About the job

Job summary

This HEO role will play a vital part in supporting CRCU to action its longer-term priorities as outlined above. This includes: 

• Leading on the strategic direction and regular running of the department’s Director General chaired Resilience Board and Deputy Director chaired Resilience Working Group. 
• Ensuring the Board meets the strategic aims of our senior stakeholders. 
• Reviewing the quality of all papers sent up to the Board, and drafting key products such as chairs briefs, minutes and Board slide packs. 
• Forming excellent working relationships with teams across the department, including private offices, to ensure the work of the Resilience Board and Working Group meets the CRCU’s strategic aims.  
• Supporting CRCU in an emergency response by servicing the GOLD Coordination Group to oversee the strategic direction of the response, build situational awareness, and provide briefing for senior officials and ministers.  
• Influencing CRCU’s longer-term work on preparedness and response, supporting the team to develop ‘business as usual’ structures. 

Job description

It is important to note that when applying for this role, operational requirements (incident response) will determine the need for occasional shift working and duty cover (on average 4 times a year), which includes working after 20.00hrs and at weekends. Training will be provided in advance to support you in undertaking any relevant role. You should reflect on whether you will be able to work unsociable hours/shift cover and consider this carefully before submitting your application and ensure you fully understand what is expected of this role and the working environment. Additional hours working and duty cover would be remunerated in line with DLUHC Pay Policy. 

 The Central Response Coordination Unit (CRCU) is a cross-cutting coordination team, set up in the wake of the department’s need to respond to major cross-cutting incidents (e.g. Grenfell, COVID-19, Afghanistan evacuations), and is resourced to deliver in two key areas for the department: ​ 

• Preparedness: preparing the department to respond to threats and hazards (e.g. pandemic preparedness, evacuation of British Nationals, major building failure), putting in place departmental arrangements for responding to incidents ready for activation; and 
• Response: holding the key central coordinating role across DLUHC, managing the 'GOLD' senior meeting structure, situational reporting for the department, preparing ministerial and senior official briefing for COBR meetings etc.  

Key priorities for CRCU: 

 Building DLUHC-wide resilience (preparedness) 

• CRCU reports to the Director of Resilience and Recovery but forms strategic links across the department.    
• CRCU works with existing resilience teams and the Cabinet Office/COBR unit to proactively scan the horizon for threats and hazards where the wider department hold an interest.  ​ 
• CRCU maintains an overview and engagement with individual risk playbooks, testing and exercising with relevant policy teams.​ 
• CRCU engages with teams, that might hold relevant interests across DLUHC and build awareness of their responsibilities in time of crisis.  
• CRCU runs the secretariat for the departmental governance of resilience and preparedness, including a senior Resilience Board and Resilience Working Group. 

 Coordinating cross-departmental activity (response) 

• CRCU maintains a central concept of operations, outlining departmental arrangements for responding to a range of crisis events. ​ 
• CRCU will activate the concept of operations, bringing in the right people and teams from across DLUHC at the right time, coordinating activity of DLUHC policy teams with wider resilience functions during response to a crisis.  ​ 
• CRCU holds the key coordinating role across DLUHC, holding a bird’s-eye view, to identify opportunities to strengthen our intelligence, data, policy or protocol including advising ministers and seniors of the need for a policy decision. ​ 
• CRCU will support the Response Director as the key interface with Ministers and the Executive Team by commissioning and drafting high quality briefing for a range of senior and ministerial meetings both internal and cross-government. ​ 
• CRCU will hold overall ownership of the departmental SitRep (Situational Report) and the tracking of key strategic actions and the management and secretariat of the key cross-cutting meetings. This ensures that seniors and ministers have access to a clear and up to date information picture as the response progresses.

We particularly welcome candidates from an ethnic minority background and other underrepresented groups to apply, as we work to continually improve our ability to represent the places and communities we support through our work.

Person specification

Essential Criteria: 

• Excellent organisational skills, the ability to work independently and the ability to meet strict deadlines. 
• The ability to work with a wide range of stakeholders across the department, building strong and honest relationships to allow joint delivery. 
• The ability to demonstrate inclusive leadership and engage a team to deliver improved outcomes and seek new ways of working. 
• The ability to communicate complex information succinctly, clearly and with insight. 

Desirable Criteria: 

• Experience of working in a coordination or resilience role. 
• Experience of working with senior stakeholders. 
• Experience of running a Board secretariat or Private Office experience.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £35,400, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities contributes £8,688 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 1 (lead behaviour) - Delivering at Pace 

Behaviour 2 - Seeing the big picture  

Behaviour 3 - Changing and Improving  

Behaviour 4 - 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:    

Behaviour – Seeing the big picture, Changing and Improving, Working Together , Delivering at Pace

Strength - 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, Changing and Improving, Working Together , Delivering at Pace  

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. 

 

HEO salary 

• The salary for this role is £35,400 (London). 
• 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 

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: 

Rolling sifting is envisaged to take place on this campaign. 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.