About the job

Job summary

The Strategic Finance and Planning Team (SFP) secures the finding that the Department needs to deliver its strategic objectives and ensures resources are maximised to deliver these efficiently and effectively.  To achieve this, we aim to provide assurance that we have credible spending plans that match the resources available and spending adheres to the requirements outlined in Managing Public Money.

We put Finance at the heart of decision making; delivering value for money and strengthening public trust.

The Government Finance Function is one of the functions operating across the Civil Service. We are responsible for supporting the management of over £800 billion of public expenditure each year, as well as over £2,000 billion in assets and £4,500 billion of liabilities.

You will be joining a community of over 10,000 people working across 18 government departments and their agencies. Government Finance touches every aspect of public life in the UK, offering exciting opportunities to build a career working across wide ranging businesses and national agendas.

DfT Group Finance is responsible for managing the Departments budget (around £30 billion per annum) and supporting the business to ensure tax-payers’ money is spent efficiently and effectively.  Built around a culture of advising, challenging and enabling, the Group is a friendly directorate with around 110 staff.

The Head of the Strategic Finance and Planning Team leads the team that ensures the Department has robust medium term financial plans and risks and opportunities are managed against these.  Working with the Strategy Team, the team leads work to set plans that align to the funding available and provides choices and recommendations to the Executive Committee and Ministers.

Working with other areas of finance and other corporate functions, the post holder ensures that there are robust control mechanisms across the Department to manage risk and to support the Accounting Officer in discharging their responsibilities.

The team hosts the Finance Centre of Excellence to review investment plans and business cases and to provide constructive challenge as required.

The role also involves working with the National Audit Office on their programme of Value for Money studies.

A key part of the role is also supporting the Finance Directorate in ensuring that financial capability is built and maintained, both within the finance function and with those across the organisation charged with financial responsibilities.

Job description

Responsibilities of the role include:

• Leading a team of around 12 staff; building an engaged and empowered team and maintaining a focus on continuous improvement. Championing a culture of delivering value for money across the team and the wider Department.
• Forming excellent working relationships with the wider Departmental Group to ensure financial planning and decision-making is undertaken consistently and to a high standard, balancing our challenge function with the need to enable business delivery;
• Scrutinising new spending proposals as they arise and operating as a trusted advisor to the Permanent Secretary on Accounting Officer responsibilities.
• Leading on business planning for the Departmental Group, translating DfT’s strategic priorities into a robust rolling Medium Term Financial Plan. This involves working with budget holders to test the costs of delivery, the opportunities for efficiencies and relative priorities to help the executive team and ministers take budget allocation and prioritisation decisions that best serve collective needs;
• Working with HM Treasury and DfT’s Strategy Unit to ensure key fiscal events (Estimates, Budgets and Spending Reviews) reflect the challenges and opportunities for the department and provide adequate budget cover. Once budgets are agreed, to then ensure these are captured in the Department’s Main and Supplementary Estimates.
• Managing the Finance Centre of Excellence, providing clearance on all investment proposals; deputising for the Group Finance Director at the Investment, Portfolio and Delivery Committee as required.
• Act as a leader in the cross-government Finance Function, ensuring DfT is aligned with and supporting the wider functional agenda, through setting standards, driving consistency and build financial management capability to put Finance at the heart of decision making, in the department and across the Civil Service.
• Being part of the Group Finance Directorate Senior Leadership team, which has collective responsibility for financial management of the DfT Group

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.

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

• Qualified and experienced financial professional (CCAB, CIMA or equivalent)
• An ability to deliver effectively through building a strong network, collaborating across disciplines such as policy, programme delivery, commercial and HR and managing stakeholders at the highest levels in Government
• Strong analytical and decision-making skills, using finance expertise, understanding of the business, wider insight and political nous to support delivery of strategic objectives.
• Strong oral and written presentational skills, with ability to explain complex financial issues to non-specialist audiences.
• An authentic and credible leader, with the ability to engage and motivate those around you and lead an inclusive culture.
• Experience of formulating, leading and implementing cross-cutting strategies and plans to match resources to priorities in a challenging financial context.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £75,000, Department for Transport contributes £20,250 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 07/03/2024

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 1250 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:

• 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:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing
• Leadership
• Working Together
• Making Effective Decisions

Further information about Success Profiles can be found here:

Interviews are expected to take place face to face in our London office, 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: 07/03/2024

Shortlist: w/c 18/03/24

Assessments: w/c 25/03/24

Panel Interviews: 05/04/24 & w/c 08/04/24

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.