About the job

Job summary

The Government aims to make the UK the most resilient nation, better able to adapt to uncertainty, proactively tackle risks, and withstand adversity, both today and in the future.

DLUHC, through the Resilience and Recovery Directorate (RED) has a powerful role to play. We want to see strong local communities, with valuable links between central and local tiers, that are prepared and resilient and can effectively respond to and recover from emergencies. Effective preparedness, emergency responses and rapid recovery supports the Government’s strategic priority of Levelling Up.

Staff within the RED Local Engagement and Response Team are at the forefront of this work, engaging with local partners to create empowered and resilient places. The division works closely with local responders (including police, fire and rescue service, local authorities, and others), Cabinet Office (civil contingencies teams) and other government departments. We also work closely with other divisions in DLUHC on cross-cutting issues.

Our staff are based nationwide, close to the communities we serve. DLUHC supports hybrid working, however due to the nature of this role, regular travel will be required and there is an expectation that you will work directly with local and regional stakeholders across the Midlands region.

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. 

The successful candidate will be Midlands based and expected to demonstrate that they can attend external partnership meetings across the Midlands region. In addition, you must also be prepared to regularly work in the Birmingham office at least once a fortnight to attend attending in person meetings, training, and other events.

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.

Job description

Strategic Resilience Advisors (SRAs) work closely with Local Resilience Forum (LRF) partners and cross government colleagues to provide advice, support, and challenge. They establish effective two-way information flows between local and national tiers to enable Category 1 and 2 responders to meet their duties under the Civil Contingencies Act to prepare for, respond to and recover from civil emergencies of all types.

Key Responsibilities

• Leadership – you will work as part of a team comprising 4 other G7 SRAs and an HEO Co-ordinator, the team is led by a G6 Head of Regional Resilience. You will role model civil service behaviours, contributing at team meetings and RED wide working groups and forums, leading ad-hoc projects as required and looking for opportunities to be active in the corporate life of DLUHC. You will be expected to seek opportunities for your own personal learning and development.
• Relationship Management – you will typically hold the lead relationship with one or two LRFs (depending on risk and complexity), and support on one or two LRFs, providing cover when the lead SRA is unavailable.
• Strong Local Relationships – you will build, develop, and maintain strong and effective working relationships with local and regional partners, especially with the LRF Chair and Secretariat, and at a senior level with colleagues from all Category 1 and 2 organisations.
• Represent Government at Local and Regional Meetings – you will attend senior and strategic local and regional meeting to support local planning, response, and recovery. This will include offering advice on the wider picture, encouraging cross boundary working, sharing good practice and where necessary acting as a ‘critical friend’. More than just attending meetings, the SRA will look to help advise, shape, and support local planning to improve the UK resilience to a wide variety of disruptive challenges.
• Planning and Risk Management – you will support LRFs as they assess and plan to mitigate risk, taking the National Security Risk Assessment as the basis for their plans. SRAs are expected to develop a thorough understanding and a level of expertise in emergency planning and response, and to use this to advise LRF partners in the fulfilment of their statutory duties.
• Local Knowledge to Shape National Resilience Objectives – SRAs think about the wider implications for LRFs of evolving risks, this includes considering regional strategic relationships, using knowledge of local areas to shape national policy development across government departments. SRAs look for opportunities to share emerging and good practice across the LRF community, helping LRFs benefit from the experience of other across the country.
• Capabilities – you will develop expertise in an area of civil contingencies resilience and support cross cutting work to develop and improve DLUHC understanding of, and preparedness for, a range of disruptive challenges and civil contingency risks.
• Incident Response - you will assume the role of Government Liaison Officer (GLO) during emergency response and recovery, maintaining effective information flows to inform local and national decision-making.

• You will also be asked to carry out other roles in DLUHC RED Operations Centre, to support Government responses, across a range of grade appropriate roles that you will have been trained for. This can include outside of core business hours including at weekends and on bank holidays.
• All RED staff are expected to take on the role of Duty Officer, approximately one week each quarter. This means having one of two ‘duty phones’ for 7 days – checking emails and responding to calls out of hours and conducting any necessary follow up. Overtime is payable and time off in lieu arranged for out of hours working.

DLUHC supports hybrid working, however due to the nature of this role travel to LRF partnership meetings in the Midlands region will be required. You will also be expected to regularly work in the DLUHC Birmingham office where all the team apart from one colleague works.

Person specification

Essential Skills

•  Excellent oral and written briefing skills. 
• Ability to work effectively with a wide range of partners at national, regional and local level, from strategic to tactical. 
• A self starter who can identify solutions to problems as they arise and lead on projects and programmes. 
• Ability to prioritise work effectively, at times under pressure, responding to changing and sometimes conflicting  demands. 
• Ability to see the bigger picture, being alert to emerging issues, key strategic trends, and ask the question “so what”? 
• Ability to communicate information succinctly, clearly and with insight often at pace. 
• Ability to demonstrate inclusive leadership and be able to engage work colleagues and external partners to deliver on priorities.

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) Communicating and Influencing 

Behaviour 2 - Making Effective Decisions 

Behaviour 3 - Seeing the big picture

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 –Seeing the bigger picture, Making Effective Decisions, Communicating and Influencing, Delivering at Pace

Strength - Yes

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

Candidates invited to interview will be expected to prepare a 10 minute presentation and further details will be provided ahead of the interview.

 

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

 Behaviours: Seeing the big picture, Making Effective Decisions, Communicating and Influencing and 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. 

 

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: 

• Birmingham
• 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. 

SIFT AND INTERVIEW DATES: 

Sifting is envisaged to take place W/C 2/2/2024 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. 

 

SC (Security Check) 

Important note 

Please note that successful candidates will need to pass the Security Check – this requires you to have been resident in the UK for the past 5 years. Please refer to the DLUHC Notes on Security Clearance section of our Candidate Pack for further information on Security Check (SC).  

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 security 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.