About the job

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’re all 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’re thinking of joining us, there’s never been a more exciting time. 

• As part of the Local Government, Resilience and Communities group, the Communities and Integration Directorate sits at the heart of the Government’s aim to level up opportunities for everyone.
• Our efforts are at the heart of DLUHC’s goal to establish socially and economically stronger communities. 
• Our work is already helping to bring communities together around the shared values and close connections which unite us, while tackling extremists and other hostile actors who seek to sow division amongst our communities and places. 
• The role being advertised will be in the Societal Resilience and Counter-Extremism division. You will be part of a team of committed policy, programme management and engagement experts, operating across a set of high-profile, complex and sensitive policies and delivery programmes.
• We are recruiting for a Service Owner to oversee the development of a cross-government service for external engagement and due diligence, building on the recent announcement of cross-government engagement principles (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/community-engagement-principles/governments-principles-of-engagement)
• As the Service Owner, you will be accountable for the quality of the service and for communicating the benefits and performance of the service. You will adopt a portfolio view, managing end-to-end services that include multiple products and channels. You’ll build an in-depth understanding of your service, and use digital thinking, culture, service design and delivery practices to develop a new service. You will also own the budget and allocate funding to areas of the service based on your decisions about priorities.
• This is not a technical IT post and is not confined to running a website. However, since the service will be a technical product, experience of working with digital services is essential. We’ve written a blog post about how DLUHC sees the role of Service Owner (https://dluhcdigital.blog.gov.uk/2019/09/16/defining-the-service-owner-role-for-mhclg/

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

As a Community Engagement Review Service Owner you'll:

• set direction, advice on which tools and methods to use, and provide strong, decisive, and visible leadership for a digital service focused on meeting various user needs
• be accountable for the quality and usage of your service, build by bringing in insights from changing user needs and innovative ways of working to achieve the right outcomes. You will continually iterate and improve the service based on user feedback and your understanding of the environment
• you will be able to apply strategic thinking to provide the best service for the end user. You will do this by working with digital product managers and delivery teams to prioritise to maximise return on investment, considering user needs, organisational goals, technical risk, commercial considerations and deadlines, team capabilities and resources
• build and maintain strong relationships between policy and DDAT, and establish good working relationships with cross-government and external partners to join up strategies and processes to deliver a new service under a one-team attitude
• ensure the necessary business processes are followed and participate in the governance of the service, including acting as a point of escalation for the delivery teams
• own the budget and allocate funding to areas of the service based on decisions about priorities. Identify and progress opportunities to reduce costs and duplication by actively promoting simplification
• actively participate in networking with other Service Owners inside and outside government and share good practice and learning

Person specification

We will use the essential criteria below to evaluate you during the recruitment process. Make sure your CV and cover letter details how you meet the criteria.

As a Community Engagement Review Service Owner you'll have:

• a track-record of leadership in successful design, delivery and continuous improvement of high-quality digital services
• experience of working with senior stakeholders to persuade them of the benefits of agile and service design techniques
• experience of building and delivering against strategies to transform and join-up digital or non-digital services, focusing on delivering maximum return on investment
• experience of building and managing high performing teams, delegating decision making to the most effective level, and empowering teams to deliver to the best of their abilities
• an ability to translate complex aims and needs into compelling vision statements and clear and manageable plans and communicating these in an open and transparent way through a variety of channels
• experience of managing the expectations of stakeholders with conflicting needs and demands, engaging with senior stakeholders, and developing a pipeline of customer adoption 
• a systematic approach to solving problems
• an understanding of service design principles
• experience of assessing risks, scoping resource requirements, and managing budgets and operating costs to ensure value for money and sustainable development of teams and services

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £61,599, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities contributes £16,632 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

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.

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 and Cover Letter 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

You will need to merge your CV and covering letter into one document. When submitting your application Applied will ask you to upload a CV, when doing this you should upload your merged document of your CV and covering letter.

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 and covering letter we will be assessing: 

• Technical
• Experience

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

• Behaviours: Communicating and Influencing, Changing and Improving, Seeing The Big Picture, Managing a Quality Service
• Experience

Candidates who are shortlisted for interview may also be asked to do a presentation or additional tests. The presentation will look to test the 'ability' success profile. Further details will be provided following sift. 

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

• Experience - Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the person specification
• Technical - Technical will be assessed by reviewing the CV and Covering Letter against the essential skills and criteria as listed in the person specification
• Behaviours: Communicating and Influencing, Changing and Improving, Seeing The Big Picture, Managing a Quality Service
• Ability - Will be tested by the presentation

Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the person specification.

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.

Grade 6 salary 

• The salary for this role is £61,599 (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. 

Location 

Manchester

Wolverhampton

Darlington* 

Bristol

Birmingham

Leeds

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 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 W/C 22nd of April 2024 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. 

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.

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.

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.