About the job

Job summary

We recognise the challenges that people with protected characteristics may experience on the job market and in their career progression. We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups, including ethnic minorities, people with a disability, and people with gender diverse identities.

Can you build lasting relationships with a wide range of stakeholders?

Have you got strong communication skills with the ability to present confidently to a wide audience?

Do you have an excellent eye for detail?

If so, we’d love to hear from you!

Job description

This role is an exciting and challenging position tasked with managing one of the most important portfolios in the Department for Transport (DfT). It is crucial to developing and maintaining a crisis response capability within DfT by ensuring the Department has appropriately trained and exercised staff for incident response work.

Crisis Management training and exercising is a DfT and whole Government priority. This is supported by the recent launch of the Crisis Management Excellence Programme, led by the Cabinet Office, the reinvigoration of the National Exercising Programme, and the recent publication of the UK Government Resilience Framework which focuses on the professionalisation of resilience skills and training. It is an exciting time to be involved in this work.

The post holder will be expected to lead on the design, co-ordination and delivery of TSOC’s incident response training and internal capability building programme; engage with a wide range of stakeholders to collate feedback from training session and exercises to continually improve TSOC’s response capability; and work to ensure TSOC has a resilient training programme for 2023-2024 and beyond.

 Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Ensure TSOC is able to effectively respond to a wide variety of incidents impacting the transport network, by ensuring staff are appropriately trained and familiarised with the standard practices in a response.
• Drive forward, and deliver against, a training programme which meets the objectives in the TSOC business plan. This may include, but is not limited to: designing and delivering familiarisation training for key risks; maintaining and expanding the current crisis management training materials; and designing role specific training packages.
• Engage with key DfT and X-HMG resilience stakeholders to ensure DfT is appropriately represented in X-HMG exercise programmes.
• Designing support and delivering against the TSOC exercise programme, in consultation with the risk owner(s). Engage with teams across the Department to understand and test key risks.
• Reviewing lessons identified from previous exercises to ensure continual improvement.
• TSOC provides a 24/7 response capability. At times, you will be asked to support departmental responses as part of the directorate’s crisis response role. Due to the nature of TSOC’s work, it is sometimes necessary to reprioritise at short notice and work flexibly.

For further information, please see the attached Role Profile.

Person specification

About you:

The successful candidate will:

• Have excellent communication skills with the ability to present confidently to a variety of audiences.
• A team player, with a flexible working approach which is able to prioritise stretching workloads and adapt to last minute changes.
• Able to effectively engage with stakeholders, building trusted working relationships.
• Be Enthusiastic about your personal development (and that of others) and keen to seek new challenges.

Additional Information:

A minimum 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace, although requirements to attend other locations for official business, or carry out detached duty in another DfT workplace, will also count towards this level of attendance. 

This role requires you to travel to our London DfT offices on a fortnightly basis.

Benefits

Being part of our brilliant Civil Service means you will have access to a wide range of fantastic benefits. We offer generous annual leave, attractive pension options, flexible working, inclusive working environments and much more to support a healthy work/life balance.

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.

As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete a CV and personal statement. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

When considering applying please look at how your experience relates to the role, and within your CV and Personal Statement please provide detailed evidence of your experience of the following: 

• Experience of working in high pressured situations, demonstrating good judgement, resilience and composure.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to present confidently to a variety of audiences.
• A team player, with a flexible working approach which is able to prioritise stretching workloads and adapt to last minute changes.
• Able to effectively engage with stakeholders, building trusted working relationships.

Please fully utilise the 1000-word count when completing your personal statement.

The sift is due to take place from week commencing 18th December 2023.

Interviews are likely to be held from week commencing 8th January 2024.

We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change. You will be provided with sufficient notice of the confirmed dates.

The selection process will be designed specifically for the role. As a result, your assessment will include:

• An Interview

This interview will be conducted online via MS Teams. Further details will be provided to you should you be selected for interview.

You’re encouraged to become familiar with the role profile, as you may be assessed against any of the criteria recorded within.

The Department for Transport alongside other Government Departments recruit using Success Profiles. This means for each role we consider what you will need to demonstrate in order to be successful. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, drives up performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.

For further information on Success Profiles visit our Careers website.

Reasonable Adjustments

As a Disability Confident Leader employer, we are committed to ensuring that the recruitment process is fair, accessible and allows all candidates to perform at their best. If a person with a visible or non-visible disability is substantially disadvantaged, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need during the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at an interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

If you need a reasonable adjustment so that you can complete your application, you should contact Government Recruitment Service via dftrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Document Accessibility

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

This job advert contains links to the DfT Careers website. Our website provides useful guidance and information that can support you during the application process. If you cannot access the information on our website for any reason, please email DRGComms@dft.gov.uk for assistance.

Further Information

For more information about how we hire, and for useful tips on submitting your application for this role, visit the How We Hire page of our DfT Careers website. You can find detailed information about the recruitment process and what to expect when applying for a role.

Pre-employment Checking

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.

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.