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The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) is setting up the Office for Local Government – a new body that was announced in the Levelling Up White Paper earlier this year.  Oflog will initially bring together, analyse and publish existing data to understand local government performance. It will: 

• be a ‘single source of authoritative information’ that will support local leaders in their decision-making and support self-improvement.  

• allow central government to better understand LA performance  

• help local people better understand what is happening in their area. 

The establishment of this body will be delivered through an ambitious new programme delivered by a multi-disciplinary team made of policy, operational, analytical, data and digital professionals, working in partnership with government, the LG sector and citizens. To support delivery of the programme, part of the team will be located within the new body and part of the team will be located within the DLUHC, but all will be working towards the successful establishment of this new organisation.  With strong Ministerial and sector interest, this is a high-profile programme. These are evolving and stretching roles which offer a fantastic opportunity to contribute to the delivery of a key government priority objectives. 

Job description

We are recruiting for a number of HEO roles, across a broad range of policy teams and functions. These include Sponsorship & Accountability, Local Government Outcomes, Policy and Legislation, Engagement and Consultation and Operations. 

Sponsorship & Accountability 

This is an exciting role that sits at the very core of delivering Oflog, helping to ensure it has the mechanisms in place to support organisational and operational effectiveness. The candidate will support an ambitious programme of work to evolve a three-year strategy for the organisation. This will require innovative, forward thinking and ability to enact a clear vision.  

The successful candidate will support the effective operation of the body’s governance structure and supporting arrangements including governing framework documentation. The role will support the recruitment of the Chief Executive, the appointment to any external advisors to the body, and development of an accountability regime for the organisation.  

This post-holder will support the annual business planning to set the road map, milestones and goals that will deliver on to the broader strategic vision for OIflog, enabling the functions and objectives to develop. This will need to be supported by risk management with regular monitoring/reporting and accountability requirements.   

The post-holder will provide a critical interface between DLUHC and Oflog, with responsibility for facilitating strategic level relationships with senior stakeholders from across the Department. The post-holder will also be required to prepare material such as correspondence, presentations and reports.  

Local Government Outcomes  

This role in the Local Government Outcomes and Metrics Team, will see successful candidates supporting an ambitious programme on priority metrics and outcomes to evolve the strategic relationship between central and local government. It involves working with senior stakeholders from across central and local government, to draw up a set of national priorities/outcomes and aligned priority metrics. This work demands collaboration with the core Oflog team as they establish and launch the organisation, with OGDs to agree a set of priority outcomes and metrics and with Local Government partners to test them. 

The post holder will also be required to join up the work with the wider LG transparency agenda, LG Capacity and Capability, and the LG accountability regime which ensures the local government system has all the checks and balances needed to account to residents and central government. This role also involves an element of performance management operations such as programme level co-ordination, high level briefings, reports, and performance monitoring reporting. 

The post holder will oversee the open local government and transparency policy area, leading correspondence and briefing for senior officials and ministers, as well as leading a consultation and potential legislative reform. 

Policy and Legislation  

This role will see successful the successful candidate supporting delivery of an ambitious programme of work for Oflog. Coming from a strategy or policy development background with experience of working in and/or with the Local Government sector, you will have a proven track record in supporting delivery of positive change for consumers, communities or society. With good project management skills, you will enjoy solving problems for the greater good and managing a broad array of stakeholders. As such, you will have great communication skills, and you will be capable of successfully coordinating deliverables within your area. 

Engagement and Consultation 

This candidate will play a key role in facilitating the commitment made in the Levelling up White Paper to co-design the new body with the LG sector. Development of Oflog is high-profile work which will be subject to considerable media and stakeholder attention. You will support a programme of engagement with DLUHC stakeholders, other Government Departments (OGD), the local government sector and sector bodies. This role will require development of robust engagement strategies to communicate new measures and engagement on a range of issues designed to build long-term trust between the proposed new body and its many stakeholder groups. The post holder will be a trusted engagement expert who will bring energy and dynamism to the role. You will be expected to work closely with the Chair as the Secretary of State’s directly appointment figurehead for Oflog.  

The post holder will work with senior stakeholders and manage risk and reputation, delivering real time rebuttal as well as creative, original and proactive media moments.  

Operations 

The post holder will be responsible for supporting the set-up of vital systems and processes needed to ensure Oflog can exercise its functions and work effectively. The post holder will work collaboratively with specialist colleagues and teams to support the requirements of the body and its delivery objectives.  

The post holder will work across the following areas: Business administration, finance, HR, procurement, health and safety, contracts management, amongst others.  In doing so, the post holder will support corporate business functions and act as a bridge between various interdependent projects/workstreams to ensure that activities are planned, delivered and completed effectively.  

Strong communication skills and demonstrable experience of operations are essential for this role. 

Responsibilities

• Support delivery of the strategic direction and roadmap for the new body 

  • Engage with stakeholders across the Department and wider Government to drive delivery.  

  • Support the planning, co-ordination and delivery of the high-quality business planning including budgeting, working with wider teams as appropriate to ensure the Body meets its corporate requirements including monitoring and reporting.  

  • Provide briefing to Ministers and senior officials on policy and legislation.   

  • Be part of a supportive, inclusive team environment based on trust-based relationships, transparency and inclusivity, including effective scoping of work and setting of clear responsibilities.. 

  • Collaborate closely with other teams to manage interdependencies, risks and resourcing to support portfolio delivery. 

  • Develop strong relationships with key stakeholders inside and outside government including sector bodies to co-design and drive policy delivery. 

  • Demonstrate effective diversity and inclusive team management within their team and the wider organisation, including welfare and pastoral care of team. 

  • Respond to Parliamentary Questions, correspondence and preparing briefing. 

   

   

  Role Specific Responsibilities 

   

  • Setting up body governance including recruitment of Chief Executive and Advisory Board. 

  • Leading on developing and implementing a framework agreement/MOU, accountability and reporting requirements 

  • To deliver a programme on priority metrics and outcomes to evolve the strategic relationship between central and local government.  

  • Supporting the analytical strategy for the new body, working with analytical colleagues to understand the insight are derived from LG body analysis and how we use that insight to drive policy development. 

  • Supporting a review and reform of the open local government and transparency policy area, including consulting on and potentially delivering legislation. 

  • Support the development and implementation of policy and legislation to support the requirements of the body working collaboratively with wider colleagues including specialist teams (Legal, Legislative team) to achieve delivery objectives and benefits realisation. 

  • Support on development and implementation of a communications and engagement strategy which will build new capabilities and ensure efficient and effective delivery of LG Body objectives.  

  • Support development of communications and engagement products including press notices and web content. 

  • Support delivery of key communications functions, including (but not limited too) – press and media relations, social media, and broadcast - ensuring the team is delivering day-to-day operational priorities in a responsive manner. 

  • Supporting the work to scope and develop the data strategy for the LG Body. Developing the overarching strategy and leading the policy development process for the role of the new body in data collation, presentation and collection. 

  • Supporting a review and reform of the open local government and transparency policy area, including consulting on and potentially helping to deliver legislation. 

  • Supporting the development and implementation of operational requirements working collaboratively with specialist colleagues/teams (e.g. HR, Finance, Project and Change professionals) to support the requirements of establishing the body, delivering its objectives and benefits realisation. 

  • Set up systems and processes for the body to operate e.g., ensuring that finance and HR systems in place and the relationships being managed, facilitates management, estates, security;   

  • Oversee as appropriate aforementioned systems and processes e.g. resolve conflicts where they arise in relation to service provision 

  • Work in partnership with others to shape the operating model for the organisation.  

  • Ensure that appropriate policies and procedures are embedded within the body and provide knowledge transfer to support this. 

  • Collate information on a wide range of issues where appropriate including workforce, incident reports and where required, financial summaries, providing these to the SLT and/or wider management team to provide assurance and aid decision-making and action. 

  Person specification and essential criteria

  Essential 

  • Excellent oral and written skills including the ability to communicate detailed information succinctly and clearly. 

  • Excellent stakeholder management skills and an ability to work collaboratively, build consensus and influence outcomes, as well as excellent oral and written communication skills and attention to detail. 

  • Strong interpersonal, stakeholder and communication skills, including the ability to work confidently with diverse groups of senior stakeholders and challenge where necessary. 

  • Ability to build collaborative and trusted working relationships with a variety of internal partners. 

  • Track record of demonstrating resilience and flexibility under pressure with the ability to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances and balance competing demands whilst remaining focused on delivering high quality outputs. 

     

  • Ability to draw on expertise into key activities and escalate issues where appropriate. 

  • Calm working and making effective decisions under pressure with ability to deliver at pace and comfortable navigating through ambiguity. 

  • Strong organisational and management skills. 

  • Strong stakeholder skills, including the ability to work confidently with diverse groups of senior stakeholders and challenge where necessary. 

  • Be a self-starter who can deliver at pace across multiple responsibilities, with strong organisational skills to ensure there is focused delivery across a complex brief.  

  • Ability to manage different workstreams with interdependencies, including delivering outcomes through others. 

  • Experience of collaborating and forming effective partnerships within teams and across organisations. 

  • Communicate in a straightforward, honest and engaging manner, choosing appropriate styles to maximise understanding and impact 

  • Is interested in the local government sector in the broad sense, passionate about ensuring good outcomes for the current and future sector and partners, and eager to help drive DLUHC’s contribution to delivering Levelling Up. 

  • Ability to work with stakeholders to make the connection between policy and the real-world situation, developing detailed targeted solutions to demonstrate impact. 

  Desirable 

   

  • Experience of working on high profile and fast paced issues.

  • Good knowledge and demonstrable understanding of the Local Government sector. 

  • Strong grasp of the data and digital environment. 

  • Familiarity with consultation and legislation. 

  • Knowledge and experience of leading a high-performance communications team in a demanding setting subject to ongoing stakeholder/media interest. 

  • Significant experience in developing and leading communications strategies to support and achieve business objectives. 

  • Experience of applying behavioural insights in communications to stimulate action or behaviour change. 

  • Knowledge and experience of strategy and business planning, monitoring and reporting. 

  • Experience of commercial awareness and financial management including high value budgets.  

  • Experience in developing legislation/bill and successfully progressing through Parliament.  

     

  • Experience of working in a business management or operations role, with a good working knowledge of HR, finance, risk management and other business management functions. 

  • Project Management qualification or equivalent experience planning and delivering projects or organisational change. 

Offered benefits

 •     Learning and development tailored to your role

•     An environment with flexible working options

•     A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity

•     A Civil Service pension

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 

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 (Lead Behaviour): Making Effective Decisions

Behaviour: Seeing the Big Picture

Behaviour: Communicating and Influencing

Behaviour: 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 progressed straight to assessment/interview 

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

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

Behaviours: Making Effective Decisions, Seeing the Big Picture, Communicating and Influencing, Delivering at Pace

Experience: Yes

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.

HEO salary

• The salary for this role is £30,188 (National) £33,210 (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. 

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION: 

• London

• 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 W/C 15th August 2022 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). Thank you. 

 
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. 

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