About the job

Job summary

The Planning Capacity and Capability Team was established in 2022 to support and upskill town planners in local government in building the skills and resources needed to deliver a more efficient and sustainable planning system, which can adapt to and successfully implement change. The team and programme sit within the Chief Planner directorate.

A key part of the programme is the Planning Super Squad (PSS) which aims to build capacity and enable project delivery. PSS will be responsive to the needs of individual projects and undertake a wide range of bespoke tasks at all stages of the planning process. PSS will be made up of dedicated staff with extensive planning and development experience, including specialists in core areas as well as being able to draw on wider experience across the Department.

We are recruiting to a range of G6, G7 and SEO roles across multiple areas and specialisms, including professional planners, and regeneration specialists, project management and technical specialisms including viability, transport, heritage, archaeology and environment.

The Planning Super Squad will operate across England, in partnership with Homes England. You will be working with multiple teams to build strong and lasting partnerships at a local level with a range of stakeholders.

We are looking for SEO Delivery Leads to join both the PSS Core Team and the PSS Operating Team. The PSS Core Team will manage the coordination and delivery of the PSS programme, focusing on understanding the planning capacity needs of local planning authorities and the allocation of planning support provided. This team will also be responsible for project managing the programme and development of a learning programme to ensure that lessons learned are captured from the work with local planning authorities.

The PSS Operating Team will work on all types of large scale development including new settlements, urban extensions and urban regeneration with a mixture of Investment Zones, freeports and hot spots for housing and regeneration delivery. The operating team will focus its combination of momentum, speed, capacity and specialist support into local authority services and projects. Whilst project delivery is the main focus of the team, it also has an important role, working with the PSS Core Team, in capturing and disseminating its learning and using this knowledge to assist the overall development of the planning system. The roles are high-profile and an exciting and unique opportunity to help build the skills and resource needed to support local planning authorities.

Job description

Key responsibilities may include:

· Driving forward the design and delivery of the Planning Super Squad project, building resilience and collaborative working;

· Support the PSS Operating Team to undertake diagnostic analysis of individual projects to fully understand the issues involved and develop clear and effective packages of direct advice and support;

· Working closely with key stakeholders, including Homes England, local planning authorities and other key Government Departments, such as those responsible for sponsoring statutory consultees that interface with planning;

· Establishing and maintaining relationships with teams internally in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Directorates, including policy, commercial and finance colleagues for mutually beneficial outcomes;

· Supporting the PSS Core Team in developing strategies to ensure specialist and other technical resources are deployed as and when needed to ensure effective coordination of support to local planning authorities;

· Developing and maintaining project delivery oversight and governance for the Planning Super Squad programme;

· Contributing to providing support to local authorities working in the PSS Operating Team;

· Contributing to a rolling programme of project evaluation against added value measures.

Person specification

Essential criteria:

· Experience of working in a fast-paced team to deliver a complex project or equivalent, ideally within the built and natural environment fields;

· Understanding of planning, development and regeneration issues for roles in the PSS Operating Team;

· Excellent stakeholder management skills, co-ordinating across various groups/teams;

· Strong interpersonal skills, with an ability to communicate clearly and succinctly;

· Experience of town planning or a related built or natural environment field, including regeneration skills or specialisms such as viability, transport, heritage, archaeology and environment for roles in the PSS Operating Team;

· The ability to work independently and flexibly in a fast-paced environment and actively prioritise multiple tasks;

· Strong written and verbal communication skills including being able to translate complex messages into quality written products and verbal advice to a range of audiences;

· Working experience and/or significant interest in town planning or a related built or natural environment field would be desirable, or project management for roles in the PSS Core Team.

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.  

 

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: 

 

Examples: 

Experience 

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 

Your covering letter should be no more than 500 words.

 

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 deliver a presentation at interview stage, the details of which will be provided upon invitation.

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

 

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 £42,208 (London) or £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: 

• London 
• Manchester
• Leeds
• Bristol
• Birmingham 

At present, a minimum of 60% of your working time will be spent in your contractual office location. Requirements to attend other office locations or off-site meetings will be counted towards this. You will be asked to express a location preference during the application process. 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 25th March 2024 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. 

 

CTC (Counter-terrorism Clearance): 

Important note 

 
Successful candidates for roles based in our 2 Marsham Street building must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check and the process can take up to 8 weeks to complete. 
 
Please note that successful candidates will need to pass the CTC security checks – this requires you to have been resident in the UK for the past 3 years. Please refer to the DLUHC Notes on Security Clearance section of our Candidate Pack for further information on Counter Terrorism Clearance (CTC). Thank you. 
 
Candidates should also note that with effect from 1st August 2018 the department will also check all applicants who are successful at interview, against the Internal Fraud Database (IFD) held by the Cabinet Office. In accordance with the Civil Service Internal Fraud Policy, any applicant who is included on the IFD will be refused employment by DLUHC. Please see the Candidate Pack for further information on the Internal Fraud Database. 

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