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Job summary

The Cities and Local Growth Unit (CLGU) is a joint unit between the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and the Department for Business and Trade (DBT).

We help communities and businesses across England realise their potential by supporting economic growth and levelling up in our local areas.

We lead on initiatives including devolution of powers and funding, local growth programmes, investment zones, support for towns and high streets and response to economic shocks.

We are committed to the welfare of all our people. We take mental health and work-life balance seriously. 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

Working closely with the rest of the team, you will also be responsible for creating, maintaining and improving a series of systems which provide the team with high quality information about their places.  The post holder will maintain core information products which are used to support Ministers and Senior Civil Servants to make decisions, undertake daily media monitoring and collate/coordinate commissions for information from a range of teams across Government.  

You will support one of the team’s Senior Executive Officer’s work around supporting team’s corporate development, focussed on driving business planning, risk management and knowledge and information management, working closely with all members of the team to drive continuous improvement across the breadth of team’s responsibilities.  You will also play a key role in the team’s responsibilities around local economic intelligence reporting and developing Honours citations on the region’s local stakeholders.

There will be also opportunities to lead on bespoke project work that is related to the Unit’s work programme on economic growth in the Oxford-Cambridge and East Anglia region and further afield.  
 
This team is working in a fast-paced environment influencing the direction of high-profile policy with significant Ministerial attention.  As such this post will require: an ability to deliver at pace on urgent work and also progress less urgent, but critical tasks; the ability to work without close direction and take your own initiative; a willingness to own tasks and see them through to successful completion; a flexible approach to roles and responsibilities and an ability to prioritise tasks quickly and efficiently.  Above all, the team works closely together and the post holder will need to be a good team player.
 
Our team – Oxford Cambridge and East Anglia (OCAEA)

The Oxford-Cambridge and East Anglia team in the Cities and Local Growth Unit covers the counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. 

This post could be based in our London or Cambridge office and the role will involve a blend of home, office and external working (though working from home can be minimised if it is not convenient for you).  Whilst roles may on occasion involve out of hours working to accommodate travel and meetings, we work as a team to balance our diaries and our lives appropriately. 

We support hybrid and flexible working and we would love to see applications from a diverse range of candidates to join our inclusive teams.

Key responsibilities
 
You will:  

•    Maintain – and continuously improve – the team’s knowledge and information management systems, ensuring they align with wider Departmental requirements and remain fit for purposes for the team’s needs.
•    Be responsible for maintaining and updating the team’s constituency factsheets, stakeholder and visits databases.
•    Lead on economic intelligence for the team, undertaking daily media monitoring and assessing/collating external data on regional trends and issues and ensuring continuous improvement of the existing systems and processes used to capture intelligence.
•    Oversee commissions from different parts of Whitehall that require cross-team coordination and insight.
•    Support the teams’ responsibilities on ministerial business, inputting to Parliamentary Questions, ministerial correspondence and visits options / suggestions within the region as required
•    Lead for the team on the development of Honours citations for both the New Year’s and Birthday Honours rounds.
•    Provide cross-team support as required on wider team meetings, visits and emerging projects as required. 
•    Have the opportunity to be involved in policy or corporate work within the Unit and / or wider Department(s).

Person specification

•    Strong organisational skills.
•    Ability to deliver at pace.
•    Ability to work across multiple pieces of work at the same time, prioritising as appropriate.
•    Confident communications skills, both written and verbal.
•    Sound analytical skills and ability to produce quality regional economic intelligence. 
•    Ability to support and coordinate a range of corporate / team business planning and management processes.

Behaviours

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

• Changing and Improving

• Making Effective Decisions

• Working Together

• Delivering at Pace

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £26,464, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities contributes £7,145 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.

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) - Changing and Improving 

Behaviour 2 - Making Effective Decisions 

Behaviour 3 - Working Together 

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:    

Behaviour – Changing and Improving, Making Effective Decisions, Working Together, Delivering at Pace 

Strength 

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

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

Behaviours: (Changing and Improving, Making Effective Decisions, Working Together, 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 £29,691 (London) or £26,464 (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 

• Cambridge

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

SIFT AND INTERVIEW DATES: 

Sifting is envisaged to take place W/C 20/11/23 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.

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 :Pete Northover

• Email :peter.northover@businessandtrade.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email :recruitment@communities.gov.uk