About the job

Job summary

The role sits in the Place and Levelling Up team within the DCMS Strategy & Policy Unit. 

The successful candidate will drive the development of ambitious, evidence-based, place-based policy interventions that will deliver value for DCMS’s sectors across culture, sport, youth, civil society, media and the creative industries.

The role will involve extensive consultation and co-development of policy interventions within DCMS, with other government departments (particularly DLUHC) and with external stakeholders, such as Local Government representatives. 

Skillful use of policy development / strategy development approaches will be important to translate stakeholder input, and other sources of evidence, into compelling policy options. 

The Strategy & Policy Unit works and adapts at pace, so the nature of the role may evolve over time.

Job description

The main responsibilities of this role are envisaged to include: 

• Development, and management, of DCMS’s approach to identify, prioritise and develop long-term Place/Levelling Up policy interventions. Doing this in a way aligned with the wider Place/LU team, SPU’s SMT and senior DCMS leaders. 
• Gaining insight from prioritised DCMS, x-HMG and external stakeholders through interviews, workshops, surveys, literature review and other information gathering techniques.  
• Analysing stakeholder insights using a range of strategy / policy development tools (SWOT analysis, problem trees, etc). Periodically sharing this analysis with key internal DCMS stakeholders to deepen understanding of this policy area. 
• Identifying options for policy interventions and prioritising these options. Doing this drawing on stakeholder insight and through a collaborative approach within DCMS to ensure internal challenge and maximise buy-in for identified priorities.
• Developing prioritised policy options into robust, fundable, policy interventions. For example, successfully developing DCMS or joint DCMS/OGD Business Cases to gain funding as part of the Fiscal Events.    
• Building and maintaining long-term relationships within priority DCMS, x-HMG and external stakeholders as you deliver the above roles. 
• Managing more junior colleagues as might be necessary to deliver this role and building strategy / policy development capabilities within SPU where opportunities for this arise as part of this work.  
• Contributing to the strategic direction of the Place / Levelling Up Policy team.

Person specification

Essential Requirements: 

• Experience successfully delivering strategy / policy development processes from early stage to successful completion - i.e. identifying strategic approaches to address complex root cause challenges.
• Experience successfully designing policy interventions and gaining support to deliver these - e.g. through gaining approval of an HMG Business Case. 
• Extensive experience gathering, and analysing, insight from prioritised stakeholders. 
• Experience using strategy / policy development tools and approaches to analyse this stakeholder insight.  
• Highly proficient in developing, and managing, complex strategy development processes, including agreeing / meeting milestones, delivery points and designing interfaces with key internal stakeholders that will maximise buy-in for outcomes.
• Excellent drafting skills, including powerpoint/google slide strategy reports and HMG Business Case development. 
• An empathetic and confident leader, with a coaching mindset and keenness to support colleagues in the delivery of this work.

Desirable Skills:

• Experience working in/with DCMS on policy work.
• Place-based, local growth and Levelling Up policy experience.
• Experience working in/with DLUHC on policy work. 
• Line Management experience.

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 and Experience.

For your application you will need to submit:

• 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 1000 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.
• A behaviour statement of 250 words on Seeing the Bigger Picture. Specifically covering a piece of strategy/ policy development work you have led which involved consultation with a diverse group of stakeholders. 

In the event of a large number of applicants, an initial sift will be conducted on the lead behaviour: Seeing the Bigger Picture. Those who are successful in the initial sift will then be scored on all elements of the application.

The interview process will assess behaviours and include a presentation.

Full details on the presentation, including the topic, and whether or not you will need to use visual aids, will be sent to you prior to your interview.

In most cases interviews will take place remotely via Google Meet video call. However please refer to the Candidate Information Pack to confirm the interview approach.

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

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.

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

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 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 DCMS 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

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.

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

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.

This role is full time only. Applicants who wish to work an alternative pattern are welcome to apply however your preferred working pattern may not be available and you should discuss this with the vacancy holder before applying.

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.