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The Role

This is a fulfilling and demanding role that is a cornerstone of the Asylum Support, Resettlement and Accommodation (ASAC) model.
ASAC are responsible for some of the most challenging and high-profile areas of government policy – supporting refugees and asylum seekers to enter the country via safe and legal routes and ensuring that they are safely accommodated once they are in the country. ASAC is undergoing significant change as we look to deliver the Illegal Migration Bill, which seeks to prevent and deter unlawful migration to the UK.

The Deputy Director of UASC Operations is at the forefront of ASAC operational activity. Unaccompanied children represent a small, but growing, number of overall arrivals into the UK. This role is responsible for four significant areas of operational delivery:

• Contingency Accommodation – identifying and resourcing temporary accommodation for young people waiting to be transferred to local authority care
• National Transfer Scheme and Leaving Care payments – Managing the process of fair distribution of unaccompanied children across the UK, and associated local authority payments
• National Age Assessment Board –Leading teams of social workers undertaking age assessments on young people
• Development – seeking opportunities to continuously improve the UASC operations process

Job scope

• Lead the operational management of the UASC Operations teams, maintaining excellence in performance and management of processes, escalating risks and driving continuous improvement
• Collaborate across the Home Office, Department for Education and local government to deliver optimum system outcomes; seeking and sharing best practice, insight, resources and funding to adapt and respond to events.
• Manage service delivery using performance data and insight to inform operational decisions and commission work to analyse and seek improvement with the ultimate aim of delivering value for money to agreed quality and standards, preventing fraud, mitigating risk & delivering a safe customer experience.
• Proactively identify improvement opportunities, new products and services to enhance performance and outcomes.
• Develop and maintain positive stakeholder relationships, building trusted partnerships, acting as an influential point of contact representing the department internally and externally.
• Provide effective and highly visible leadership, developing a high performing and motivated team and ensuring that ASAC is an excellent place to work.

Principal accountabilities/key tasks

• Lead of team of approximately 100 colleagues, with responsibility for 4 direct G6 reports
• Oversee the operational delivery of contingency accommodation, the National Transfer Scheme, delivery of effective age assessment and improvements to the operational process.
• Challenge received wisdom and deliver creative and innovative improvements to the overall system
• Ensure that risks and issues are escalated and mitigated and that the operation offers value-for-money

Person specification

• The Deputy Director of UASC Operations will be someone who:
• Is passionate about delivery with a clear focus on providing a safe environment for unaccompanied young people
• Is highly experienced in operational delivery, with the ability to shape and lead complex, high profile teams and processes
• Is highly experienced in leading complex organisations and leading in the midst of uncertainty and change
• Is highly effective and a motivational communicator who balances a strategic mindset with the ability to get into the detail as appropriate
• Demonstrates a collaborative mindset that establishes a culture of inclusion by default, breaking down organisational silos to share best practice
• Demonstrates the ability to be an empowering leader and build a high trust collaborative environment that ensures that everyone who works within the team is empowered to make decisions and that there is inherent support and psychological safety for them to do so.
• Challenges received wisdom and deliver creative and innovative improvements to the overall system

Ensures that risks and issues are escalated and mitigated and that the operation offers value-for-money

Essential Criteria

The successful candidate will need to demonstrate their knowledge, experience, capability and behavioural approach to a high standard against the following key criteria:

• A proven track record of running large scale and complex operations, aligning functions and resources and deploying people and skills optimally to achieve strategic priorities. You will be delivery focussed, driven by quality with a relentless focus on the needs of our many and varied users/customers.
• An exceptional leader with a track record of leading and managing diverse and virtual teams, you will have proven ability to set a strong direction; convey a persuasive future vision at all levels of an organisation; encourage and motivate teams; drive high performance and develop, attract and retain talent.
• Show how you have effectively prioritised and championed diversity and inclusion and development of teams by setting out clearly and effectively the culture and expectations around how teams will work within the Directorate in line with Home Office values.
• A clear record of success in enabling the delivery of transformational change to business processes and systems, which delivered culture change, service improvements and cost savings, including through the utilisation of digital and data.
• Demonstrate the ability to work highly collaboratively with a range of key stakeholders including the private sector to inform, shape, influence and deliver business needs, both internally, externally, and internationally.
• Willing to innovate, try new approaches to collaboration and challenge the status quo.

Desirable Criteria:

• Experience of working with vulnerable young people.
• Experience of working across central and local government.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Job contact :

Name :
Laura Curran
Email :
[email protected]

Recruitment team

Email :
[email protected]