About the job

Job summary

At the Department for Transport (DfT) we’re working to improve every kind of journey.
We’re harnessing new technology to create safer, more sustainable transport. And,creating better connections between people and places, we’re enabling greater growth opportunities for communities UK-wide. It all means that here, you are part of something very different and special.

DfT and our agencies employ around 15,000 staff, of whom about 3800 are in the core Department, and we have the largest and most complex capital project portfolio in Government, delivered principally through delivery partners including Network Rail, HS2 Ltd and National Highways.

We are broadening our presence around the country and are growing new locations in Leeds and Birmingham.

Our strategic aims are:​

Growing and Levelling Up the Economy​

Reducing Environmental Impact

​Improving Transport for the User

More information about DfT can be found on our website here

Departmental Vision

All DfT employees are guided by the Civil Service core values of honesty, integrity, impartiality and objectivity.

Everything we do to achieve this is reinforced by our values:

Confidence: to challenge, to take action, to innovate.

Excellence: in our professionalism, in our delivery, in our learning.

Teamwork: we are inclusive, we collaborate and we support each other.

Job description

We are seeking an experienced and talented individual to lead, direct and develop the Bus Funding Division, part of the Local Transport Directorate in the Department for Transport.
The large team of 35 FTE develops and delivers policies and grants across a range of functions and professions, working closely with Bus Operators and Local Authorities to ensure that bus services in England outside London can be delivered efficiently and cost effectively for the taxpayer. You will form part of the Senior Leadership Team of the Local Transport Directorate, taking responsibility for corporate leadership of at least one cross-cutting directorate issue and directly manage four Grade 6 deputies.

In this role you will be leading and overseeing a team currently responsible for over £1 billion of funding annually for bus services, both directly, through the delivery and reform of the Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG), Bus Service Operators Grant plus (BSOG+) and National Bus Fare Cap Grant (NBFC) scheme – the £2 bus fare; as well as indirectly via policy ownership for the English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS) – the concessionary bus pass which provides free bus travel for older and disabled people.

You will be comfortable working with large budgets, and leading a team that encompasses policy, commercial, and operational professions – providing direction on a complex set of policy interventions. An ability to understand operational processes, the commercial mechanics, requirements and incentives of bus operator finance and funding, and the interface with policy decisions is a must.

This role is highly visible and challenging, within the bus sector and with ministers and senior officials and across government. It requires strong stakeholder engagement and leadership skills, winning the confidence and respect of commercial operators, and an ability to work effectively with senior colleagues across Government to deliver on common objectives.

You will be a great manager and a visible leader, setting a clear vision and expectation for the team’s work, empowering and supporting them to deliver, and establishing an inclusive and learning culture in a team currently mostly based across the Department’s Hastings, Birmingham and London offices.

This role is available in Hastings, Birmingham or London. The Department normally expects at least 60% of working time to be spent in the workplace (at a DfT office, or on official business at another location). The majority of time spent in a DfT office should be in the location where the post holder is based. Wherever you are based, you will be expected to work in the DfT Hastings office, where most of the division’s operational team are located, for at least 20% of your working time. You will also need to visit regularly (every 4-6 weeks) the other DfT offices where the team are based.

Responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities for the role will include, but are not limited to:

• Providing advice and briefing to ministers and senior officials on bus operators and the funding landscape on a regular and ongoing basis.
• Leading policy development and applying thought leadership to shape the bus sector and relevant interventions, to achieve the Government’s objectives as set out in the National Bus Strategy.
• Building, motivating, and leading a diverse team to deliver efficient, reliable and cost-effective bus services for passengers.
• Acting as the Senior Responsible Owner for and ensuring the effective and efficient delivery of multiple grant schemes worth up to £500m per annum on time and to budget, and within relevant SLAs.
• Overseeing the provision of high quality commercial and corporate finance advice on projects and programmes across the division.
• Supporting the operational bus grant delivery team and ensuring they have the processes, systems, and skills they need to deliver large amounts of funding in an accurate, timely and proper way that delivers value for money for the taxpayer and minimises fraud and error.
• Building and maintaining strong and trusted senior working relationships with bus operators, industry groups and local authorities and utilising them to deliver successful outcomes.
• Championing and celebrating your teams’ successes, raising their profile across DfT, and ensuring lessons are learned in a supportive and constructive way if/when things go wrong.
• Playing an active role in the senior leadership of Local Transport Directorate and wider department, deputising for the Local Transport Directors as appropriate.

The Department is currently completing some restructuring, with the local transport directorate (in which this role sits) having recently moved to a new Public Transport & Local Group. The new group is currently reviewing roles and responsibilities at SCS level, to ensure that it is as effective and efficient as possible. The precise role and responsibilities of this post may therefore evolve both during the recruitment process and beyond.

Person specification

You will need to be able to show, through your application, that you have the professional skills, breadth of experience and personal qualities for this post, as well as the leadership skills to succeed at Deputy Director level in the Senior Civil Service.

Person Specification

The successful candidate must be able to demonstrate their experience and skills against the following essential criteria:

• You will be a talented leader with the proven ability to lead and inspire multi-functional team, develop capability, set a clear vision; and create an engage and motivated workforce.
• You have excellent communication and influencing skills and a strong track record of working with internal and external partners and stakeholders. You have the ability to deploy these to influence at the highest levels including with ministers and senior colleagues from bus operators, industry groups and local authorities.
• You have outstanding strategy, policy and analytical skills, with the ability to see the big picture, get to the heart of complex issues quickly and communicate the key judgements clearly.
• You have the ability to manage a large budget effectively and the commercial experience or skills to engage effectively in discussions or negotiations with private sector colleagues.
• You are able to work at pace and can both respond to external change and plan and implement improvements to your own team and function to deliver great results in challenging circumstances.

Experience of working in the bus or wider transport sector and/or with local authorities and/or will be an advantage but are not essential.

We are committed to diversity and inclusion and welcome applicants from all backgrounds.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £90,000, Department for Transport contributes £24,300 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

Application

To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online form. This should be completed no later than 23:55 on Monday 15th July 2024.

The application will include:

• A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
• A Statement of Suitability (no longer than 1000 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the criteria in the person specification.

Failure to submit both documents will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification.

As part of the online application process, you will be asked a number of diversity-related questions. If you do not wish to provide a declaration on any of the particular characteristics, you will have the option to select 'prefer not to say’.

All monitoring data will be treated in the strictest confidence and will not be provided to the selection panel.

Should you encounter any issues with your online application please get in touch with us via scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Shortlist

Your application will be acknowledged when it is received.

The panel will select a shortlist of candidates whose applications best demonstrate suitability for the role, by considering the evidence provided against the essential criteria set out in the Person Specification.

Candidates applying under the Disability Confident Scheme who meet the minimum selection criteria in the job specification are guaranteed an interview.

Assessment

Shortlisted candidates may be asked to take part in a series of assessments which could include:

• Individual Leadership Assessment – a combination of psychometric assessments
• Staff Engagement Exercise - a presentation and Q&A with a representative staff group from across the DfT.

These assessments will not result in a pass or fail decision. Rather, they are designed to support the panel’s decision making and highlight areas for the panel to explore further at interview.

Interview

You will be asked to attend a panel interview in order to have a more in-depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence in relation to the criteria set out in the Person Specification.

The Success Profile Framework will be used to assess and recruit the most suitable candidate. As well as Experience, we will also be using the following four behaviours will be used at the interview stage:

• Leadership
• Communicating and influencing
• Delivering at pace
• Making effective decisions

Further information about Success Profiles can be found here:

Interviews are expected to take place face to virtually via MS Teams, all shortlisted candidates will be asked to prepare a 5 minute presentation.

Offer and Feedback

Unfortunately, due to the anticipated number of applicants for this role, we are unable to provide feedback to those not successful at shortlist stage. Candidates who are shortlisted and attend an interview will be offered verbal feedback from a member of the interview panel.

The timeline later in this pack indicates the date by which decisions are expected to be made, all candidates will be advised of the outcome as soon as possible thereafter, and we will advise on any delays.

Expected Timeline

We will try and offer as much flexibility as we can, but it may not be possible to offer alternative dates for assessments or interviews. You are therefore asked to note the below timetable, exercising flexibility through the recruitment and selection process, in order to meet the dates given. Please note that these dates may be subject to change.

The anticipated timetable is as follows:

Advert Closing Date: 23.55 on Monday 15th July 2024

Shortlist: Late July 2024

Assessments: August 2024

Panel Interviews: Friday 6th September 2024

The line manager for this role, Stephen Fidler, plans to hold two drop-in meetings on Microsoft Teams in weeks commencing 24th June and 1st July.  These will provide an opportunity to hear more about the role and ask any questions you may have. If you are interested in attending please email Fidler-Matthew@dft.gov.uk to request details and receive a link to the appointments.

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.