About the job

Job summary

Are you enthusiastic, resilient, a good team player and motivated to make a difference? If so, come join our fast-paced programme where you will grow your experience dealing with complex, challenging delivery issues, working to continually improve our processes and deliver for all our stakeholders.

In response to the tragedy of the Grenfell Tower fire, the Government established the Building Safety Programme (BSP) to make sure buildings are safe – and people feel safe – now and in the future.

The Building Safety Fund is key to this by addressing safety concerns on high rise buildings. Government has made over £5bn of funding available to building owners to enable them to undertake remediation of unsafe cladding on high rise buildings. Building Remediation Division is responsible for allocation of these funds.

The Building Remediation division is a supportive, collaborative place to work, leading on extremely high profile and fast-paced issues, and dealing with urgent, complex and challenging policy issues, operational requirements and political demands. 

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.

Job description

We are recruiting for a Technical Support Officer working in the Eligibility and Assurance team to help deliver funding which the Government has made available to remediate buildings with unsafe cladding.

Successful applicants can expect to be involved in the delivery of the following activities:

· Technical queries relating to buildings– supporting the team leader and wider team in providing advice and guidance to delivery colleagues and programme stakeholders

· Quality assurance of technical reviews received, these focus on Fire Risk Appraisals of External Walls (FRAEWs) and the application of PAS 9980 as well as documents relating to appeals

· Working with our contractors and analysts to develop and maintain FRAEW level data feeding into policy submissions and reporting.

· Contract management – leading on our engagement with contractors, communicating requirements and ensuring that delivery meets quality and time requirements.

· Assurance of fund delivery – monitoring against Service Level Agreement targets to ensure that these remain deliverable working with our Delivery Partners and contractors.

· Identifying issues and opportunities for process improvement, working with stakeholders and our change team to implement and monitor outcomes

You will be working to tight deadlines and dealing with a number of internal and external stakeholders. The team’s work is varied and challenging, requiring a high level of adaptability within a changing environment.

You will be required to demonstrate a passion for excellent customer service, have a high level of attention to detail and a commitment to working collegiately across the team to deliver results.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

 - An excellent collaborator, who can work in partnership with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders, at different levels.

· An excellent communicator, able to clearly convey complex technical concepts to a range of audiences.

· Strong organisational skills with the ability to multi-task, work flexibly, prioritise, and work to differing deadlines.

· Ability to take initiative and seek out innovative opportunities to deliver effective change in a fast paced and dynamic environment.

· Ability to take ownership of own work, monitoring performance and supporting others and the wider team.

· Strong problem-solving skills and a continuous improvement approach.

· Ability to gather and evaluate evidence, consider options against organisational objectives, and make strong recommendations.

· The ability to work at pace and respond flexibly to competing and changing demands, prioritizing, and managing your workload efficiently, identifying and mitigating risks to ensure effective delivery.

· Excellent decision making and judgement skills, and ability to synthesise complex issues effectively.

Desirable

· Built environment qualification e.g. Architect, Surveyor or experience working with capital projects

· Understanding of PAS 9980, and general fire safety issues, especially those affecting high rise buildings

· Continuous improvement qualification e.g. Lean, agile and / or experience leading change project

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £38,732, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities contributes £10,458 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 (Lead Behaviour): Managing a Quality Service 

Behaviour: Communicating and influencing

Behaviour: Changing and improving

Behaviour: Working Together

There is a 250 word limit per question. 

In the event that we receive a large number of applications, we may conduct an initial sift using the lead behaviour listed in the advert. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progress straight to assessment/interview  

 

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

Behaviours: Managing a quality service, Changing and improving, Communicating and influencing and Working Together 

Strengths

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

 

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

 

Behaviours: Managing a quality service, Changing and improving, Communicating and influencing and 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. 

SEO salary 

• The salary for this role is £38732 (National) and £42,208 (London 
• 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: 

• Wolverhampton 
• Darlington* 
• Leeds
• Manchester 
• Bristol

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 18th January 2023 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 n 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.