About the job

Job summary

The Communities and Integration directorate sits at the heart of government’s aim to level up opportunities for everyone and deliver DLUHC’s goal to establish socially and economically stronger communities. The directorate leads on supporting communities, reducing inequality, tackling social harms and bringing people together.

Working with local partners and other parts of government, we are focused on a number of priorities, including:

• Promoting greater understanding between faith communities and others

• Pioneering communities and social cohesion work

• Tackling hate crime, community tensions and religious hatred

• Promoting societal resilience and tackling social harms

• Developing a transformative programme of counter-extremism work

• Supporting local community spaces including parks and green spaces Many of the issues that the directorate works on can be challenging for communities and our stakeholders.

This area of work sits across three separate divisions – reflecting the growing mission of the directorate and the heightened ministerial interest in these policies, with their strong links to the wider Levelling Up agenda.

The role being advertised will be in the Societal Resilience and Counter-Extremism division. You will be part of a team of committed policy, programme management and engagement experts, operating across a set of high-profile, complex and sensitive policies and delivery programmes.

Job description

You will be joining a friendly, inclusive and hard-working team to drive forward the Community Engagement Review – a complex, sensitive and high-profile project that aims to develop a new policy to guide government’s approach to external engagement, ensuring that this does not include those groups and individuals that actively work against government’s objectives and principles on extremism by inadvertently giving them support, influence and credibility.

This work also encompasses the development of best-practice guidance and training to ensure that community engagement is as meaningful and purposeful as possible.

Specific responsibilities could include:

• Contributing to the design, testing and rollout of the new cross-government engagement principles.

• Taking a leading role in the next phase of our Agile Development Process to develop a new digital due diligence process, to underpin the cross-government engagement principles and help officials make consistent decisions about whether to undertake external engagement or provide funding.

• Establishing relationships with internal DLUHC teams, other government departments and external stakeholders with an interest in community engagement and due diligence to ensure cross-government buy-in for the new cross-government system.

• Providing greater support and advice on due diligence across government.

• Supporting longer-term thinking around how the government’s principles can be operationalised on the ground, how we can build the necessary infrastructure across government and how we can secure the necessary cross-government buy-in for any new system – including targeted support and regular engagement to meet users’ unique needs.

• Supporting the development of our training, best-practice and guidance offer to upskill officials and highlight the importance of using any new system for community engagement and due diligence.

Person specification

The ideal candidate for these roles will be an ambitious, experienced policy official with a keen interest in supporting communities and countering extremism, equipping them with the tools they need to develop their full potential and protect them from harm. 

You should enjoy making new connections and have the ability to maintain a sensitive approach to establishing and getting the best out of relationships, whilst maintaining impartiality to develop sound policy advice. The nature of this work can be challenging, particularly when grappling with complex and sensitive issues, such as freedom of expression and extremist behaviours. 

Our teams are committed to prioritising our mental and emotional health, which requires open communication, honest self-reflection and an empathetic approach both to our work and to one another. You should be responsible for your own personal resilience, supported by the team as a whole, and able to put practices in place to ensure that you can deliver high-quality work at pace while also looking after yourself. 

 Essential criteria: 

• Have good strategic thinking and solution finding skills and the ability to engage with both the detail and the big picture – and switch between the two effectively. 

• Have excellent communication skills, in writing succinct, clear advice, and in communicating difficult or challenging messages sensitively. 

• Work proactively and independently, managing a busy workload of competing priorities, and make use of effective project management skills to ensure delivery against competing deadlines and priorities. 

 • The ability to work flexibly within a small team and support others as needed to respond to pinch points and pressures across our broader portfolio.

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 and Strengths.

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 (Lead Behaviour): Seeing the Big Picture

Behaviour: Making Effective Decisions

Behaviour: Working Together

 

There is a 250 word limit per question. 

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

Behaviours: Seeing the Big Picture, Making Effective Decisions, Communicating and Influencing

Strengths

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

 

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

 

Behaviours: Seeing the Big Picture, Making Effective Decisions, Working Together, Communicating and Influencing

Strengths: Yes

 

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: 

• Manchester
• Bristol
• 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 (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 W/C 19th February 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. 

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.