About the job

Job summary

Are you a dedicated person who is passionate about making a difference?

Would you like to work for the Ministry of Defence? 

Defence Business Services (DBS) is one of the largest shared service organisations in Europe that provides a wide range of corporate services, to over 1.2 million end users, including serving and past military and families, as well as MoD civil servants and industry. DBS delivers large scale administration and smaller specialist services to enable the wider MOD to focus on its core aims, maintaining the UK’s Defence and Security.

Services include Human Resources, Pay, Veterans, Finance and Procurement.
•    Our Vision - To support UK defence customers with outstanding service every time.
•    Our Mission - Together we will proudly support Defence, continuously improving and delivering flexible, timely, sustainable and value for money services that underpin the whole force and enhance operational capability.

DBS is committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues.

We are building an inclusive culture and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society. 
We want to maximise the potential of everyone who chooses to work for us through opportunities to develop your skills and experience. We also offer a range of flexible working patterns and support to make a fulfilling career accessible to you and offer a Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%. Where your role permits, we support a blended working approach alternatively known as hybrid working.

Come and join the DBS community today!

DBS has recently undertaken a review of its operational locations in the Northwest, and have consolidated all activities in Norcross, Blackpool. A further move, to the new Government Hub at Talbot Gateway in Blackpool, is scheduled to take place in 2026. There is, however, an expectation that all DBS staff, irrespective of their agreed duty station, will travel to other DBS and/or MOD site(s), as required, to complete all necessary training and to participate in team or additional collaborative activities – detached duty terms may apply DBS also supports Flexible Working, which can be discussed in more detail at interview. 

Job description

Services provided by DBS attract significant Parliamentary, media and public interest and the Secretariat ensures that timely, accurate and unbiased briefing or advice is provided to Ministers for use in Parliament and in public. 

The DBS Secretariat delivers the full range of Secretariat functions for the organisation, including all Parliamentary, Ministerial, Treat Official and Freedom of Information correspondence and Board Secretariat support.  It continues to be one of the busiest and interesting Secretariat teams in the MOD and has close Ministerial interest.

This is a government policy profession role reporting to a Grade 7 Head of Secretariat and CEO’s office. You will lead a geographically split team of 11 and be responsible for managing the timely and accurate responses of Parliamentary questions, Freedom of Information requests ministerial and public correspondence responses and generation of Ministerial submissions, you will be required to take ownership of more complex and problematic cases. Additionally, you will monitor quality and performance targets, maintain continuous improvement, and manage, coach and develop the skills of your team.

Person specification

Essential

• Previous experience working in at least one of the following roles is essential: Secretariat, Parliamentary, working with and briefing Ministers and senior stakeholders, policy development, or managing Freedom of Information requests.
• Able to work in a fast-paced environment and to build and maintain strong, effective relationships across a broad spectrum of stakeholders.
• Be curious and tenacious, tackling problems and identifying solutions.
• Have excellent communication skills including the ability to communicate thoughts and ideas, verbally or in writing, simplifying complexities and adapting communication so others can understand.
• Be precise and give attention to detail.
• Be organised and able to work to short timelines and constantly changing priorities.
• Manage and support others in the development of skills and knowledge required to deliver goals and objectives.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £43,080, Ministry of Defence contributes £11,631 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.

Please ensure that at the application and interview stages of the campaign you review the Success Profiles Framework to assist you in the demonstration of your skills and experience.

Your suitability for the role will be assessed using the Success Profile elements that have been chosen for this campaign. Each element will be scored accordingly, and the successful candidate will be appointed on merit.

Applications will be sifted on all Success Profile elements, but in the event of a high number of applications, an initial sift will be conducted on your CV. In this instance the remaining elements will be tested at interview. 

At application stage you will be assessed against the following:

Ability Tests: 

• Numerical test
• Verbal test

Candidates will be required to complete an online Numerical/ Verbal test.

Should you be invited to complete the online tests, please allow sufficient time to complete the tests and the remainder of the full application form; only candidates who are successful at the test stage will be invited to complete the remainder of the application by clicking ‘Submit Application’. Your application must be completed by 23:55 on the closing date of the vacancy. Late submissions cannot be accepted. The tests are not timed, as they work by giving you harder questions if you answer the previous question correctly, and easier if you get it wrong. You should allow up to an hour for each test, and each test must be completed before you will be invited to complete the second part of your application. Internet access will be required for the duration of the test. Please refer to the attached Candidate Guidance for further information.  

Candidates that reach the minimum required pass mark will have their results saved as a banked score against the following tests:  

• New Civil Service Verbal Test
• New Civil Service Numerical Test

When a candidate has a banked score, they’re not asked to re-take the same test providing it is set at the same level. Scores will be banked for a 6-month period from the date of test completion. If a candidate is invited to take the same test against multiple vacancies, the banked score will be recognised against all vacancies and all active applications will progress.   

If you require any particular arrangements (for example due to a disability or health problem) to be made in order for you to complete the online test you MUST contact the DBS Enquiry Centre on 0800 345 7772 BEFORE accessing the online test. 

Opening times Mon - Friday 0800 - 1600 hrs. 

Experience: 

• CV - Including Job history, Previous skills & experience : demonstrating past experience in at least one of the following types of role: Secretariat, Parliamentary, working with and briefing Ministers and senior stakeholders, policy development, or managing Freedom of Information requests.
• Personal Statement e.g. In no more than 1000 words, please detail your experience of the following:

1. Ability to communicate thoughts and ideas, verbally or in writing, simplifying complexities and adapting communication so others can understand.
2. Ability to work under pressure, effectively collaborating to drive forward a shared goal. 
3. Ability to make plans and be well prepared in order to maximise time and productivity.

Your response to each section should be detailed, demonstrating how you meet each criteria (including what you did to achieve a specific result). 

At interview you will be assessed against the following:

Behaviours:

• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing 
• Working Together 
• Delivering At Pace
• Seeing the bigger Picture 

In the rare case where individuals have exact matching scores, the order of merit will be determined based on the behaviour scores at interview in the following order:

1. Leadership
2. Communicating and Influencing
3. Working Together 
4. Delivering at Pace
5. Seeing the bigger picture 

If candidate scores are still exact, the merit order will then be determined on the sift score in the below order or priority:

1. Experience - Personal statement
2. Experience - CV

We want to offer opportunities to all who are successful at interview for our roles, but this isn’t always possible, so we do hold candidates on an active reserve list for 12 months. 

Application sifting is scheduled to take place on 03/01/2024

Interviews are currently taking place remotely via Ms Teams and will be conducted week commencing:10/01/2024

A minimum of 2 full working days’ notice will be provided for interviews.

We endeavour to stick to these dates, but these are subject to change around business needs.

To assist with your application please find attached below: 

DBS Candidate Information Guide - Working for Defence Business Services - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact: DBS-EnhancedRecruitmentTeam@mod.gov.uk

MOD Recruitment Satisfaction Survey – we may contact you regarding your experience to help us improve our customer satisfaction. The survey is voluntary and anonymous. You may however be given the opportunity to provide additional information to help us improve our service which includes the collection of some personal data as defined by the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The MOD Privacy Notice sets out how we will use your personal data and your rights.

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points-based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical. 

The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected, and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn. 

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 security 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.