About the job

Job summary

The Home Office is here to make our country safer. As well as working to protect the most vulnerable, reduce crime and enforce the law, we also work to, and have a proud history of, providing refuge to those who have been displaced or are seeking asylum. Whether it is fighting crime, protecting our borders or combating slavery, the Home Office (HO) is at the cutting edge of public policy in this country and our work is some of the most challenging and rewarding in government.

The role of the Public Safety Group, which sits within the HO, is to keep the public safe by protecting the vulnerable, cutting crime, disrupting the highest harm criminals, and ensuring that our police, fire and rescue services are as trusted, efficient and effective as they can be in delivering front line public services. 

The people in our Group develop and implement policy, provide funding, and deliver legislation. We make the most of innovation, data, and partnerships to protect the vulnerable, prevent crime, and tackle the highest harm crimes. We work with our partners in law enforcement, establishing governance arrangements at a national, regional, and local level.

This role offers you the opportunity to join an exciting, fast-paced environment working hard to deliver ministerial commitments for the benefit of the public. As a Lead Service Manager, you will be a key decision maker and liaise with the most senior internal and third party stakeholders who are involved in some of the most cutting-edge skills and topics within information technology.

You will have a strong background and extensive experience in IT Service Management. You will enjoy working in a fast-paced environment and use your expertise to direct, advise and support your team to deliver high-quality services. Using your strong knowledge of Service Management and stakeholder management skills, you will effectively influence change within one of the largest government organisations.

You will interface with Service Architecture & Transition, Service Operations & Programme Portfolio colleagues to assure the delivery of the service/s you are accountable for. You will also engage with wider teams and stakeholders to manage opportunities, risks and escalations, ensuring the quality of the service being delivered meets the business needs.

Job description

Your main day to day responsibilities will be to: 

• Ensure that the customer receives the highest level of service from the Service Operations Team and managed suppliers.

• Identify and work with appropriate internal and external suppliers, to deliver services, and to agree the approach based on the defined outcomes.

• Effectively engage with senior stakeholders, both internal and external, to ensure alignment and to manage challenges and escalations from the Service Management teams.

• Take accountability for initiatives that will drive continuous improvement across customer services, whilst protecting the integrity of existing services.

• Make decisions regarding cost reductions and opportunities based on supplier financial performance, subsequently managing suppliers to deliver accordingly.

• Act as the main escalation point for the wider Service Management team, invoking the DDaT risk escalation process when required, and engage relevant stakeholders in resolution activities.

• Identify, manage and escalate service risks appropriately.

• Act as the escalation point to directly manage supplier performance against commercial agreements, working with commercial teams to update contracts when required.

• Be responsible for service spending, ensuring actual costs are within budget and managing any over/underspend.

• Provide Leadership to a small team of Senior Service Managers and other Service Operations support resources.

This role is available on a Full-Time basis along with Compressed Hours. Whilst we welcome applications from those looking to work with us on a Part Time basis, there is a business requirement, for the successful candidates to be able to work at least 30 hours per week, over 5 days. Due to the nature of the role, we are unable to support job-sharing.

Travel isn’t a requirement, but would be occasionally beneficial due to the multiple locations that the team are spread across. Any cost associated with this travel will be covered by the business area.

Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working. This is a non-contractual arrangement where all employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in an office, subject to local estates capacity, by Spring 2024. Applicants can request further information regarding how this may work in their team from the Vacancy Holder (see advert for contact details). 

Person specification

You will be expected to carry out the following day to day activities:

• Demonstrate leadership qualities by mentoring and line managing members of the Service Management community, supporting them to perform to their full potential and driving succession planning.

• Maintain a working knowledge of projects and change programs both, in the pipeline and in delivery, with respect to the specific customer organisation.

• Work effectively with stakeholders at all levels both; internally & externally, managing stakeholder expectations and showing flexibility to adapt in order to reach consensus.

• Build effective partnerships across the technology organisation to share best practices.

• Ensure all suppliers carry out processes to ITIL standards, or those that are defined by DDaT.

• Represent customers in Service Readiness reviews and assessments.

• Promote a culture of customer satisfaction.

• Participate, contribute to and support collaboration initiatives and career development within the IT Operations community, building in-house capability via a professional community of practice.

Essential Criteria:

You’ll have a demonstrable passion for Service Management, with the following skills or extensive experience in:

• Application of Service Management and agile methodologies and models across a range of services within varying environments.

• Ability to apply your expert knowledge of various communications channels to effectively engage with stakeholders via the appropriate medium, adapting your approach where required.

• Understand how your current work fits into broader Enterprise Services contexts and strategies so that deeper underlying problems and opportunities can be addressed and managed appropriately.

The skills listed above are reflective of the Home Office DDaT Profession Skills and Competency Model (based on the industry standard SFIA framework). Please see below for the relevant skills required for your role:

Strategy and Architecture
• Advice and Guidance
• Specialist Advice (TECH) – level 3
• Business Strategy and Planning
• Financial Management (FMIT) – level 4
• Business Risk Management (BURM) - level 4

Delivery and Operation
• Service Design
• Service Level Management (SLMO) – level 4

Relationships and Engagement
• Stakeholder Management
• Supplier Management (SUPP) - level 3
• Relationship Management (RLMT) – level 4

Desirable Criteria:

For this role, the below experience would be beneficial, but is not essential:

• Working in a SIAM model.

• Working in an Agile project delivery environment.

• Driving continual service improvements through the measurement and challenge of services and processes, tools and capability.

• Managing suppliers to SLAs where they are in place.

• Lead and direct teams to enable the day-to-day delivery of products/services

• Understanding of Lean, Agile and DevOps principles within a Product-centric delivery model.

• ITIL qualifications are desirable, not essential

• Relevant academic and / or vocational qualifications

Benefits

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

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.

As part of the application, you will be asked to complete:

• A CV (job history / qualifications)
• Statement of Suitability (Personal statement) (750 words maximum)

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

The Statement of Suitability must be aligned to demonstrate your skills and experience for the role and how you meet the essential criteria as detailed in the job advertisement.

The sift will be held on the Statement of Suitability only. CVs will not be scored but will be used for information purposes only. 

Successful candidates shortlisted for interview will be tested on a blended approach of Strength based questions (no preparation necessary) and all the behaviours listed in the advert.

Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. All applications are screened for plagiarism and copying and generating of examples/answers from internet sources including Artificial Intelligence. If any is detected the application may be withdrawn from the process. Further action, including disciplinary action, may be considered in such cases involving civil servants. Providing false or misleading information would be contrary to the core values of honesty and integrity expected of all Civil Servants.

Sift and Interview Dates:

The sift will take place week commencing 8th April 2024.
Interviews will take place week commencing 22nd April 2024.

We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change. You will be provided with sufficient notice of the confirmed dates.

Interviews will take place remotely. Candidates will be required to have access to:

• A laptop (personal or work) with a working webcam
• Good internet connection
• Microsoft Teams

It is advisable to access your interview from a windows operating system laptop, desktop, phone or tablet as there is no guarantee that Microsoft Teams will work without issue on an Apple laptop, tablet or desktop.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to time constraints we may not be able to offer alternative interview date(s). It is therefore expected that candidates who are successful at sift stage will make themselves available during the above time frame given.

Further details and instructions will be provided closer to the scheduled interview.

Further Information

For meaningful checks to be carried out, individuals need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time to enable appropriate checks to be carried out and produce a result which provides the required level of assurance. You should normally have been resident in the United Kingdom for the last 3 years if the role requires CTC clearance, 5 years for SC clearance and 10 years for DV.  A lack of UK residency in itself is not necessarily a bar to a security clearance and applicants should contact the Vacancy Holder/Recruiting Manager listed in the advert for further advice.

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the following page https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/demystifying-vetting

Please note: The successful candidate will be required to hold or be willing to secure Security Check (SC) clearance.

A reserve list of successful candidates may be held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made in merit order.

We often have similar roles available at different grades. If a candidate is suitable for a similar role or a lower grade than they have applied for, we may offer the candidate that role without the need for them to go through a further selection process.

Every day, Home Office civil servants do brilliant work to develop and deliver policies and services that affect the lives of people across the country and beyond. To do this effectively and fairly, the Home Office is committed to representing modern Britain in all its diversity, and creating a welcoming, inclusive workplace where all our people are able to bring their whole selves to work and perform at their best.

We are flexible, skilled, professional and diverse. We work to recruit and retain disabled staff and area Disability Confident Leader. We are proud to be one of the most ethnically diverse departments in the civil service. We are a Social Mobility Foundation top 75 employer.

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

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.

For further information please see the attached notes for candidates which must be read before making an application.

Existing Civil Servants should note that some of the Home Office terms and conditions of employment have changed. It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the Terms and Conditions they will adopt should they be successful in application and should refer to the notes for candidates for further details.

Transfer Terms: Voluntary.

If you are invited to an interview you will be required to  bring a range of documentation for the purposes of establishing identity and to aid any pre-employment checks.

Please see the attached list of Home Office acceptable ID documents.

Any move to the Home Office 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

Reasonable Adjustments

If a person with disabilities is at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes. 

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

• Contact Government Recruitment Service via HOrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs
• Complete the “Assistance Required” section in 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 if you're deaf, a language service professional

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the ‘Contact point for applicants’ section.

Feedback

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

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security 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.