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Job summary

Local government plays a critical role in addressing the biggest strategic challenges facing the country. Local authorities deliver vital public services that we all see, and use, every day: social care for adults and children, caring for some of the most vulnerable in society; running schools and ensuring every child gets a good education; regenerating our high streets; and keeping our streets safe and clean.

The Local Government Finance Directorate is responsible for ensuring that all local authorities in England have the funding they need to deliver these services alongside a range of other key Government priorities: achieving net zero, delivering high quality, affordable housing, supporting our community and faith groups, and ensuring building safety. Our Directorate tackles the biggest policy questions facing local government to ensure the sector is sustainable, effective, and productive.

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Local Government Finance directorate and be responsible for answering these policy questions that have a tangible impact on people’s lives. Our work is high-profile and demanding, but incredibly rewarding. We work closely with Ministers and other Government Departments to get stuff done and have a positive real-world impact.

As well as being a high performing Directorate, we are also a friendly and diverse group of people from all walks of life. We have a strong corporate identity built on collaborative and flexible working and a commitment to ensuring our staff are happy and supported to be their best. We take flexible working seriously and are committed to being a friendly and supportive place to work. We have groups of staff in both Darlington and London and welcome applications from across the country.

We are recruiting several roles for HEO policy advisors and SEO senior policy advisors in our local government funding strategy, council tax, business rates operations, and capital, accounting and commercial teams. This advert is for HEO roles only.

We are hosting a number of sessions where you can learn more about the exciting world of local government finance directly from our team. Details can be found below:

19th October 2023 (3:30pm – 4:15pm): https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/local-government-finance-drop-in-tickets-733461050747?aff=oddtdtcreator

26th October 2023 (1:30pm – 2:15pm): https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/local-government-finance-drop-in-session-tickets-733360189067?aff=oddtdtcreator

31st October 2023 (11am – 11:45am): https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/local-government-finance-drop-in-tickets-733415885657?aff=oddtdtcreator

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

We are primarily recruiting in four critical teams in the Directorate; the Local Government Funding Strategy team, Business Rates Retention team, Council Tax team, and Pensions team.

The Teams

Local Government Funding Strategy 

Our team is responsible for understanding what funding local government needs to deliver public services and working closely with Ministers to deliver funding, reform how local government works, and ensure the sector is on a sustainable footing. We work closely with  officials in local authorities, colleagues across the civil service, including in HM Treasury and No.10 to advocate for local government, negotiate the annual funding settlement for the sector, and work on major fiscal events such as Autumn Statement and Budget.

Our work is exciting and varied. Recently, our teams have led work to:

•    Deliver nearly £60 billion worth of funding to local authorities
•    Negotiate novel devolution deals for Greater Manchester and the West Midlands;
•    Support the repatriation of British Nationals from Sudan;
•    Ensure local authorities are ready to deliver vital recycling reforms and contribute to net zero – and much, much more!

Business Rates Retention Team

This team is responsible for administering the Business Rates Retention system under which local authorities currently collect approx. £25billion. About £14 billion of this is retained locally to help fund local services as well as incentivising them to grow their local economy, improve the local area and support businesses to grow. You would work to resolve any policy issues that arise, and ensure that ministerial priorities are protected in the system. This role combines policy making with technical system stewardship, along with governance and regulatory work.

Council Tax Team

The council tax team manages policy that delivers over £30billion of funding to local councils. You could be working on any number of high-profile areas of work, such as deciding the maximum level of council tax set each year by councils through to ensuring the council tax system continues to run effectively through legislation and guidance.

Pensions Team

The pensions team is responsible for the stewardship and oversight of the Local Government Pension Scheme in England and Wales (the LGPS). The LGPS is one of the largest pension schemes in the world, with over 6.2 million scheme members and assets of £364bn, making it a globally significant investor. The scheme supports the provision of local services across England and Wales as a key part of the reward package for staff working in local authorities, service providers, and schools. Our aim is to ensure a sustainable, affordable and efficiently run LGPS, providing dignity and security in old age for millions of members. 

We work at senior levels with local government pension funds across England and Wales, the LGA and  colleagues across Government, as well as several UK regulators, and a range of private  sector service providers to the scheme. The team’s work is wide-ranging and you could be involved in issues including developing policy on the management of the investments, reforming local government redundancy arrangements, setting standards for local governance and administration, and making changes to benefits.
 

The roles
As a policy official in Local Government Finance the types of work you will be doing include:

•    Leading on analysing and developing policy options for a number of issues facing the future landscape of local government funding and pensions;
•    Speaking to and engaging with a wide variety of stakeholders including senior members of local government, and a range of other Government Departments, including HM Treasury;
•    Briefing ministers and/or senior officials on a range of policy options – often at pace;
•    Lead on developing policy options in preparation for the next funding cycle;
•    Communicating government policy to a wide range of audiences, including MPs, academics and members of the public;
•    Working with our team of analysts to answer tricky policy problems and communicate analytical work to senior officials;
•    Providing a lasting contribution to the local government funding system and our directorate, by designing new funding grants, responding positively to external policy pressures or helping to translate economic data into policy that improves the lives of residents.
•    Playing an active corporate role to contribute to the directorate continuing to be an inclusive, supportive, and rewarding place to work.

Person specification

We are seeking candidates who desire a fast-paced and stretching policy job in which you are comfortable supporting on large pieces of work around the issues of the day. Although we work closely with analysts, we are a policy directorate, and no specific accounting or finance knowledge is required for the role. Our work is wide-ranging, and we are particularly seeking candidates who can connect the dots between wider governmental policy and local government priorities.

As a policy official you will be:

·        Highly motivated and take ownership of your work;

·        Able to understand policy issues outside of your immediate work area and think strategically;

·        Able to build strong work relationships with other policy officials outside of your immediate area and work with others who have a wide range of views;

·        Able to verbally brief senior colleagues;

·        Write clear and detailed written briefings for ministers and draft public briefing lines and correspondence;

·        Confident in your ability to work at pace to deliver work in a fast-moving policy environment;

·        Comfortable working with analytical data and using data when briefing senior officials;

·        Emotionally intelligent, aware of your own development needs and eager to develop your skills.

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture

• Communicating and Influencing

• Making Effective Decisions

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £32,178, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities contributes £8,688 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%

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).  

At application stage you will be asked to upload a CV document. Unless stated otherwise in the advert, your CV will not form part of the assessment but will be used for information purposes and only shared with the panel at interview stage. 

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) Making effective decisions - Give an example of a time when you have had to make a decision by weighing up the pros and cons of different options.

Behaviour 2 - Seeing the big picture

Behaviour 3 - Communicating and influencing

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:    

Behaviour – Seeing the big picture, Communicating and influencing, Making effective decisions

Strength - 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: Seeing the big picture, Communicating and influencing, Making effective decisions

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 £35,400 (London) or £32,178 (National). 

• For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable. If you apply for a role that requires a transfer of location, for example if you are transferring from London to a National location, your salary will be adjusted in accordance with our policy on transfer between HQ pay ranges. 

Please note that the average employer pension contribution is based upon the National minimum salary for this role. Should your agreed starting salary for this role be different, the average employer pension contribution will be calculated accordingly. If you are a Secondee, this will not apply as you will remain on your home organisation’s terms and conditions.   

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

• 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. 

The locations listed in this advert are the only locations available for this role and cannot be negotiated. 

*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 03/11/2023 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. 

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. 

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.

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.