About the job

Job summary

We’re Ofwat, the Water Services Regulation Authority —a non-ministerial government department responsible for regulating the water sector in England and Wales. 

As the economic regulator of water and wastewater companies in England and Wales, our role is to enable, incentivise and hold companies to account for providing the very best for customers, communities and the environment now and in the future. We also oversee the markets in the water sector to ensure they’re working for customers. 

We are at the source of everyday life. Our work is high-profile and fast-moving, within a dynamic and agile environment. The work that you’ll be involved in every day will help us to deliver our strategy, to make us the regulator we want to be and help the sector to deliver for customers and society. 

Job description

About the Programme

Join us as an Ofwat graduate and step into a world where you are empowered and encouraged to help us solve problems in the water industry from the very start. Our graduate programme offers a truly versatile role, great insights into how a regulator works and excellent training, enabling you to create a solid foundation for your career.

The legal team is part of the Office of the Chief Executive, sitting alongside other cross cutting teams working across Ofwat to enable our regulatory work. We work with all Directorates in Ofwat, embedded in the policy teams' work, to help evolve and deliver Ofwat's strategy, whilst navigating and managing legal risk. We pride ourselves on providing high quality, pragmatic, solutions-focussed advice, clearly, simply and concisely. With the opportunity to support work in a range of areas, you’ll develop a broad skillset including legal, analytical, communication, drafting, presentation, policy development and stakeholder engagement skills.  

We will sponsor you through the solicitor apprenticeship programme. The SQE1 and SQE2 examinations are included in this apprenticeship.  Where you are successful in the programme and the examinations you will be a qualified solicitor at the end of the programme. Across our wider graduate programme, we offer rotational and static opportunities, which both provide the same learning, development and support. This is a static role within the legal team as you will need to attain qualifying work experience as part of the apprenticeship. Although static within the legal team, you will advise within a variety of different policy areas covering a range of Ofwat's work.

Examples of work that members of the Ofwat legal team have advised on are:

• Ofwat's major investigation into wastewater treatment work performance.
• Advising on our five yearly price reviews, including on the CMA redeterminations for the PR19 decisions, covering 2020-25.
• Introducing new conditions in companies' licences to enable Ofwat to stop the payment of dividends if they would risk a company's financial resilience and to take enforcement action against water companies that do not link dividend payments to performance.
• Introducing a new customer-focused licence condition for water companies in serving residential customers to improve outcomes for customers.
• Successfully defending a judicial review claim against Ofwat concerning its obligations under the Urban Waste Water Treatment (England and Wales) Regulations 1994.
• Advising on the completed merger of Pennon and Bristol Water.
• Working in an innovative partnership with the Environment Agency and the Drinking Water Inspectorate (RAPID) to facilitate the development of national water resources infrastructure.
• Enforcement case against Thames Water for leakage performance, resulting in a package of commitments worth £120m to customers.
• Enforcement case against Southern Water for management of wastewater treatment works, resulting in £123m reparations to customers and a £3m financial penalty.
• The regulation of the Thames Tideway 'super sewer' for London.
• Devising and delivering emergency Covid business support measures for the water suppliers to business, and working with the industry through the impacts of Covid.
• Supporting the establishment of our innovation fund to encourage innovation in the sector and our open data policy work, to encourage the sector to embrace the opportunities that open data presents.

Person specification

Professional Requirements - Essential Criteria

Qualifications

You will have (or be on target to achieve) at least a 2:2 degree in a Law based Degree. As this is graduate programme, you must have graduated already, or be due to graduate in 2024, and have no more than three years’ work experience following your graduation.

Experience, skills and knowledge

• Experience / aptitude that will support you in providing high quality, timely and solutions-focussed legal advice across a number of Directorates, workstreams and projects which assists in the development and implementation of policy objectives
• Be able to demonstrate analytical thinking, effective problem solving, information processing and decision making.

Attributes

Throughout the selection process, we will be looking for evidence of our SAILOR values. We will also assess you on the following attributes and behaviours that are essential for success on the programme. These are defined more fully in our Framework for Success.

Committed Learner – "I'm flexible, curious and adaptable, committed to my own growth and development."

Makes Relationships Count – "I contribute to a supportive team environment, showing empathy and building effective relationships to achieve progress."

Creates clarity – "I'm adept at communicating clearly, simplifying complexity, considering the needs of my audience, and tailoring my written and verbal communications to meet their needs."

Adaptable thinker – "I identify problems and seek out information to find solutions.  I do this in a way that considers the needs of others, and I'm flexible to adapt my approach as parameters or goals change."

Delivers outcomes – "I achieve my objectives in a timely manner, keeping people updated, and taking accountability and responsibility for outputs and outcomes.  I link my work to the bigger picture and ask for clarification when it's needed, striving always to improve my delivery to customers (whether internal or external)."

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £29,000, Ofwat (Water Services Regulation Authority) contributes £7,830 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

We’re looking to appoint this year with an assessment centre to take place w/c 8th April 2024 and a start date in September 2024. The closing date for applications is 23.55 on 17th March 2024 so don’t miss out! 

The selection process includes;

• A candidate application form, assessing the qualification, skills, experience and knowledge requirements as outlined above. The application form also assesses some of our attributes and behaviours (outlined in the attached candidate information pack).
• Video interview assessing SAILOR values and the attributes and behaviours (outlined in the attached candidate information pack). 
• Successful candidates will then be invited to a assessment centre, week commencing 8th April 2024. The in-person assessment centre will assess all of the requirements for the role.

The assessment centre includes;

• A group exercise
• An interview
• A Presentation (topic to be shared in advance)
• A written assessment

To see further detail on which of the criteria will be assessed at which stage, please refer to the attached candidate information pack.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. 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.