About the job

Job summary

This is a role focused on Local Government and we are looking for an individual with knowledge or experience of local government to join Oflog, to work in the Early Warning System team - who sit in the wider Performance Improvement division. This team support Oflog’s aim to establish an effective Early Warning System which accurately identifies local authorities that may be at risk.

This secondment opportunity is available for 12 months with potential opportunities to extend. Please note, due to the nature of this role, this secondment is only available on a full time or job share basis.

Office for Local Government (Oflog) will help to drive improvement in local government – responsible for a wider range of critical and everyday services – in order to improve outcomes for the public. It will do this by providing authoritative and accessible data and analysis about the performance of local government, so that local leaders can benchmark themselves against their peers and communities can more effectively challenge their authorities.

In particular, Oflog will:

• Inform: by improving access to data Oflog will enable citizens, local government, central government, and civil society to be better informed about the performance of local government.
• Warn: Oflog will make it easier to spot potential failure before it happens, helping to prevent the significant financial and service implications of failure on local citizens and the taxpayer.
• Support: Oflog will support local government to improve performance: championing best practice, improving data capability and rationalising a complex data landscape.

Oflog is currently an office of DLUHC, meaning all staff are DLUHC civil servants. Oflog is a mixed-discipline team, including policy and local government experts, and analysts from a range of disciplines. Whilst supporting the aims of Oflog, the successful candidate will have an opportunity to shape the developing organisation and its culture.

We encourage Expressions of Interest from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging.

Job description

Oflog’s aim is to establish an effective Early Warning System which accurately identifies local authorities that may be at risk of best value failure, underpinned by Early Warning Conversations which are an effective tool in evidencing risk and supporting improvement. As a policy lead in this workstream you will support the design and roll out of this Early Warning system, working with the sector, other government departments and regulators to ensure that it adds value, complementing the work of others, ensuring that it is well received and respected.

This vacancy is to join the division leading on support and performance. 

The successful individual will play a key role in:

• Informing the design of our desk-based risk system – specifically how we look at financial risk.
• Supporting the team to make assessments about the financial risk of individual local authorities which Oflog may want to do some further work with.
• Undertaking detailed desk-based research on individual local authorities/combined authorities to examine potential financial risks – by critically assessing key internal documents like their budgets, Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS), statutory accounts etc.
• Supporting external reviewers, who are senior local government officers, to conduct risk reviews in individual local authorities – by drawing together evidence on potential financial risk and the key lines of enquiry that raises.
• Delivering pieces of research which consider trends and patterns of financial risk in local authorities and what the drivers of those may be.

Person specification

We are looking for an individual who is motivated, flexible, and passionate about working for Oflog.

Essential Qualifications:

• Chartered Public Finance Accountant qualification or equivalent from ICAS, ICAEW, ACCA or Chartered Accountants Ireland

Essential Criteria:

• Have experience of or working closely with local government finance (e.g. within a council or as an auditor) and be a qualified accountant.
• An excellent understanding of the drivers of financial risk in local government, and what good financial management looks like.
• Knowledge of the wider local government finance policy context.
• An interest and, passion for local government and its role in making a difference to, and ensuring good outcomes for, people, place and partners.
• The ability to creatively source evidence and develop solutions to complex problems where there could be competing interests or incomplete information.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills with the ability to build collaborative and trusted working relationships with senior stakeholders, including analysts, to build consensus but also challenge where necessary.
• Excellent oral and written skills including the ability to communicate detailed information succinctly and clearly.
• A track record of demonstrating resilience and flexibility under pressure with the ability to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances and balance competing demands whilst remaining focused on delivering high quality outputs.
• Excellent organisational skills demonstrating attention to detail.

 Desirable criteria:

• Experience of designing assessment tools and/or conducting organisational reviews.

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 Experience.

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. 

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: 

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

Please note that your CV should be a maximum of 2 pages, and cover letter no more than 750 words.

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

Behaviours - Leadership and Delivering at Pace

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

Experience - Yes

Candidates invited to interview will be expected to prepare a presentation. Further details about the presentation will be sent along with interview invites.

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

Behaviours - Leadership and Delivering at Pace

Experience: Yes - Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description 

Strengths - Yes 

Presentation - Yes

Please contact the vacancy manager if you have any questions about the role.   

We do not consider direct CV applications – 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). 
•  An additional accounting allowance of £4,000 per annum will be paid dependent on full qualification with one of the accounting professional bodies’
• 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. 

Location 

• Bristol
• Darlington*
• Leeds
• Manchester
• Wolverhampton 

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 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. 

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. 

(Birkenhead, Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Exeter, Hastings, Hemel Hempstead, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Nottingham, Plymouth, Sheffield, Truro, Warrington) 

Sift and Interview dates 
 
Sifting is envisaged to take place from 25 July 2024 with interview dates to be confirmed. All interviews are currently being held remotely via videocall. 

Fixed Term Details

For external candidates– you will be offered a 1 year fixed term appointment with a possibility of extension.  

For existing civil servants – you will be offered a 1 year loan opportunity. Before applying for the role, you will need to seek approval from your parent department to take up a loan appointment should you be successful. 

For DLUHC employees  - you will retain your existing contract.

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 

Candidate Pack Information 

Please see attached Candidate pack for further information. 

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.