About the job

Job summary

The Business Travel & Expenses and Purchase to Pay Centre of Excellence teams are part of the wider Finance Global Process team, a centralised team established to support the Finance Director General by providing assurance on the effectiveness of and compliance with key financial controls.

The FC&P teams play a key role in the Department’s second line of defence and has developed a strong reputation for providing expert professional advice and support to the business. The team is responsible for:

• Maintaining, raising awareness of and embedding the Financial Control Framework within DWP;
• Reviewing/assessing and reporting compliance with key financial controls, working with the wider business to strengthen controls;
• Supporting the DWP Finance Global Process Director, enabling him to deliver his accountabilities, ensuring the health of key financial processes and working with colleagues across government to meet the process standardisation agenda.
• Supporting the DWP Finance Global Process Director to develop Purchase to Pay and Business Travel & Expenses Global Processes to meet the cross-government Global Process Design Principles.
• Owning the Business Travel and Expenses and Purchase to Pay Finance Global Processes.

Places for Growth and Social Mobility

As part of the Places for Growth Programme, we are committed to delivering a more geographically diverse Civil and Public Service that will better serve the public and ministers. As part of this initiative, we are continuously reviewing how we recruit into each location.

Postings

Posting will be made in merit order by location, this will be based on the geographical requirement at the time. A reserve list may be held for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made. Reserve list candidates will be posted in merit order by location. Successful candidates will be posted to a specific role and will have the opportunity to express a preference as part of the selection process, although final decisions may come down to business need, and the skills and development needs of candidates. Standard promotion rules will apply, and successful candidates will be placed on the pay scale and terms and conditions of DWP. The role available may be based in:

• Blackpool – Peel Park, Brunel Way, FY4 5ES.
• Manchester – 2 St Peter's Square, M2 3AA.
• Newcastle – Benton Park View, NE98 1BA.

Hybrid working

These job roles may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in their DWP office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work. The number of days that anyone will be able to work at home will be determined primarily by business need, but personal circumstances and other relevant circumstances will also be taken into account. If you are successful, any opportunities for hybrid working, including whether a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for you, will be discussed with you prior to you taking up your post.

These roles can only be worked in the UK and not overseas.

Job description

The successful candidates can expect to be involved in:

• Proactively search for opportunities to improve processes and the activities of the team, with a focus on continuous improvement.
• Develop good working relationships with colleagues and stakeholders internally and externally.
• Provide support to business areas and colleagues to ensure that decisions are made with appropriate and correct reference to policies governing Purchase to Pay and Business Travel & Expenses.
• Ensure compliance with rules and requirements across Purchase to Pay or Business Travel & Expenses, identifying non-compliant users and support collaborative corrective actions to resolve issues.
• Provide advice and guidance to customers in respect of methods of purchase, sourcing of goods and services or around correct methods of travel and claiming expenses.
• Produce and maintain appropriate management information on the performance of the team against key metrics (e.g. user requests logged and resolved, by type) and take action to correct any identified shortfalls in performance.

Tasks will include but are not limited to:

• Maintain policy, guidance and process maps.
• Maintain the procurement and business travel & expenses hubs.
• Support the delivery of routine training requirements.
• Freedom of Information (FOI)/Parliamentary Questions (PQ)
• Maintain and support the query management process

The post holders will be required to work in a flexible way and undertake any other duties appropriate to the grade and level of responsibility of the post. This may also include working closely with other DWP Finance staff to develop solutions/problem-solve and engaging in project work to drive finance improvements.

It would be advantageous (but not a requirement) for candidates to have:

• Experience of Oracle iProcurement or iExpenses
• Understanding of Purchase to Pay or Business Travel & Expenses policies
• A good working knowledge of MS Word, Excel & PowerPoint

Person specification

Strong candidates for these roles should be able to demonstrate the following Essential Criteria:

• Lead Criteria: Seeking and analysing information to inform decisions based on the best available evidence.
• Using your initiative to take forward actions.
• Using your judgement and taking a considered approach to situations and tasks when making decisions.
• Adapting to variations in work, personal resilience and acting as a change advocate
• Taking a positive approach to problem solving and finding ways to identify solutions
• Quickly developing mutual trust and respect to build effective working relationships with others

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 and Experience.

Written Application

Stage 1 Sift - Personal Statement 

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV and personal statement. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Strong applicants will be able to demonstrate clearly in their Personal Statement, within the 1,250 word count, how their skills and experience meet the Essential Criteria that is outlined in the Person Specification in the advert. Behaviours are not being assessed at sift stage.

We recommend that you make full use of the word count to demonstrate as well as you can, how you meet the criteria for the advertised roles. We are interested to hear about what and how you have achieved your deliverables in your application content.

Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be conducted using the Lead Essential Criteria "Seeking and analysing information to inform decisions based on the best available evidence." Candidates who pass this will progress to a full sift on the remaining Essential Criteria.

Candidates who are successful at the sift stage will be invited to attend an interview.

Stage 2 - Interview

This will take place via Microsoft Teams and should take approximately 40 - 50 minutes.

You will be assessed on your experience against the Civil Service Behaviours listed below:

• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions
• Changing and Improving

Application sift is planned to be carried out from 2nd January 2024  
Interviews are planned to be begin on 25th January 2024 

Interview

You will be asked Behaviour based questions. The interview aims to be more of a conversation at interview offering a more inclusive approach. We will assess both what candidates are good at and what they enjoy.

The Behaviour based questioning explores what the candidate can and has done, but also their potential.

An example of a Behavioural question would be.

Tell me about a time when you’ve had to deal with a difficult customer. It may help to use one or more examples of a piece of work you have completed or a situation you have been in, and use the WHO or STAR model to explain:

WHO

• What the task/work was,
• How you approached the task/work/situation and
• what the Outcomes were, what did you achieve?

Or

STAR

• What was the Situation?
• What were the Tasks?
• What Action did you take?
• What were the Results of your actions?

Further Information

Find out more about Working for DWP

A reserve list may be held for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made.

Any move to DWP 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

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out. 

Civil Servants applying on promotion will usually be appointed to the salary minimum or within 10% of existing salary.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment. 

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles. Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. Applications will be screened and if evidence of plagiarism or copying examples/answers from other sources is found, your application will be withdrawn. Internal DWP candidates may also face disciplinary action.

Before applying for this vacancy, current employees of DWP should check whether a successful application would result in changes to their terms & conditions of employment, e.g. mobility, pay, allowances. Civil Servants that would transfer into DWP from other government organisations, following successful application, will assume DWP's terms & conditions of employment current on the day they are posted, unless DWP has stated otherwise in writing.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Reasonable Adjustment

At DWP we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce.

We consider visible and non-visible disabilities, neurodiversity or learning differences, chronic medical conditions, or mental ill health. Examples include dyslexia, epilepsy, autism, chronic fatigue, or schizophrenia.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:Contact Government Recruitment Service via DWPRecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the “Reasonable Adjustments” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

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.