About the job

Job summary

Local government plays a critical role in addressing the strategic challenges facing the country. Local authorities deliver vital public services that we all see, and use, every day: social care for adults and children, caring for some of the most vulnerable in society; running schools and ensuring every child gets a good education; regenerating our high streets; and keeping our streets safe and clean.

The Local Government Finance directorate is responsible for ensuring that the core elements of the local government finance system operate effectively and that councils have the funding they need to deliver the services that local residents rely on, as well as other key government priorities. Our directorate tackles the biggest policy questions facing local government to ensure the sector is sustainable, effective, and productive.

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Local Government Finance directorate and be responsible for answering these policy questions that have a tangible impact on people’s lives. Our work is high-profile and demanding, but incredibly rewarding. We work closely with Ministers, local authorities and colleagues across the civil service and our work has a positive real-world impact.

As well as being a high performing directorate, we are also a friendly and diverse group of people from all walks of life. We have a strong corporate identity built on collaborative and flexible working and a commitment to ensuring our staff are happy and supported to be their best. We take flexible working seriously and are committed to being a friendly and supportive place to work. We have groups of staff in both Darlington and London, as well as in other office locations. 

We will be hosting an in person drop-in session at the Darlington Economic Campus (DEC) to learn more of the roles. The DEC hosts different departments and is rapidly expanding both in numbers and buildings. DEC has a strong vision of making government, policy making and delivery stronger through a diverse workforce which is more representative of the public we serve.  

Tuesday 16th July 12:00 - 13:00. Please send an email to florence.nevin@levellingup.gov.uk to receive more information.  

 

Job description

We are recruiting for a number of roles across the different divisions in the directorate. We have roles available in different teams within these divisions and you’ll find out more information on this if successful. 

The Divisions

LGF Stewardship - The LGF Stewardship division is responsible for administration of the Business Rates Retention system, the LG DEL payments system, managing local authority financial risk and EFS requests and the capital system.  

Local Government Funding Strategy - The Local Government Funding Strategy division is responsible for understanding what funding local government needs to deliver public services and working closely with Ministers to deliver funding, reform how local government works, and ensure the sector is on a sustainable footing. 

Local Taxation and Pensions - The Local Taxation and Pensions division oversees the council tax and business rates systems, which together generate over £60bn of tax income for local authorities, as well as overseeing the £364 billion Local Government Pensions Scheme – the largest public service pension scheme in the UK. 

Care, Reform and Grants - The Care, Reform and Grants division lead on adult social care and children’s services policy and funding and oversee Section 31 Grants policy and the New Burdens doctrine; working collaboratively with DHSC, DfE, the NHS and others to join up health and social care services, as well as overseeing the New Burdens Doctrine and the section 31 grant landscape. 

As a G7 policy team leader in Local Government Finance, your key responsibilities will include, but not be limited to: 

• Analysing and synthesising large amounts of information, drawing out important patterns and communicating these effectively – both written and orally - to senior stakeholders, including Ministers.    

• Leading on developing policy solutions and briefing ministers and/or senior officials on a range of policy options with clarity and confidence.  

• Leading on wider strategy and policy work to identify areas for improvement within policy areas. 

• Communicating government policy to a wide range of audiences, including MPs, non-experts and members of the public. 

• Overseeing and providing support on Department of State functions: overseeing answering PQs, correspondence and preparing briefings. 

• Leading effective engagement with local authorities. 

• Building and maintaining essential working relationships with key stakeholders inside and outside Government. 

• Influencing a wide variety of stakeholders across the department to ensure the directorate and local government sector’s priorities are reflected in wider departmental and government strategy.     

• Leading a team, including line managing more junior team members, ensuring that priorities are met, and individuals have the opportunity to develop their knowledge and skills effectively.  

• Playing an active corporate role in developing the directorate as a great place to work.  

Darlington is the second hub of LGF which now makes up a significant percentage of our directorate. We have a strong and growing presence that we are keen to expand. Our Darlington presence includes a number of different divisions in our directorate and includes an SCS presence working from the DEC.

Person specification

You will be able to lead on projects and workstreams, deliver products to a high quality, influence stakeholders and colleagues at different levels, apply critical judgement to make decisions, and negotiate and influence effectively.   

You will be able act as a source of expertise, and input into a wide range of areas to support effective policy development. Prior knowledge of local government is not required, but the ability to learn and quickly develop expertise is important.   

You will be adept at handling different types of information and reaching well-informed judgements. You will be able understand and consider how your work fits into the wider priorities of the Department. You will be able to steer and support effective policy development.  

Essential Criteria: 

• Being a strategic thinker and having a proactive attitude, eager to learn and adaptable to change.   

• Being an effective team leader, with an ability to get the best out of individuals.  

• Being able to confidently represent government with stakeholders and influence decision making.  

• Being comfortable working with stakeholders with a wide range of views. 

• The ability to proactively develop and maintain networks to support effective delivery of our objectives.  

• Having excellent verbal and written communication, with an understanding of how to tailor messaging to different audiences.    

• The ability to synthesise complex information, draw strategic links and prioritise work.    

• Being a creative problem-solver, able to identify risks, escalate them where appropriate and mitigate them.   

• Being highly organised, able to deliver through themselves and others, and with strong attention to detail.  

• Being experienced at leading junior staff, supporting their development and coaching others to drive success. 

The work is fast-paced, diverse and interesting, and would suit someone who enjoys developing and using expertise to provide advice, solve problems and support policy development. 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £51,934, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities contributes £14,022 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 Technical skills.

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. 

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: Seeing The Big Picture (lead behaviour) 

Behaviour 2: Making Effective Decisions

Behaviour 3: Communicating and Influencing

Behaviour 4: Delivering at Pace

There is a 250 word limit per question. 

In the event that we receive a large number of applications, we may conduct an initial sift using the lead behaviour listed in the advert. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment/interview. 

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

Behaviour: Seeing the Big Picture, Making Effective Decisions, Communicating and Influencing, Delivering at Pace

Technical: The technical skills will be assessed by a written exercise.

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

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

Behaviour: Seeing the Big Picture, Making Effective Decisions, Communicating and Influencing, Delivering at Pace

Technical

Strength

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. 

Grade 7 salary 

• The salary for this role is £51,934 (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: 

• 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 22 July 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.