About the job

Job summary

The Cities and Local Growth Unit is seeking to appoint an HEO Greater Manchester and Cross North-West Lead to engage in, and help drive forward, the Unit’s portfolio of work in the North-West, with a particular focus on Greater Manchester but with involvement in all areas of the region.

In this role, you will work closely with the Greater Manchester Area Lead and other Area Teams to support policy development and delivery across the region. You will play a key role in monitoring and delivering local growth programmes, including the Levelling Up Fund, Towns Fund, Future High Streets Fund, UK Shared Prosperity Fund, Long Term Plan for Towns and Levelling Up Partnerships. You will also play an active role in co-ordinating visits, drafting high quality briefings, and organising corporate activities to drive a high-performing team culture.

This is an excellent opportunity for someone to establish a network of contacts, build a wealth of knowledge and make a real change for communities in the North-West.

We particularly welcome candidates from an ethnic minority background and other underrepresented groups to apply, as we work to continually improve our ability to represent the places and communities we support through our work.

Job description

Take a lead role in supporting area teams to appraise, deliver and monitor local growth funding programmes including the Levelling Up Fund, Towns Fund, UK Shared Prosperity Fund, Community Ownership Fund, Long Term Plan for Towns and Levelling Up Partnerships

Lead and coordinate cross-cutting workstreams across the North West area teams, identifying ways to improve the way we work.

Co-ordinate high quality briefing material and correspondence, tailored for the audience (usually Ministers and Senior Civil Servants) on key issues

Take ownership of key briefing documents, programme dashboards, and risk registers

Work closely with external partners and Ministers’ Private Offices to coordinate Ministerial and Senior Civil Service visits to the region

Be proactive in developing strong stakeholder relationships across a range of areas including housing, business sector teams, skills and transport

Provide advice on challenges and opportunities for the area, and work with colleagues to develop solutions

Be an active member of the NW team, helping to promote wellbeing and an inclusive atmosphere

Person specification

Have the interpersonal skills that enable you to be an excellent communicator and influencer (verbal & written);

Be confident in growing & managing your local and national stakeholder networks, often at a senior level across a range of policy and Departmental interests;

Be dynamic, resilient, and capable of delivering at pace on often fast-moving and varied agendas which can sometimes change in priority at short notice;

Have strong organisational skills and be proactive in managing your own time;

Have proven analytical skills and attention to detail that will enable you to provide quality oversight of the levelling up programmes in your area.

Feel confident independently seeking out learning and development opportunities to enhance your ability to deliver the role and forge your career path;

You don’t need to have a particular background to succeed in these roles. People with an existing understanding of the economic and political landscape of Greater Manchester, or other areas of the North West, would be welcome to apply, but so would applicants with broader policy, delivery or economic intelligence experience that are looking to apply these valuable skills. Our experience is that a minimum of two years in an area post enables a real in-depth understanding of a place and we would expect successful candidates to join us for this duration as a minimum

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £32,178, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities contributes £8,688 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.

We are for everyone 

 

At DLUHC we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce. We promote equality of opportunity in all aspects of employment and a working environment free from discrimination, harassment, bullying and victimisation. 

We would strongly recommend that applicants get in touch with the vacancy manager to find out more information about this role. 
 

As part of our pre-employment checking process we will be using your CV to confirm your job history. Please note that by providing us with your CV you are consenting to us using the information enclosed as part of the checking process. 

 

We are for everyone 

CV and Cover Letter Declaration 

We recruit based on your knowledge and skills, and not background, gender or ethnicity - this is called name blind recruitment. 

Please remove references to your: 

• name/title
• educational institutions
• age
• gender
• email address
• postal address
• phone number
• nationality/immigration status

 

You will need to merge your CV and covering letter into one document. When submitting your application Applied will ask you to upload a CV, when doing this you should upload your merged document of your CV and covering letter. 

 

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that your application would be viewed by different assessors. 

 

At sift, through your CV and covering letter we will be assessing: 

Experience 

 

Your covering letter should be no more than 1 page referencing how you meet the criteria set out in the job description. 

 

The interview will be of a blended nature consisting of behaviour and strength based questions as listed in the advert. The strength based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.  

Candidates invited to interview will be expected to complete a written test as part of the interview

 

In full the campaign will test the below Success Profile Elements: 

Behaviours: Managing A Quality Service, Leadership, Communicating and Influencing

Strength: Yes

 

HEO salary 

• The salary for this role is £32,178 (National). 
• For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable. If you apply for a role that requires a transfer of location, for example if you are transferring from London to a National location, your salary will be adjusted in accordance with our policy on transfer between HQ pay ranges. 

 
Please note that the average employer pension contribution is based upon the National minimum salary for this role. Should your agreed starting salary for this role be different, the average employer pension contribution will be calculated accordingly. If you are a Secondee, this will not apply as you will remain on your home organisation’s terms and conditions.   

 

 

Benefits 

Transfers across the Civil Service on or after 4 October 2018: 

Any move to DLUHC 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. 

For further information about the benefits available to DLUHC employees, please see the attached Candidate Pack. 

 

Location 

• Manchester

 

There may be opportunities for candidates to work flexibly depending on the business needs. This will be discussed with the vacancy manager on a case-by-case basis if you are successful for the role. 

Sift and Interview dates 
 
Sifting is envisaged to take place W/C 02/04/24 with interview dates to be confirmed. All interviews are currently being held remotely via videocall. 

Reserve List 

In the event that we identify more appointable candidates than we currently have posts available, we will hold applicant details on a reserve list for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made. This may include roles at a lower grade. Candidates placed on a reserve list will be informed of this. Due to the length of time CTC checks can take, our HR Shared Services team will contact reserve list candidates for London based roles to commence CTC checks. Those candidates who do not wish to remain on the reserve list should contact recruitment@levellingup.gov.uk to be removed from the reserve list. 

 

Candidate Pack Information 

Please see attached Candidate pack for further information. 

 

Internal Fraud Database 

The Internal Fraud function of the Fraud, Error, Debt and Grants Function at the Cabinet Office processes details of civil servants who have been dismissed for committing internal fraud, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned.The Cabinet Office receives the details from participating government organisations of civil servants who have been dismissed, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned, for internal fraud. In instances such as this, civil servants are then banned for 5 years from further employment in the civil service. The Cabinet Office then processes this data and discloses a limited dataset back to DLUHC as a participating government organisations. DLUHC then carry out the pre employment checks so as to detect instances where known fraudsters are attempting to reapply for roles in the civil service. In this way, the policy is ensured and the repetition of internal fraud is prevented.  

For more information please see- Internal Fraud Register 

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.