate these into their work and decision making. 

This role will likely be working with a range of disciplines, including a small but growing number of Civil Servants within design professions, as well as individuals from a range of third party suppliers. You’ll be an expert at advocating for user-centred design and choosing the right techniques and approaches for the environment you’ll be working in.  

You’ll champion the context and experience of the users of our service areas and be an expert in communicating their perspectives with a variety of senior stakeholders, so their needs are considered within the formulation of policy, or the design of services. You’ll help teams across DLUHC to develop design concepts, coach and embed good practices and ensure that decisions are being taken based on research and evidence. 

In addition to working with teams across DLUHC, you will lead our community of user researchers, interaction designers, content designers and service designers. You’ll help build consensus around common practices and tools, help to recruit specialists across these different disciplines and help to shape the community. 

Job description

As the Head of User Centred Design you’ll:    

• Be a visible leader in the Department advocating for the importance of designing intelligent user centred services and improved policy design, including with senior stakeholders and Ministers 

• Advise and coach teams in complex policy and operational areas on UCD, providing design thinking and expertise to specific projects so they can embed user centred improvements and changes Guide DLUHC to adopt inclusive practices to deliver accessible services that work for all users.  

• Provide UCD assurance as part of our Spend Control Process and act as assessor on Digital Service Standard Assessments  

• Lead and support the User Centred Design community, helping members feel involved and supported in their professions, help them to identify improvements in their ways of working and use their insights to influence the Digital strategy 

• Lead on recruitment for UCD roles within the department and line manage Senior UCD professionals 

Person specification:

As the Head of User Centred Design you’ll have experience in:    

• designing services that meet user needs and are delivered through integrated digital and/or non-digital services    

• planning and doing continuous service design in a multidisciplinary team will be essential   

• working closely with policy stakeholders to embed design principles at the very earliest stages of policy and design thinking   

• being able to quickly understand the political, social and technological context of designing services   

• supporting teams to analyse pain points within existing services, identifying root causes and creating recommendations to address that failure    

• mapping current service journeys and creating blueprints for improved and/or new services    

• ensure collaborative working practices between service designers, content designers, product managers and developers, turning designs into stories and actions that lead to valuable service improvements and solutions   

• leading the analysis and synthesis of outputs from workshops and other research/design activity, for instance, user journeys and service flows    

• working on public service design and for the importance of good design to public sector delivery  

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £67,280, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities contributes £18,165 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 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

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, we will be assessing: 

experience

technical

Your covering letter should be no more than 1 page and reference how you meet the essential technical skills and experience set out in the job description. 

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

behaviours - seeing the big picture

experience 

technical

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

behaviours - seeing the big picture

experience 

technical

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

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 

Group 1 DDaT roles

DLUHC has implemented the DDaT capability framework for Group 1 roles. Applicants that are successful at the sift stage will be required to complete a capability assessment at interview.

DLUHC will honour completed capability assessments for this role from other Government Departments for existing Civil Servants. Please provide a copy of your capability assessment to the Hiring Manager when applying. If you have any queries on pay, please contact the Hiring Manager.

Salary is determined by performance at interview, within the range advertised. Each experience or technical skill is assessed between 1-3, representing working towards, at or above the job level requirements. You are awarded a proficiency level accordingly, and you will be given opportunities at least once a year to re assess your capability and progress through the pay scale within your grade. An additional digital allowance may be payable depending on level of assessed capability.

Candidates moving from another government department have the option to retain their current salary where the principle for implementation is there is no detriment where existing pay exceeds the indicative level. Where individuals are at a lower salary than their assessed level, they will receive an upward adjustment.

Grade 6 Group 1 DDaT salary

• The salary for this role will between £67,280- £72,960 (National), £73,578 - £79,266 (London) depending on the proficiency level assessment.

• An additional digital allowance may be payable depending on the level of assessed capability up to £11,335

• For applicants in receipt of existing allowances, we will assess each case individually and aim to match the digital allowance implemented with no detriment.

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

Location

• Birmingham

• Bristol

• Cambridge

• Darlington 

• Leeds

• London

• Manchester 

• Newcastle-upon-Tyne

• Nottingham

• Wolverhampton 

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.

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. 

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 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

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 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