About the job

Job summary

The Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 exposed serious fire safety issues in blocks of flats nationwide. The government has set up five remediation funding programmes to fix unsafe cladding but some building owners responsible for fire safety have been slow to act despite available funding.

The Enforcement Strategy Team's role is to leverage enforcement to push building owners into making their buildings safe and we play a pivotal role in the success of the government’s multibillion pound remediation programmes. To achieve this, we work with a wide range of partners including regulators responsible for enforcement (local authorities, fire and rescue services, and the Building Safety Regulator), the five government remediation funds, and teams across the department and wider government.

The system is complex, but we've recently streamlined our operational enforcement strategy to integrate remediation programmes and regulators. We are looking for a Senior Policy and Strategy Advisor to lead the next phase of work on this strategy. Your role will be to design systems to identify and deal with unsafe buildings not progressing to remediation, giving assurance that no building is missed and that our interventions are coordinated.

You will be responsible for designing a new 'missing buildings' strategy to find unsafe buildings unknown to our funds, push building owners to apply for funding, and escalate for appropriate enforcement action by a regulator if they fail to apply voluntarily.

You will work with a range of delivery partners to implement the strategies you design. You'll ensure the right processes are in place, the right data is shared, and provide assurance that the strategy is working.

We are part of the Enforcement and Freeholder Strategy Division, a high-profile, friendly team. Our work has significant ministerial and senior interest, as increasing the pace of remediation is a top priority for the department.

This stretching strategy role could suit candidates from a policy, strategy, operational, or project delivery background. You will need to be comfortable navigating a complex system. You will need to be able to lead through ambiguity, solve complex problems, and work with others to design and implement solutions. It is essential that you have an interest in system design and making processes work effectively, but we are open to candidates from a range of backgrounds. As the strategies you design will be delivered by other teams and organisations, the role will require excellent relationship building, organisation and leadership skills.

Job description

• Lead the design and oversee implementation of the operational enforcement strategy for the remediation portfolio. 
• Design a new strategy for identifying ‘missing buildings’ (unsafe buildings unknown to government remediation funds) and integrate the strategy into the existing operational enforcement strategy. 
• Work with operational teams, regulators and remediation funds to implement and support delivery the missing buildings strategy.
• Develop data integration to prevent any buildings from falling through the cracks, working closely with analysts and remediation funds.
• Monitor and evaluate the success of the operational enforcement strategy.
• Provide assurance as to the success of the strategy and lead continuous improvement efforts.
• Build and maintain effective relationships with a wide range of stakeholders.
• Establish and maintain appropriate governance.
• Line manage a team member, manage their work, and contribute to their development.

Person specification

• Excellent stakeholder engagement skills: you will be able to build productive relationships with a wide range of internal and external partners to deliver government objectives. 
• Collaboration and working together: you will be able to work collaboratively with a wide range of teams and bring others along with you.
• Managing a complex programme of work: you will be able to manage a complex portfolio, take a system-level approach to managing multiple workstreams simultaneously, and take a big picture overview of how it fits together.
• Leadership and delivering through others: you will have strong leadership skills and will be able to use those skills to deliver through internal and external partners.
• Solving complex problems and leading through ambiguity: you will need to be able to solve complex problems, and work with others to design and implement solutions.
• Interest in system design: you will need to be interested in system design and ensuring processes work effectively.

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 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) Changing and Improving - Describe a time where you have improved a process, policy or strategy, and worked with others to implement the changes.

Behaviour 2 - Leadership

Behaviour 3 - Working Together

Behaviour 4 - Seeing the big picture

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, Leadership, Working Together  

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, Leadership, Working Together   

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. 

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: 

• Bristol
• Leeds
• 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 26/02/2024 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.