policy analyst Newcastle upon Tyne, England
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Job summary
To provide support to the Local Government Performance Division on local audit team on policy and programme delivery to help reform the local audit system A key plank of the levelling up agenda has been the transfer of increased powers and funding to local leaders. A strong and well functioning local audit system is essential to assure the local accountability which must underpin this. Local authorities must be able to plan, manage their services and base their decision-making on accurate and reliable financial information, which should also be available to local tax payers,
In recent years the local audit system has faced growing problems of late completion, with delays stretching back 8 years in extreme cases. This really matters, both for local transparency and DLUHC’s management of risk in its role as steward for local government. In response to this, the Local Audit Team is developing policy at pace to cut the backlog and make sure it doesn’t recur.
This is fast-paced, real time policy development; we are working with a range of senior stakeholders who are all being asked to think outside the box. Risks need to be balanced and this work has the close interest of both senior leaders and ministers. Parliamentary interest is also intense: the Public Accounts Committee and Levelling Up Committee are both currently considering local audit issues. You would be joining at exciting time as we work across senior stakeholders and interested OGDs (including HMT) to test and implement radical propositions which our minister has previewed with the Levelling Up select committee.
We are also delivering broader reforms to the local audit system, in particular establishing the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) as a ‘system leader’. This is a new role and the team will be both working alongside and overseeing the governance and accountability of this new role as the FRC moves towards shadow system leader arrangements.
So this role offers policy development, both reactive and strategic, complex senior stakeholder management and extensive briefing. Delivery includes performance managing the FRC in its new role, running a review of how local audit is procured and working to deliver a new qualification. As local audit is key to the Department’s accounting officer role for local government, we work closely with local government stewardship and local government finance.
The team’s day to day priorities shift and evolve, so in addition to policy development you will be deployed across a variety of work with ample opportunity to lead – our previous HEO led on the full business case to establish the FRC as system leader, drafted a Statutory Instrument and developed our skeleton briefing for senior leaders to use at the Public Accounts Committee hearing for example.
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
The successful candidate will:
- Support on the development and delivery of new policy initially involving reducing the backlog of local audits and putting in place sustainable arrangements for the future. This will involve challenging current orthodoxies and urging stakeholders to ‘think outside the box’.
- Support on the Department’s oversight of the FRC’s system leader role (i.e. briefing for meetings with senior leaders at the FRC, secretariat and briefing for quarterly reviews.
- Lead the drafting of high-quality ministerial policy advice, briefing, public facing documents and correspondence – often at pace – and taking ownership of the clearance process.
- Work closely with the team’s programme manager to ensure key milestones and risks across a range of policy areas are flagged and reported to the Department’s programme management office.
- Work flexibly to support policy leads on discrete projects, including the delivery of government consultations, working with Departmental lawyers on legislative issues and working with HMT and Finance professionals to deliver grant funding to local authorities.
- Deliver confident verbal briefings and presentations to a range of senior stakeholders, including Ministers and Senior Civil Servants.
Person specification
The successful candidate will:
- Be a highly motivated self-starter who takes ownership of their work;
- Have excellent organisational skills and strong written and verbal communication skills;
- Be a strong communicator, confident in presenting our work or proposals to a range of different forums.
- Be able to form strong, effective working relationships with a range of stakeholders to develop solutions;
- Be able to see the big picture and think strategically, whilst also having a keen eye for detail;
- Be able to weigh up a range of evidence and options and use sound judgement to form advice; and
- Be comfortable with working at pace.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Making Effective Decisions
- Seeing the Big Picture
- Communicating and Influencing
- Delivering at Pace
Benefits
- 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%
Things you need to know
Selection process details
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).
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 1 (lead behaviour) - Communicating and influencing
Behaviour 2 - Seeing the big picture
Behaviour 3 - Making effective decisions
Behaviour 4 - Delivering at pace
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:
Behaviour - Seeing the big picture, Making effective decisions, Communicating and influencing, Delivering at pace
Strength - The strength based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.
In the full campaign we will test the below Success Profile Elements:
Behaviours: Seeing the big picture, Making effective decisions, Communicating and influencing, Delivering at pace
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.
HEO salary
- The salary for this role is £33,875 (London) or £30,792 (National).
- For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable.
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:
London, Birmingham, Cambridge, *Darlington, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle Upton Tyne, Nottingham, Warrington, Wolverhampton.
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. This role is based at DLUHC and we will be joined on the campus by:
- HM Treasury
- Department for International Trade
- Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
- Office for National Statistics
- Department for Education
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 W/C 07/08/2023 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 on 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 [email protected] to be removed from the reserve list.
CTC (Counter-terrorism Clearance):
Important note
Successful candidates for roles based in our 2 Marsham Street building must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check and the process can take up to 8 weeks to complete.
Please note that successful candidates will need to pass the CTC security checks – this requires you to have been resident in the UK for the past 3 years. Please refer to the DLUHC Notes on Security Clearance section of our Candidate Pack for further information on Counter Terrorism Clearance (CTC). Thank you.
Candidates should also note that with effect from 1st August 2018 the department will also check all applicants who are successful at interview, against the Internal Fraud Database (IFD) held by the Cabinet Office. In accordance with the Civil Service Internal Fraud Policy, any applicant who is included on the IFD will be refused employment by DLUHC. Please see the Candidate Pack for further information on the Internal Fraud Database.
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
See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
Nationality requirements
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
- UK nationals
- nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
- nationals of the Republic of Ireland
- nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with settled or pre-settled status or who apply for either status by the deadline of the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
- relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service
- relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the Civil Service
- certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals
Working for the Civil Service
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).
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Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
Recruitment team
