About the job

Job summary

Safer Greener Buildings (SGB), a unit of DLUHC, started work 5 years ago to make buildings safer following the Grenfell Tower fire. Since Grenfell, the extent of the challenge and nature of the work needed has become clear.

  

Until now, all delivery has taken place in two programmes within DLUHC, supported by delivery partners in Homes England and the Greater London Authority. In future, delivery will be conducted through five programmes, with a much greater role for Homes England, the newly established Building Safety Regulator, and industry itself through Developer Self Remediation.   

 

As the complexity and scale of remediation increases, a Portfolio model is being implemented. The Portfolio itself will be made up of 7 functions and 5 programmes, and will lead some areas of work, and co-ordinate others between the Department and its Delivery Partners.  

 

The Portfolio Performance team sets the strategic direction, empowers programmes by setting standards, applying rigour, and aggregating intelligence to create the conditions for programmes to deliver at pace and be successful. The Portfolio Performance team has a critical role as a convenor across the portfolio driving the forward look for the portfolio, providing a single source of truth to support effective management and decision making as well as building and promoting a positive culture and ways of working across the portfolio.  The function is expected to intervene directly where necessary, to solve the most difficult or complex problems by building strategic relationships to drive forward performance results that will ultimately have a direct impact on the livelihood of residents. 

 

The Strategy Unit plays an important role in steering the portfolio, gathering intelligence and insights, planning and managing assurance across the portfolio. As the Head of Strategy Unit, you will be responsible for leading on and ensuring alignment against the portfolio strategy and driving assurance across the portfolio, including managing internal and external relationships. This role entails significant horizon scanning capabilities to bring a forward-looking view and anticipate risks and opportunities across a complex portfolio. 

 

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.  

Important - To apply for this role you will need to submit a CV and covering letter. These need to be merged 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. There are further details in the Selection Process section further below in this advert.

Job description

As the Head of Strategy Unit you will be responsible for: 
 

Strategy  

• Lead on the portfolio roadmap including managing dependencies, portfolio alignment and prioritisation  
• Lead on the portfolio strategy as part of a continuous strategy approach informed by horizon scanning and options analysis ensuring choices are understood and made throughout the lifecycle of the portfolio  
• Work with the Strategic Finance Operations team to develop portfolio business plans and  input into fiscal events  
• Lead on the development and approval process for portfolio business cases owning the production of key components and commissioning input from across the portfolio while ensuring quality and alignment with portfolio strategy 
• Lead on benefits tracking for approved business cases including commissioning evaluations to understand and demonstrate portfolio benefits  

 

Assurance  

• Lead the assurance strategy for the portfolio in line with GMPP, IPA, HMT and departmental standards and guidance  
• Plan and lead assurance reviews for the portfolio and work collaboratively across the portfolio and with senior leaders to identify and deliver necessary improvements  
• Work with the Head of Performance & Risk and with other leaders in the portfolio to manage the relationship with the IPA and lead other relationships with key internal and external bodies and teams e.g. Central Portfolio Office, GIAA, NAO, GLA and Homes England assurance teams  

Person specification

• You will be an experienced and visible leader for your team, able to engage and motivate when working under pressure and at pace, and to actively contribute to the wider leadership agenda across the portfolio   
• You will have demonstrable experience working in a programme or portfolio management role on programmes of significant scale and impact  
• You will have demonstrable experience producing Business Cases of scale and complexity and guiding these through internal and external gateway approvals  
• You will have demonstrable experience developing programme or portfolio strategy including identifying key pivot points and being able to guide senior leaders through choices to be made to ensure effective strategy 
• You will have demonstrable experience identifying evaluation needs and commissioning these and actioning their findings  
• You will have demonstrable experience designing, deploying and managing assurance processes in line with the GMPP 
• You will have demonstrable experience managing stakeholders including key external bodies not limited to HMT, NAO, Cabinet Office, delivery bodies and advisors 
• You can engage and challenge function and programme teams, as well as upwards management with the senior leadership team across SGB. 

 

Essential Criteria  

• Exceptionally strong leadership and management skills with the ability to inspire staff and build engagement and capability to deliver, driving a performance culture and demonstrating the resilience required to achieve results 
• Experience of strategy setting for comparable programmes or portfolios of significant scale and impact  
• Experience of developing and deploying assurance activities for programmes or portfolios of significant scale and impact  
• Excellent stakeholder management skills with the ability to build strong and effective working relationships across the portfolio and external bodies and advisors  
• Experience operating at a senior level across programmes, portfolios and organisations  

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £61,599, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities contributes £16,631 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.

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. 

 

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: 

 

Examples: 

Experience 

Your CV and Covering Letter should be no more than 500 words long. In your CV and covering letter, please include:  
 
a. why you are interested in the role; 
b. how you meet the essential skills and experience required 

 

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

Candidates will be expected to complete a case study exercise at interview stage.

 

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

 

Experience: Yes - Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description 

Strength: Yes

Behaviours: Making Effective Decisions, Communicating and Influencing, Delivering at Pace 

 

We do not consider direct CV applications – you must apply for this role via the application link on Civil Service Jobs: 

Please note that near miss offers may be made at the lower grade to candidates who do not meet the grade criteria for this campaign 

Grade 6 salary 

• The salary for this role is £61,599 (National) or £67,889 (London). 
• 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 

• Birmingham
• Leeds
• Wolverhampton 
• Darlington* 

 

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. 

 

*Please note: The Darlington Economic Campus is a pioneering new cross-government hub which will bring together people across departments and public organisations to play an active role in the most important economic issues of the day. The work of the Campus will make a real difference to people both across the UK and internationally. There will be substantial career opportunities and exciting prospects - a career at the Campus means you will be working at the heart of Government, with access to the benefits and fantastic opportunities offered by the civil service.   

For further information on the DEC, please take a look at the attached DEC candidate pack. 

 

Sift and Interview dates 
 
We will be sifting applicants as we go – so please don’t wait until the deadline to submit your application. Interview dates will be confirmed at a later stage, 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. 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. 

 

Before starting your application it’s very important to make sure that you are eligible to apply and meet the Civil Service nationality requirements. All candidates are expected to read the information provided in the DLUHC candidate pack regarding nationality requirements and rules 

 

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.