About the job

Job summary

This role sits within the Grants, Risk, Assurance and Counter Fraud team within DCMS Finance Directorate. You will oversee the grants function in DCMS providing strategic leadership and operational support to our grant teams. 

You will also head up the Finance Director’s office  providing strategic leadership and working across the Directorate to  deliver on our collective priorities, identifying risk areas and opportunities.

Job description

Your role will have two roles. Grants will be about 70% of the role and is reflected in the criteria:

Grants:

• Work with senior leaders to implement the DCMS Grant Strategy 2025 - setting the strategic direction for grant design and delivery in DCMS and lead on improvement action plans
• Oversee the central grants team within DCMS, including providing keyholder advice to Finance Committees (including deputising for Board members) and ensuring DCMS adherence to Grants Functional Standards
• Lead on the implementation of a future Target Operating Model (TOM) for grants
• Working with the DCMS Public Bodies to understand and provide support in relation to their grant making activities
• Provide strategic direction on establishing sufficient assurance activities for Core and Public Body grants - an Executive Board priority
• Management of small team of grants experts
• Relationship holder for the Cabinet Office grants function 

Chief of staff/Finance Office:

• Work with the Finance Director and SLT to identify the strategic opportunities for the Directorate. This could include but is not limited to business planning, talent development, learning and development and target operating models. Working across the Directorate to deliver on these.
• Drive success in the Business Support team, in particular on new responsibilities on the Directorate’s Capability agenda such that improvements are visible to the Directorate.
• Management of small team which includes business support and Executive Assistants
• Undertaking discrete cross directorate/department work as required, for example on internal reviews 

Person specification

The ideal candidate would have the following key skills and experience:

Essential requirements:

• Understanding of the grants functional standards and how they apply to government grant making and managing public money
• Experience in a grant making team/environment e.g. as someone who has lead a large grant scheme / implementation
• Leading a multidisciplinary team with competing priorities
• A strategic thinker - ability to effectively prioritise
• Very strong stakeholder/collaboration skills. Much of this work will be delivered through others, including through influencing senior leaders.
• Excellent communication skills written/verbal- you will often be representing the team at senior boards

Desirable skills:

• Relevant financial qualifications and/or financial experience, with a particular emphasis on this within a grant making body
• Experience of delivering training/learning and development  
• Change management / operational design. Changing attitudes / behaviours / outcomes is key to this role 

We are offering applicants to join a virtual information session on

Tuesday 2nd April 2024 at 11:30am

hosted by the vacancy holder - Laura Clayton

The session will be an opportunity to hear more about the role, the team and wider directorate and the department. It will also be an opportunity for you to ask any questions.

Please register your interest here and you will be sent an invitation. 

Please note that the session will not focus on the DCMS recruitment process, please direct any queries that you have on this topic (timelines, reasonable adjustments, onboarding etc) to recruitment.team@dcms.gov.uk

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £56,462, Department for Culture, Media and Sport contributes £15,244 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, Strengths and Experience.

To apply for this post, please send us the following documents no later than Monday 15th April at 23:55 pm via the CS Jobs portal:

• A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you provide employment history that relates to the essential and desirable criteria, and that any gaps in employment history within the last 2 years are explained. The CV should not exceed more than 3 x A4 pages and you should insert your CV into the "Job History" section on Civil Service Jobs on the Civil Service Jobs application form.
  
  
• A Statement of Suitability (max 750 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role in reference to the essential requirements highlighted. You may also choose to reference the desirable skills listed.

For the shortlist, we will assess your experience and select applicants demonstrating the best fit for the role by considering the evidence provided in your application.

In the event of a large number of applicants, an initial sift will be conducted on statement of suitability. Those who are successful in the initial sift will then be scored on all elements of the application.

For support in writing your application and interviewing, please refer to the ‘Application and Interview Guidance’ document attached to the job advert.

The interview process will assess behaviours and strengths and potentially include a scenario based task which will be provided at interview.
The behaviours to be tested at interview are:

• Communicating & Influencing
• Working Together
• Leadership
• Seeing the Big Picture

You will not be made aware of the strengths being assessed prior to your interview. 

As part of your interview, you may be asked to deliver a short oral presentation. Full details of this, including the topic, and whether or not you will need to use visual aids, will be sent to you prior to your interview. 

Your interview will take place remotely via GoogleMeets. 

For indicative sift and interview dates please refer to the attached Candidate Information Pack.

Further Information

If the vacancy is offered as FTA/Loan, existing Civil Servants must join on a Loan basis only., Prior agreement to be released on loan must be obtained before commencing the application process. In the case of Civil Servants, the terms of the loan will be agreed between the home and host department and the Civil Servant. This includes grade on return.

This role is full time only. Applicants who wish to work an alternative pattern are welcome to apply however your preferred working pattern may not be available and you should discuss this with the vacancy holder before applying.

Please be aware the levels of national security clearance are changing which may impact on the level needed for this role by the time of appointment. All efforts will be made to keep candidates informed of any changes and what that will mean in terms of vetting criteria. For more information please See our vetting charter

A reserve list may be held for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made.

Any move to Department for Culture, Media and Sport 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  

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out. 

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

DCMS has a London and a National pay scale. For more information on this, including the circumstances in which each pay scale will apply, please see the ‘Information for Applicants’ document.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading. 

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment. 

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

Reasonable Adjustment

We are committed to supporting candidates so they can perform at their best throughout the recruitment process. This includes making reasonable adjustments to our process.

In order to request an adjustment, please:

Complete the ‘Assistance required’ section on the ‘Additional requirements’ page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or a verbal test rather than a written one. 

Alternatively, contact the Government Recruitment Service via dcmsrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Accessibility

If you are experiencing accessibility difficulties with any of the attachments, please contact us. Contact details can be found in the 'contact point for applicants' section of the job advert.

Feedback

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 counter-terrorist 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.