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About HM Treasury

If you’re interested in making a difference to people’s lives across the country, the Treasury is the department for you! We sit at the centre of everything that the Government does and have provided advice on economic policy and decisions that affect the public finances throughout the country’s history. A Treasury career continues to offer an exciting opportunity to be part of the decision making that affects the whole of the UK.

Working at the heart of government, we collaborate with other departments to ensure public money is spent well and to drive strong and sustainable economic growth. Our work ranges from protecting customers through to the regulation of the financial sector, helping to reduce carbon emissions and creating a greener economy, supporting people across the country through the COVID 19 furlough scheme and Plan for Jobs as well as helping first time buyers buy their first home.

HM Treasury is proud of a diverse and inclusive work environment, committed to fairness and the promotion of equality of opportunity for all. We know that having a range of experiences, ways of working and thinking makes us a stronger organisation, better at developing policy that is reflective of the communities we serve. We embrace different views and experiences and value the fresh perspective that people from a variety of circumstances bring to the work we do. We welcome applications from candidates who have not previously worked for the Civil Service, mid- and late-career changers with transferrable skills, people from all backgrounds and circumstances regardless of disability, gender, age ethnicity, LGBT+ identity and socio-economic status.

The Darlington Economic Campus is a pioneering new cross-government hub which will bring people together across departments and public organisations to play an active role in the most important issues of the day.

HM Treasury in Darlington will be joined by the Department for International Trade, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Office for National Statistics, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the Competition and Markets Authority, the Department for Education and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

Public Spending Group

The Public Spending Group has a high-profile role in Government, setting the Government’s overall spending plans and ensuring they deliver value for money for the taxpayer. We are responsible for reporting to Parliament and the public on how taxpayers’ money is spent. We drive forward improved outcomes and efficiency in public services and enhance the value for money of decision-making through better evaluation, data and analysis.

We advise on overall government policy on public sector pay and pensions, the biggest single driver of public spending. We collaborate with and directly support departments to deliver the Government Finance Function strategy, building finance capability across government and developing the management information, tools and frameworks to better understand and ensure value for money.

About the Team

General Expenditure Policy team (GEP)

GEP sits at the heart of HM Treasury’s Public Spending Group! We are a friendly and inclusive team, responsible for reporting to the Chancellor and Chief Secretary on spending control, covering around £800bn of public expenditure.

We work closely with Strategy Planning and Budget Group, the Fiscal Strategy Group and spending teams to manage risks and ensure Ministers have advice on future public spending strategy and on options for funding new priorities, both at fiscal events and as they arise throughout the year. We work also closely with other government departments to monitor the real-world impact of spending, to ensure that outcomes for citizens are placed at the heart of decision making. The team is the custodian of the Green Book and Major Project appraisal.

Strategy Unit

The Spending Strategy role is within GEP’s Strategy Unit currently made up of seven people, which is responsible for developing and implementing the government’s overall strategy on public spending. That includes advising HMT ministers on overarching spending priorities, communicating the approach within HMT and across government, and planning and delivering spending reviews.

Planning and Performance Unit

The Performance role is within GEP’s Planning and Performance Unit, which is currently made up of ten people with responsibility for the cross-government planning and performance framework. The successful applicant will sit within the Performance Branch of the team, which supports government to focus on the outcomes it will achieve through spending.

Key accountabilities

After completing a multiyear spending review in November 2021, the government is facing new economic and fiscal challenges. It is GEP’s role to help the Chancellor and Chief Secretary to take an approach to spending that allows the government to navigate this context while also delivering on their top priorities.

You don’t need to be a policy professional or have any specific qualifications to apply to work as a Policy Adviser at HMT. We are looking for people who have the right set of skills for the role, who demonstrate the values of the organisation, and who are motivated to come and work with us on a range of issues that are at the heart of how we spend money.

Exact responsibilities will be agreed based on your experience and development priorities along with the requirements of the team, potentially evolving over time. However, responsibilities will likely include:

Role 1: Spending Strategy

This is a high-profile role right at the heart of HMT and government decision-making on fiscal and policy priorities. This role has a particular focus on capital spending and how it supports future growth and productivity.

• Project managing cross-HMT and cross-government processes for delivering on spending priorities, with a particular focus on capital spending, ensuring timely results that meet ministerial objectives.
• Working with colleagues across GEP and HMT spending teams to provide the Chancellor and Chief Secretary with advice on cross-cutting spending issues.
• Supporting elements of Strategy Unit’s preparations for Budgets and other fiscal events, for example development of the policy package or public narrative on spending.
• Supporting the delivery of one or more spending-related senior decision-making forums, helping spending and finance leaders make good decisions based on the best evidence.
• Supporting senior official and ministerial engagement with No10, the Cabinet Office and other government departments on priority spending issues.
• Communicating HMT’s approach to public spending to internal, cross-government and external audiences through written updates, teach-ins, correspondence, FOI requests and other comms.
• Acting as a support for a HMT spending team, helping colleagues handle spending risks and interpret central guidance.
• Contributing to ensuring GEP and wider Public Spending Group is an inclusive, supportive and fun place to work.

Role 2: Performance

• Leading analysis on departmental performance against key priorities in areas such as health, education and crime.
• Working closely with others to build an evidenced understanding of what is driving poor performance in these areas, including the implications of this for decisions on spending and delivery.
• Making recommendations to senior officials and Ministers on how to improve delivery based on your assessments of performance.
• Improving how spending decisions support outcomes and working with spending teams and departments to support them to do this in their day-to-day activities.
• Engaging with senior partners in external organisations, including think tanks, to solicit views on new metrics.
• Agreeing performance trajectories with departments for metrics and using those already developed to shape discussions on delivery with departments.
• Scrutinising proposed trajectories from departments to ensure that trajectories agreed are realistic and that anticipated impacts are well evidenced.

Required Skills, Experience and Behaviours:

The below criteria will be assessed in your application form.

The lead criterion is:

• Seeing the Big Picture – Ability to think strategically, ensuring your work fits within your organisation’s wider objectives and external context.

If we receive large volumes of applications, we will conduct an initial sift on the lead criteria only.

We will assess the below further criteria in your application form:

2. Communicating and Influencing - Highly effective written and oral communication skills, with an ability to tailor and deliver compelling messages, influencing a range of different stakeholders to deliver mutually agreed results.

3. Delivering at Pace - Ability to work proactively and autonomously to deliver a range of competing priorities, including planning and advancing long-term projects while managing short term demands, delivering high quality outcomes under pressure.

Candidate Guidance on Completing your Application Form

Where will we assess success profiles across your application form.

• Behaviours - these will be assessed individually with a 250-word statement per behaviour. The application form will indicate which behaviour is being assessed each time you provide a statement, and we are ideally looking for an example using the below STAR method to demonstrate this behaviour in line with the full criteria stated

All elements of the success profiles will be linked to a defined criterion that demonstrates the behaviour, experience or technical skills. It is beneficial to ensure your answer focuses on the full criteria, and not just the related success profile, to give you the best chance or providing the evidence the panel wants to assess.

In your statements, it is best to focus on one example in each section to allow you to provide enough detail in your answer and use all the words you have been allocated. Examples from a range of roles across your application will demonstrate that you have the skills, experience and behaviours we are looking for. We would also advise you to use examples that best meet the criteria, even if it is a few years old.

How to Structure your Answer

Please use the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) approach when writing your application answers.

• Situation - Describe the situation you found yourself in and what happened.
• Task - The Hiring Manager will want to understand what you tried to achieve from the situation that you found yourself in.
• Action - What actions did you take and how did you do it. Make sure to use “I”, not “we” to explain how your actions lead to a result.
• Result - Use facts and statistics to demonstrate the results that your actions produced. Explain whether it was a successful outcome, and if not, what you learned from the experience.

Notes to Candidates

• Please refer to the candidate FAQ document which is a link on the job advert – this will provide you with guidance on completing the application form. Please contact [email protected] if you have any issue accessing this document.
• At HM Treasury, to maximise diversity and inclusion within our workforce, we operate a fair, open and anonymous recruitment process. This means that the sift panel will only be able to assess you on the written evidence supplied in your application answers. They will not have access to personal information.
• You may be asked to provide some CV details during your application; however these will NOT be assessed during the process, but will be used to support discussions at interview – please ensure you put all information you would like to be scored against in your behaviour, experience and technical skill statements .
• You will be assessed on your skills, experience and behaviours through the online application form. When completing your application form, please outline how you meet the requirements as detailed in the ‘Essential Criteria ‘section of this job description. This will give you the best chance to provide the evidence that the panel wants to assess. More guidance can be found here – completing your application.
• If we receive a large number of applications, applications will be assessed initially against the lead criterion alone. You will then be assessed against the other criteria if you have met the minimum score on the first criterion.
• Find out more about how the Civil Service assesses candidates and uses Success Profiles to test skills, experience and behaviours in applications and interviews.
• Applications are not reviewed until the closing date has passed. You will be notified of the outcome of your application as soon as the recruitment panel has reviewed all the applications.

Support to Candidates

Candidate Guidance Support Session

We will be running an overview of Success Profiles and the STAR approach; top tips for the application and interview process and an opportunity to ask general questions around our recruitment practices. If you would like to join us, then use the link below to join the call at the right time.

24 May 17:00-17:30

Click here to join the meeting

Candidate Drop-In Session

We will be running a candidate drop-in session for this role to give you greater insight about the role as well as the chance to learn more about HM Treasury and the recruitment process. If you would like to join us, then use the appropriate link below to join the call at the right time.

31 May 2023 11:00-12:00

Click here to join the meeting

Recruitment Timeline

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace

• 25 days’ annual leave (rising to 30 after 5 years), plus 8 public holidays and the King's birthday (unless you have a legacy arrangement as an existing Civil Servant)
• Flexible working patterns (part-time, job-share, condensed hours)
• A Civil Service Pension which provides an attractive pension, benefits for dependants and average employer contributions of 27%
• Onsite restaurant and coffee bar. The London office also offers a gym, showers and prayer room
• Access to a cycle-to-work salary sacrifice scheme, season ticket advances and payroll giving
• Access to a retail discounts and cashback site
• A Rental Deposit Advance Scheme to help meet the total costs of deposits for privately rented homes
• A range of active staff networks, based around interests (e.g. analysts, music society, sports and social club) and diversity (e.g. women in the Treasury, ethnic minority network, LGBT* network, faith and belief network)

Flexible working arrangements:

HM Treasury views flexible working as essential in enabling us to recruit and retain talented people, ensuring that they are able to enjoy a long-lasting career with us. All employees have the right to apply for flexible working and there are a range of options available including; working from home, compressed hours and job sharing. Additionally, we operate flexitime systems, allowing employees to take up to an additional 2 days off each month, providing you work enough hours to meet business need.

We also offer a generous parental and adoption leave package.

At HM Treasury we have an incredibly broad remit; our work touches every citizen of the country. So, it’s important our employees come from the widest possible range of backgrounds, bringing us the widest possible range of perspectives and ways of thinking. We are committed to ensuring that all staff are able to realise their potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance.

Job contact :

Name :
For questions on the Strategy role please contact Flora Scorer at [email protected]. For questions on the Performance role please contact Laura Brown at [email protected].
Email :
[email protected]

Recruitment team

Email :
[email protected]