About the job

Job summary

This advert is linked to vacancy 360769 - Written Parliamentary questions coordinator. This means you only need to submit an application for this vacancy to be considered for both. You will be asked on the application form if you would like to be considered for both roles.

We are striving for world-class education, training, care for everyone whatever your background. For a more productive economy and so everyone has the chance to reach their potential and live a more fulfilled life.

We have a strong culture of inclusion and diversity and are committed to being an equal opportunities employer. We aim to develop all our staff to enable them to make a full contribution to meeting the Department's objectives, and to fulfil their own potential. We promote and support the use of a range of flexible working patterns to help staff to balance home and work

We support this culture though our 11 staff networks, including the BAME, LGBT+ networks to the Carers and EU/EEA Nationals networks. 

Job description

POCMT form an essential part of departmental accountability to Parliament, communicating government policy to key stakeholders in a timely, accurate and appropriate manner.

Within POCMT you will draft high-quality, signature-ready responses to ministerial correspondence. To achieve this, you will work closely and establish strong relationships with colleagues from policy, private office and Number 10 stakeholders to ensure that they get the information that they need when they need it.

You will effectively support your colleagues, sharing experience and best practice and work as a team to achieve our timeliness targets.

This role requires someone who is confident to chase for information and/or updates from stakeholders where necessary, whilst utilising strong organisational skills and maintaining a clear audit trail by keeping our correspondence management system up to date throughout the life cycle of every case.

All available roles come with the opportunity to contribute to the wider work of the division and department, supporting continuous improvement work and the chance to get involved in wider networks.

Learning and Development in DfE

As an organisation, which exists to support education and lifelong learning, we offer our staff excellent professional development opportunities.

Our EA/EO roles include an apprenticeship. We have various roles and depending on the position, you will be enrolled onto an apprenticeship which fits with the role. We have a range of apprenticeships available in subjects such as Business Administration, Policy, Data & Digital and Project Management to name just a few.

Apprenticeship Eligibility 

You must have lived in the UK for 3 years prior to the apprenticeship start date and not be undertaking another apprenticeship at the same time.

Person specification

The successful candidate will be expected to demonstrate:

Essential criteria:

• Excellent written communication skills and the ability to engage with a range of stakeholders
• Strong communication skills (written and verbal) and the ability to engage confidently with stakeholders across the department, including at a senior level.
• Excellent organisation and time management skills, able to prioritise multiple tasks to short deadlines.
• A flexible approach to working and supporting colleagues within the team and across the division.
• Resilience to work under pressure with high volumes, delivering at pace to tight deadlines and an ability to make decisions under pressure.
• A strong customer service focus, who puts the end user at the heart of their work.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £27,790, Department for Education contributes £8,482 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.

Application

Candidates will be able to inform us at any stage if any reasonable adjustments are required.

Find out more about how the Civil Service assesses candidates and uses Success Profiles to test skills, experience and behaviours in applications and interviews.

To maximise diversity and inclusion, we operate a fair, open and anonymous recruitment process. We will only be able to assess you on the written evidence provided in your application. They will not have access to personal information.

Feedback on your application will only be provided if you attend an interview. Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.

Step 1: CV and Personal Statement

At this stage, we will assess Experience. Candidates will be sifted through their CV and a personal statement.

Your personal statement should be no longer than 750 words and display how your experience meets the essential criteria of the role (listed in the Person Specification’ section above).

The sift will be restricted to just assessing personal statements in the event of a large volume of applications.

More guidance on personal statements can be found here – completing your application

Step 2: Assessment

If successful in the initial sift, candidates may be invited to a skills assessment where they will be asked to perform a task related to the roles. Further information on arrangements for the assessment will be given to successful candidates. Candidates will be able to inform us at that stage if any reasonable adjustments are required.

Only candidates who are successful at both stages will be invited to interview.

Interview

Step 3: Interview

If successful through the first 2 stages, candidates will be assessed via interview. The interview will involve two types of question – strength-based and behaviours.

Strengths is a way for Hiring Managers to understand what motivates you and what you enjoy doing, which helps the panel to understand your areas of strength. Evidence shows that people do better work when a job aligns well with what they enjoy and find motivating. We don’t advertise which strengths we are going to assess you on as we want to be able to assess your first, natural response to the questions.

Behaviours are the actions and activities that people do which result in effective performance in a job. We want to get an understanding of the actions and activities that you have done (or would do) that result in effective performance.

We will assess you against the following behaviours during the selection process:

Communicating and influencing.

Delivering at pace.

Managing a quality service.

For more information on the selection process, including guidance on how to write a personal statement, answer behaviour and strength-based interview questions, and the STAR approach click here: Top tips for acing the application.

Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.

There may be other opportunities available at a lower grade if applicable.

Other Information

In your application, please don’t include personal information that identifies you. 

This means we can recruit based on your knowledge and skills, and not background, gender or ethnicity - it's called name blind recruitment (opens in a new window). 

Please ensure that you remove from your application, all references to your: 

• name/title 

• educational institutions 

• age 

• gender 

• email address 

• postal address 

• phone number 

• nationality/immigration status 

We understand that you might use AI and other resources for your application; however, please ensure all information you provide is factually accurate, truthful, and original and doesn’t include ideas or work that isn’t your own. This is so that your application is authentically and credibly your own. 

We reserve the right to raise the minimum pass mark in the event of a high volume or strong field of candidates. 

Please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK from the location options provided and not from overseas. 

The government is committed to supporting apprenticeships, enabling people to learn and progress in a role whilst earning. We want to monitor the number of people who have completed apprenticeships who are now applying to progress further in their career and are asking this question to all candidates, on all vacancies. You will be asked a question as part of the application process about any previous apprenticeships you have completed. Your response to this question will not affect your application and it is not a requirement of the role to have completed a previous apprenticeship.    

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check maybe carried out. 

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstance some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Department of Education of your intention by emailing Pre-Employment.Checks.DFE@education.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading. 

Department for Education do not cover the cost of travel to your interview/assessment unless otherwise stated. 

A reserve list may be held for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made. 

Candidates will be posted in merit order based upon location and role preference. Where more than one location is advertised you will be asked to state your preferred location. 

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. 

Terms and conditions of candidates transferring from ALBs and NDPBs 

Bodies that are not accredited by the Civil Service Commission and are not able to advertise at Across Government on Civil Service jobs will be treated as external new starters and will come into DfE on modernised terms and conditions with a salary at the band minimum. 

Bodies that are accredited by the Civil Service Commission but do not have civil service status will be offered modernised terms and will not have continuous service recognised for leave or sickness benefits. Salaries should be offered at band minimum, but there is some flexibility where this would cause a detriment to the individual. 

Bodies that are accredited by the Civil Service Commission and do have Civil Service status will be treated as OGD transfers. Staff appointed on lateral transfer will move on to pre-modernised DfE terms (unless they were on modernised terms in their previous organisation). Staff appointed on promotion will move on to modernised DfE terms. Staff will transfer over on their existing salary (on lateral transfer) and any pay above the DfE pay band maximum will be paid as a mark time allowance. Staff moving on promotion will have their salaries calculated using the principles set out in the attached OGD transfer supplementary information. 

Reasonable adjustment 

If a person with disabilities is put 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 Department of Education via centralrecruitment.operations@education.gov.uk 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. 

Any move to Department for Education (DfE) will mean you will no longer be able to carry on claiming 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/ 

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.