About the job

Job summary

The role advertised is for; Investment Sub Committee (ISC) Secretariat, positioned in the Central Portfolio Office (Commercial Directorate), responsible for managing the process for seeking investment decisions from the ISC. Duties will include diary management, day-to-day administrative processes, and stakeholder management, ultimately supporting project and programmes teams through the ISC review process.

The ideal candidate will need to be highly organised, confident, have strong communication skills, with the ability to engage with various stakeholders at all grades, and complete tasks independently or with little supervision. Duties will include setting deadlines, providing clear instruction, ensuring standards are upheld, and guiding teams through the process of obtaining a decision for business case approval, to ultimately provide a quality service to the Chief Finance Officer (ISC Chair) and ISC panel members.

An essential part of the responsibilities will also include record keeping and managing documentation in an organised manner.

As part of a wider assurance team, CPO is making significant improvements to the process to help streamline the approach, remove layers of bureaucracy, and reduce the timeline for approvals. The team are working to provide clearer guidance for project/ programme teams to support business case development and determine a proportionate approach for the approval of projects and programmes. The ideal candidate will need to be resilient to ‘process’ changes and together with the wider assurance team, be a change agent and implement changes and improvements across the department as well as be the central point of contact for all ISC process queries.

Job description

Main duties:

• Running the secretariat function, providing a quality service for the ISC chair and panel, supporting project and programme teams.
• Managing the ISC diary, setting the agenda for regular fortnightly reviews, and managing approvals via correspondence and managing ad hoc requests.
• Issuing ISC commissions, setting expectations and deadlines, and circulating actions and recommendations.
• Providing advice and assistance to project and programme teams on the ISC review process
• Maintaining a high standard of record keeping, organising, and sharing documentation with key stakeholders
• Supporting and implementing changes and improvements to the overall decision-making process, which the wider assurance team is responsible for.
• Work with finance business partners, programme and portfolio management offices to develop and maintain an accurate forward look of business cases and track decisions for the whole department
• The position requires meticulous attention to detail and strong administrative skills to deliver a quality service.
• You will bring strong organisational skills with the ability to prioritise and work in a fast-paced environment.
• You will need to build strong working relationships, through clear communication, with project/ programme teams to set expectations and ensure submission of documentation in a timely manner to support the decision-making process.
•  You will interact and communicate regularly with senior stakeholders, SRO’s, corporate functional leads and the ISC Chair and panel members.
•  You will act as a change agent for process improvements made via the Assurance team, and clearly communicate this to all stakeholders.
•  You will work closely with members of the Assurance team, delivery leads across the CPO to support project and programme teams. As well as joining up with the central governance team to ensure best practice secretariat approach is taken.

Person specification

• You will bring strong organisational skills with the ability to prioritise and work in a fast-paced environment.
• You have strong administrative skills; you are an organised person with a meticulous attention to detail.
• You have strong people skills, with the ability to articulate yourself well through clear communication with a variety of stakeholders.
• You can confidently interact and communicate with senior stakeholders.
• You can role model change, clearly communicating the benefits to all stakeholders to influence effective uptake of process improvements.
• You work well in a team as well as with colleagues in the wider directorate, ensuring joined up working. You seek out opportunities to share learning and use that to improve your own work.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £38,732, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities contributes £10,457 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

DLUHC want to bring in a diverse workforce at all levels. 

Our application system is designed to remove as much bias as possible from the recruitment system – this means that a hiring manager does not know your name, your details, see your whole application in one go (or have your CV at review stage unless stated otherwise). 

At application stage you will be asked to upload a CV document. Unless stated otherwise in the advert, your CV will not form part of the assessment but will be used for information purposes and only shared with the panel at interview stage.

Your answers are randomised and chunked up. This means that each assessor views sets of responses to questions for example all candidates’ responses to ‘Seeing the Big Picture’ rather than seeing a candidate’s full application. The science behind this is that recruitment can be subject to ordering and fatigue effects and we want to reduce this as much as possible. 

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

When writing your application, remember:
•    The assessor won’t be reading your answers sequentially. 
•    Do not assume that the same assessors will have read all of your answers. 
•    If talking about something in your first answer, make sure that you write the second answer as if you had not written the first (and so on!)

At sift, we will be assessing:

Behaviour 1 (lead behaviour): Managing a Quality Service

Behaviour 2: Communicating and Influencing

Behaviour 3: Working Together

Behaviour 4: Delivering at Pace

There is a 250 word limit per question.

The interview will be of a blended nature consisting of the following success profiles elements:

Behaviours - Managing a Quality Service, Communicating and Influencing, Working Together, Delivering at Pace.

Strength - The strength based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.

Experience _ Yes

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

Behaviours: Managing a Quality Service, Communicating and Influencing, Working Together, Delivering at Pace.

Experience: Yes

Strengths: The strength based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.

We do not consider direct CV applications to our Recruitment mailbox – 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.

SEO salary
•    The salary for this role is £38,732 (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.
 

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION:

• Wolverhampton
• Darlington
• Birmingham
• Leeds

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 (DEC) 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:

Sifting is envisaged to take place on a rolling basis 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 in 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.

Candidate Pack Information

Please see attached Candidate pack for further information.
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.

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.