About the job

Job summary

The post-holder will lead the Resilience Co-ordination Division as part of a job share with the existing Deputy Director, Jo Gillespie. This is a high-profile division that helps the department fulfil its role in preparing for and responding to emergencies and other major events. The successful candidate will be required to co-lead three teams tasked with overseeing and coordinating response activity across the department, leading on resilience policy including on recovery, and servicing RED's particular corporate requirements.

Job description

The responsibilities of the role will include:

• Preparing RED and the department for different types of crises, looking across the department’s policy responsibilities and working with Cabinet Office and other government departments.
• Developing resilience policy, especially around recovery where there is significant Parliamentary and ministerial interest in how the department should support local areas to recover from incidents.
• Ensure that appropriate contingency plans are in place for specific risks, including those where the department is "Lead Government Department". 
• Leading the Directorate’s corporate and business planning function.

During a crisis response, the responsibilities of the Division will include:

• Advising the Executive Team on when to stand up/stand down a departmental response.
• Discharging the department’s command, control and communication (C3) arrangements and concept of operations including staff resource requirements and mobilisation .
• Providing a dedicated briefing and engagement function for Ministers and the Executive Team throughout the emergency.
• Coordinating activity across different multi-disciplinary teams in the department
• Leading Departmental recovery activity 

As well as co-leading RCD, the job holder will act as a core member of the Resilience and Recovery Directorate’s wider Senior Leadership Team. This will include performing the role of Response Director on a rota basis - often outside of normal working hours - to provide operational leadership in an emergency. Responsibilities may change to reflect business need

This is a jobshare role of c.22-28 hours per week. There is flexibility on the exact working pattern although Monday-Wednesday would be preferred.  Jo would be happy to discuss the role and job-share arrangements.

Key accountabilities

• Setting strategic direction – lead and shape the Division to perform its role in coordinating work across the department in responding to and preparing for crises and major events and set the direction for the department.
  
• Internal and external engagement and partnership – build effective relationships and networks with Ministers and senior colleagues across own and other teams/organisations including other government departments especially Cabinet Office.
  
• Horizon scanning – identify and respond to emerging issues and their potential impacts; systematically investigating evidence about current and future trends to assess whether RED and the department are adequately prepared.
  
• Written and verbal briefings – provide clear, calm and composed briefings to Ministers and senior officials, often under pressure in an ambiguous and fast-moving environment.
  
• Coordination and governance – coordinating multiple work strands across different teams within the department to ensure that actions are captured, understood and followed up, effective plans are in place, and risks well managed.  Act as secretariat to the Resilience Board outside crisis response and the GOLD group in crisis response.
  
• Acting as a Response Director – provide overall strategic direction for the response to and recovery from an incident, often outside normal business hours. This will include representing the department at high-level cross-Whitehall meetings such as COBR Officials meetings.

Person specification

You will be an empowering and visible leader with the skills to motivate and coach the RCD: giving them a clear understanding of the RCD's role, the confidence to engage effectively with stakeholders, and the judgement to know what to prioritise, given the ever-changing operational context and the pace of work. 

You will be a strategic, analytical thinker and a confident decision maker  – able to make clear, evidenced, sound judgements and prioritisation decisions both in anticipating and preparing for different eventualities, and in determining the right responses to unfolding events. You will need to be able to make decisions at pace, with an ability to respond nimbly, confidently and decisively to changing circumstances. You will also be a confident communicator who can translate complex information and data into clear and usable insights for ministers and other decision makers that will drive planning and operational responses.

Strong relationship skills are key – you will build an effective network of relationships within and outside the department and use these to deliver a challenging programme of work with a busy team.

You will need to have strong personal resilience to be able to think and act quickly and calmly under pressure, even during a crisis, and to look out for the wellbeing of your team. 

You will give priority to developing your own knowledge of the risk and resilience landscape, so that you are seen as an authoritative source of advice by ministers, senior officials and colleagues elsewhere in government.  However, prior experience of working on resilience, whilst helpful, is not essential.

You must be DV cleared or willing to go through the DV clearance process.

We particularly encourage applications from those of an ethnic minority background and those with disabilities, as well as those based in locations outside of London, who are underrepresented at this level in DLUHC.

As one of the Department’s senior leaders, you will also be a visible role model for the Civil Service leadership behaviours. These can be found in the Civil Service Leadership Statement which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-leadership-statement/civil-service-leadership-statement

Essential criteria

It is important in your application that you provide evidence and examples of proven experience in each of the following:

• Exceptional leadership skills – an inspiring, confident and empowering leader with experience of building, leading and transforming high performing teams and setting clear strategic direction. Adept at delivering through others – being able to influence, and motivate others at pace, often in a pressurised environment, to deliver what is required of them.  Strong co-ordination skills with experience of providing clear and effective mechanisms for coordinating multiple work strands across different teams to ensure that effective plans are in place, and risks well managed. 
• Strategic thinking – experience of: horizon scanning and big picture thinking to anticipate and prepare for different eventualities; designing effective systems and operating models across different teams; and developing and delivering tactical and strategic solutions at pace to ‘grip and fix’ issues in a fast-moving environment under pressure.
• Using information, data and evidence to make decisions and recommendations – experience of analysing complex problems and interpreting complex information including data and human intelligence to create and present evidence based situational awareness, insight, decisions and recommendations both in writing and orally. 
• Building and managing relationships and partnerships – experience in effective relationship building, with proven ability to engage persuasively and confidently, influencing effectively at all levels. 
• Ability to develop knowledge of new areas of work at pace and willingness to invest in an effective job share partnership.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £75,000, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities contributes £19,710 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

How to apply
Please click the Be Applied link to provide the required information and complete your application through the Be Applied website by 23:55 on Sunday 26th May 2024.

You will be asked to enter some personal details, upload your CV and to provide your responses to the role’s advertised essential criteria.​

When prompted to upload your CV, please upload a single document consisting of: ​

• a CV (including the names of 2 referees and your current remuneration) setting out your career history, with key responsibilities, achievements and your relevant qualifications. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years. ​
• a statement of suitability explaining how your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria provided in the person specification. (max. 2 pages)​

Please remember to save these two items in one document.​

Please note that only completed applications through the Be Applied route will be considered and that any further progress updates will be sent through Be Applied.

The hiring manager, Peter Lee, would be happy to have informal discussions with candidates who would like further information about the role before submitting an application. If interested, please contact scs.recruitment@levellingup.gov.uk 

The selection panel will be made up of:

• Peter Lee, Director, Resilience and Recovery
• Two additional panel members TBC

Additionally, the panel will be joined by one of our staff representatives from a pool of volunteers as part of our commitments to diversity and inclusion.

Selection process and assessments

Candidates that are shortlisted may be invited to attend a staff engagement panel. 

At DLUHC we hold staff engagement panels as an integral part of the recruitment process for Senior Civil Servants (SCS) – they are designed to help us build up a rounded picture of each candidate and give us an insight into how you might engage and interact with your team should you be successful. The purpose of the session is to help us assess your engagement and communication skills and is not about testing your subject knowledge or expertise for this particular role. Feedback from the session is passed onto the selection panel for consideration alongside the final interview.

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to an informal discussion with Jo Gillespie.

Candidates may also be invited to a meeting with a Minister or the Secretary of State, and/or other senior stakeholders. This is not a formal part of the selection process but an informal chance for candidates to find out more about the role and the organisation.

Shortlisted candidates will also be invited to give a short presentation or complete an exercise at the beginning of their final interview. Further details will be provided to shortlisted candidates when invited to interview. 

All of the evidence presented as part of the process will be considered in the final assessment.

Security Clearance

All DLUHC colleagues must meet the Baseline Personnel Security Standard. This is a series of basic security checks to confirm identity and employment history.

In addition to the BPSS, the level of security clearance required to undertake this role is Security Check (SC) and the process can take up to 8 weeks to complete. While in post, the successful candidate must undertake the Developed Vetting (DV) clearance process (if not already DV cleared).

For more details of vetting levels and requirements please refer to the Cabinet Office HMG Personnel Security Controls.

Salary

For external appointments, remuneration for this role will be circa £75,000 pa pro rata plus a bonus opportunity depending on performance (within the normal Civil Service pay arrangements) and attractive pension.​

For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable. If appointed on promotion you would get the higher of 10% uplift or the new minimum for Deputy Director.​​

Future pay awards will normally be made in line with current SCS performance-related pay arrangements.

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.