About the job

Job summary

As part of the Local Government, Resilience and Communities (LGRC) group, the Communities and Integration (C&I) Directorate sits at the heart of the Government’s aim to level up opportunities for everyone.  

Our efforts are at the heart of DLUHC’s goal to establish socially and economically stronger communities.  

Our work is already helping to bring communities together around the shared values and close connections which unite us, while tackling extremists and other hostile actors who seek to sow division amongst our communities and places.    

To build on this strong track record and boost our existing efforts, a new Community Cohesion and Counter Extremism Unit is being established within DLUHC.  

It will provide a targeted engagement and outreach function, engaging with communities, faith groups, civil society organisations, counter-extremism experts, local authorities and other key partners on cohesion and extremism-related issues, and the impact these can have on places and communities.   

The importance of this programme has been magnified by the current Israel-Hamas conflict; however, the work will seek to tackle wider existing, future and new cohesion and extremism challenges – to build a stronger, safer society for all. 

Job description

This role provides a great opportunity to lead ‘policy in practice’ at a local and national level, whilst offering opportunities to engage with a range of local stakeholders and experts to deliver shared outcomes.

As the Senior Adviser you will lead the Government’s relationship with specific local areas, engaging with senior local stakeholders (regional teams) or Whitehall (London team) and communities to drive change, improve cohesion, challenge and reduce the impact of extremism.

You will be part of a team which is committed to working across Whitehall and places in England to make a difference in communities across the country. You will be operating across a high-profile programme, working collaboratively with local partners such as councils, experts and communities, to understand the challenges and obstacles they face.

Once these challenges have been defined, you will support places and communities to tackle them by advancing and developing policy, strategy and delivery plans and ultimately seeking sustained positive change for local people and society more broadly. 

Person specification

We are looking for individuals with strong leadership, policy and engagement skills, including:

• A highly effective leader able to lead a team on a high-profile agenda - inspiring and motivating them to be fully engaged in their work and dedicated to their roles.  
• Have excellent communication skills – able to communicate with others, including senior local leaders, in a clear, honest, and enthusiastic way in order to build trust and be able to deliver difficult messages with clarity and sensitivity, being persuasive when required. 
• Be comfortable with a range of audiences - an ability to develop professional relationships and networks with senior external stakeholders and community groups, as well as communicating persuasively and with authority to ministers, and local political leaders.   
• Be effective in changing and improving by being able to encourage, recognise and share innovative ideas from a diverse range of colleagues and stakeholders. 
• Be able to deliver at pace and operate with autonomy to tight timescales and able to maintain own levels of performance in challenging circumstances and ability to encourage others to do the same. 
• Have experience of developing policy and strategy, including an ability to consider new and innovative approaches to problems and emerging priorities, including those which may be still on the horizon.  
• Have experience of drafting high quality advice, submissions, and problem-solving solutions at short notice and to tight deadlines.  
• Comfortable working with analysts and using analytical skills (data, evidence, and stakeholders’ views) to outline options for policy development, to present clear conclusions.

Desirable skills:

• Knowledge of HMG integration, cohesion and counter extremism policies. 
• Experience of working with government departments and local authorities to tackle integration, cohesion and counter extremism challenges on both policy and delivery. 

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 and Ability.

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) - Leadership

 

Behaviour 2 - Changing and Improving

 

Behaviour 3 - Communicating and Influencing

 

Behaviour 4 - Delivering at Pace

 

There is a 250 word limit per question. 

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

Behaviour - Changing and Improving, Leadership, Communicating and Influencing, Delivering at Pace

The vacancy manager would also like you to prepare a 5 minute presentation which will aim to assess the following success profile:

. Ability

Details of the presentation topic will be sent on invitation to interview.

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

Behaviours: Changing and Improving, Leadership, Communicating and Influencing, Delivering at Pace

Ability: Yes - Presentation element

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 £57,091 (London) or £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. 

Learning and Development:

The successful candidate will be encouraged to undertake a professional learning qualification as part of the role through a suitable apprenticeship if this is in line with both business needs and the individual’s development needs. This is not a mandatory condition of accepting the role.

  

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION: 

• London 
• Wolverhampton 
• Darlington* 

This is a location-based vacancy. There are 2 roles available in London, 1 role in Darlington and 1 role in 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 (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 from Tuesday 30/01/2024 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 location based reserve list for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made. Should a role become available in the location that you have selected, we will reach out to candidates currently sitting on that reserve list. 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

Fixed Term Details

This role is being offered on a permanent or secondment basis. For Secondments - you will be offered a 1 year secondment opportunity. Before applying for the role, you will need to seek approval from your employer to take up a secondment opportunity should you be successful. 

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.