About the job

Job summary

Our work in the Sport, Gambling and Ceremonials Directorate is at the heart of DCMS’s role to support growth and enrich lives - marking major national moments; helping the nation to get more active; working with the gambling industry and sports sector; delivering major sporting events like the men’s and women’s EUROs; and overseeing the National Lottery. We want to ensure our work drives growth and enriches our country and communities. Our sectors employ over 100,000 people and add billions to the economy. 

The Major Sporting Events and Delivery Unit works side-by-side with the Sport Unit to build on our track record of bidding for and hosting world-leading major sporting events – like the 2024 UEFA Champions League Final and Rugby World Cup in 2025 – as well as preparing to host EURO 2028 across the UK and Ireland following our successful bid to UEFA.

This role will be responsible for leading the strategy and analysis function in the grassroots facilities investment team. This primarily involves supporting the Programme Lead and SRO to set the strategic direction for this programme and facilities investment more widely, building the evidence base for future investment into grassroots facilities (including making the case at the next Spending Review) and leading communication of the programme to a wide variety of stakeholders, including the general public. 

The analysis element of the role involves supporting an effective programme evaluation, working with DCMS analysts and Deloitte our evaluation partner; overseeing the design and delivery of the programme benefits realisation plan including the gathering and interpretation of regular impact data, and effectively identifying ways for the programme to better achieve its strategic objectives.

The successful candidate will be a part of a wider programme team - line managing two Band Bs who will support directly on this work and task managing others in the unit and wider directorate who will contribute to it. 

They will also work closely with the Programme Management Office, who lead on governance, delivery assurance and the monthly reporting, and the wider Sport unit to develop a coherent strategy for the programme and facilities investment more widely to help inform future spending decisions.

Job description

Key responsibilities 

• Lead, with the support of a Band B, a successful Spending Review bid to HM Treasury for future investment into our grassroots sports facilities programme.
• Feed into wider future facilities strategy work, helping to make the case for investment into critical sporting infrastructure to get people active 
• Support the programme’s impact evaluation by providing policy input and ensuring it can deliver lessons for our future strategy and case for investment.
• Oversee the benefits realisation plan for the programme - working with analysts to understand monitoring and evaluation information, and articulating the benefits of our investment to stakeholders.
• Lead, with support across the team, on comms and visit plans throughout the year.
• Development and nurture a wide range of stakeholder relationships, across the whole of the UK.
• Represent the programme externally, and internally to seniors, Ministers, SpAds and the Programme Board.
• Lead a team of three, supporting two Band B’s to develop and thrive.

Person specification

The ideal candidate would have the following key skills and experience:

Essential Requirements:

• Ability to analyse a range of evidence, and make effective decisions, as well as to interpret data and present it to a variety of audiences. Ideally the candidate would have some experience of evaluating the impact of programmes.
• Strategic thinking - being able to set and work to clear objectives in line with the scope of the Programme and wider Government objectives.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to collaborate with and build influential relationships with internal and external partners, and communicate strategic vision effectively to a wide range of people.
• Effective oral and written communication skills, with experience of communicating with a range of internal and external stakeholders.
• Calmness under pressure, with the ability to deliver at pace against competing priorities.

Desirable Skills:

• Experience and insight into working in the sport sector, especially with the Programme’s delivery partners (Football Foundation, FAs in all four home nations, Premier League).
• Understanding of how the government works and its relationship with Arm’s Length Bodies.
• Experience in delivering evaluations of government policies/programmes and/or working with external evaluation partners.
• Experience leading, or working on, Spending Review/fiscal event bids. 

We are offering applicants to join a virtual information session on Thursday 8th February 2-3pm hosted by the vacancy holder Rachel Wilkey-Pinfield. 

The session will be an opportunity to hear more about the role, the team and wider directorate and the department. It will also be an opportunity for you to ask any questions.

Please register your interest here and you will be sent an invitation. 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £49,839, Department for Culture, Media and Sport contributes £13,456 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.

To apply for this post, please send us the following documents no later than 09:00 AM on 12 February 2024 via the CS Jobs portal:

• A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you provide employment history that relates to the essential and desirable criteria, and that any gaps in employment history within the last 2 years are explained. The CV should not exceed more than 3 x A4 pages and you should insert your CV into the "Job History" section on Civil Service Jobs on the Civil Service Jobs application form.
• A Statement of Suitability (max 750 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role in reference to the essential requirements highlighted. You may also choose to reference the desirable skills listed.

For the shortlist, we will assess your experience and select applicants demonstrating the best fit for the role by considering the evidence provided in your application.

In the event of a large number of applicants, an initial sift will be conducted on the statement of suitability. Those who are successful in the initial sift will then be scored on all elements of the application.

Should you encounter any issues with your online application please get in touch with: dcmsrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk.

The interview process will assess behaviours and strengths and potentially include a presentation.

The behaviours to be tested at interview are: 

• Making Effective Decisions 
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Leadership
• Working Together

You will not be made aware of the strengths being assessed prior to your interview. 

As part of your interview, you may be asked to deliver a short oral presentation. Full details of this, including the topic, and whether or not you will need to use visual aids, will be sent to you prior to your interview.

Your interview will take place remotely via GoogleMeets.

For indicative sift and interview dates please refer to the attached Candidate Information Pack.

Further Information

Please be aware the levels of national security clearance are changing which may impact on the level needed for this role by the time of appointment. All efforts will be made to keep candidates informed of any changes and what that will mean in terms of vetting criteria. For more information please See our vetting charter

If the vacancy is offered as FTA/Loan, existing Civil Servants must join on a Loan basis only., Prior agreement to be released on loan must be obtained before commencing the application process. In the case of Civil Servants, the terms of the loan will be agreed between the home and host department and the Civil Servant. This includes grade on return.

A reserve list may be held for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made.

Any move to Department for Culture, Media and Sport 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  

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

DCMS has a London and a National pay scale. For more information on this, including the circumstances in which each pay scale will apply, please see the ‘Information for Applicants’ document.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out. 

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading. 

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment. 

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

Reasonable Adjustment

We are committed to supporting candidates so they can perform at their best throughout the recruitment process. This includes making reasonable adjustments to our process.

In order to request an adjustment, please:

Complete the ‘Assistance required’ section on the ‘Additional requirements’ page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or a verbal test rather than a written one. 

Alternatively, contact the Government Recruitment Service via dcmsrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Accessibility

If you are experiencing accessibility difficulties with any of the attachments, please contact us. Contact details can be found in the 'contact point for applicants' section of the job advert.

Feedback

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.