25.53 Associate Director of Organisational Performance and Intelligence

Darlington, Liverpool

Job Summary

The DBS was established as a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) under the Protection of Freedoms Act (PoFA) 2012. The DBS provides access to criminal records information through its disclosure service for England and Wales and makes independent Barring decisions about people who have harmed, or where there is considered to be a risk of harm, to a child or vulnerable person within the workplace.

In April 2025, we launched our new 3-year strategy, which sets out ambitious plans to fulfil our purpose, achieve our vision, and make the right impacts by 2028. We will focus on the following 5 strategic objectives over the next 3 years:

• Our products and services: We will provide accessible, timely, and high-quality products and services effectively.
• Being visible, trusted, and influential: We will be a visible, trusted, and influential organisation by delivering additional targeted engagement and achieving measurable results with our stakeholders.
• Delivering through innovative technology: We will harness innovative technologies to support process developments and increase our ability and agility to respond to future demands, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of our services.
• Customer data and insight led: We will be customer data and insight led, actively seeking, and using data and feedback to drive change at DBS, providing the best possible journey for our customers and influencing change externally.
• Being people-focused: We will guide and support our people to navigate and adapt to change, ensuring DBS continues to fulfil its safeguarding role in a sustainable way.

The Directorate

The Strategy, Performance And Change Directorate brings together a number of core functions that are critical to achievement of the outcomes in the DBS Strategy 2025-28. These are:

• Change Management and Business improvement
• Communications and Engagement
• Partnerships & Outreach
• Strategy, Planning and Inclusion
• Policy
• Commercial Development
• Organisational Performance
• Research & Horizon Scanning
• Operations (disclosure and barring)
• Insight
• Organisational Knowledge Management

The purpose of the directorate is to ‘help steer our organisation and optimise its capability.”

Job Description

The Role

The Associate Director for Organisational Performance & Intelligence will lead a unit with a focus on providing the organisation with the capabilities it needs to gather and interpret the vast range of information the DBS has access to, to support the decisions it makes and the direction it takes, as well as turning insight into intelligence, moving from performance reporting to proactive organisational performance and knowledge management.

It Will Encompass The Functions Of:

• Organisational Performance
• Research & Horizon Scanning
• Operations (Disclosure & Barring)
• Insight
• Organisational Knowledge Management, including coordination of DBS internal policies and procedures

The role holder will provide strong leadership to and accountability for evolving organisational performance reporting to organisational performance management, bringing together the operationalisation of the various lenses the DBS deploys to measure its effectiveness and impact.

Leading and driving the required change in culture and data maturity across DBS, in line with the organisation becoming more data- and insight-led, translating insight into intelligence, joining up information channels from elsewhere across government and other DBS partners to add to our own, to form suppositions and deductions for the organisation to consider in its tactical, operational and strategic development and decision making.

Enhancing horizon scanning capabilities and projecting further outward towards trends and patterns that shape and underpin proactive strategic thinking building upon the organisational knowledge management function. Identifying new approaches to data management to provide spread of access and awareness to these, along with a more focused and targeted programme of analysis and insight, that helps us innovate and collaborate to deliver the DBS vision and our safeguarding role.

Key Responsibilities

• Oversee the provision of performance information, analysis, research, insight, evaluation, and horizon scanning, that helps DBS deliver its operational functions effectively, shapes its future strategy, and helps the DBS become more influential with partners and stakeholders.
• Foster and maintain a positive team ethos in support of OneDBS, with an emphasis on building capability, prioritising development, and timely and constructive feedback.
• Develop the research, insight and performance technology capabilities including scoping use of assistive technology and artificial intelligence required to deliver an effective and efficient service.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with internal colleagues and external partners, with an ability to work effectively with external researchers and stakeholders.
• Have strong negotiating and influencing skills to ensure that high quality, timely and relevant analysis is at the forefront of decision making in the DBS.
• Identify opportunities to make links with other analytical and insight teams in the Home Office family, wider government, and external organisations with an interest in safeguarding.
• Maintain and evolve functions to ensure that DBS internal policies, procedures and guidelines are fit for purpose, meet legislative requirements, and are regularly updated.
• Develop and enhance knowledge and information management frameworks for the DBS, fostering a knowledge exchange culture and setting the strategy for organisational learning from experience.
• Provide clear, authoritative strategic advice to the Executive Director of Strategy, Performance and Change, and DBS Strategic Leadership Team (SLT), including operating as technical advisor to SLT meetings to advise on performance, insight and knowledge and information matters.
• Support the development and embedding of ways of working across DBS directorates, ensuring the unit and wider business complies appropriately with the relevant Government Functional standards, with customer service expectations and industry best practice including identifying and implementing necessary improvements.

Corporate Responsibilities

Support the Executive Director of Strategy, Performance and Change in:

• Their role as a member of the SLT, assisting them in their responsibility for leading the organisation; engaging in and helping to drive change as required; their dealings with Board and its committees as required; and being an active member of the DBS wider Corporate Leadership Team and Associate Directors’ Group, specifically contributing to development and delivery of business opportunities, organisational development, and value for money.

Reporting

Executive Director of Strategy, Performance and Change

Member of the Strategy, Performance and Change Directorate Leadership Team (DLT)

Key Relationships

The post holder will be required to establish and maintain strong, positive and effective working relationships with key stakeholders including:

• External: DBS Partners, DBS Stakeholders, DBS Customers, Other government departments
• Internal: DBS Senior Management and Board, Employee engagement and representative groups, Strategy, Performance and Change Directorate colleagues

Confidentiality

As a Public Servant, you have a duty to protect official information entrusted to you. You must not give another person or organisation official or confidential information concerning DBS’ business affairs, internal processes or trade secrets to which you have access during the course of your employment. This restriction also applies after you have left the organisation.

Equal Opportunities

Comply with the DBS’s equal opportunities policies and procedures showing an understanding of and commitment to diversity and inclusion, and how it applies to this role.

Health and Safety

Complying with the requirements of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (and associated legislation); to take reasonable care of yourself and others, including those employees under your direction at work.

Person specification

Desirable: A Masters degree by research in a relevant specialism, such as psychology, sociology, social research, economics, research methods.

Essential Experience

• Strong leadership skills, including experience of developing and managing multi-disciplinary analytical teams, and performance, research and analysis programmes that influence operational and/or policy delivery choices, driving improvement in services for customers.
• Demonstrable senior experience of working as a professional analyst with past experience of delivering insights at pace to inform operational delivery and/or public policy.
• Experience of research management, project management, contract negotiation and finance management.
• Experience of communicating analysis to ensure that decisions are informed by robust evidence, supporting the team to visualise the data to present the ‘story’ in a meaningful way to technical and non-technical audiences.

Desirable: Experience of producing robust research and analysis that meets the standards in functional standards and others and adhering to government research protocols. Previous experience in the area of safeguarding. Experience of analysing the operational performance of a large organisation in the public or private sector. An understanding of techniques for knowledge exchange, and awareness of technology solutions, including but not limited to assistive technology and AI to enable effective use of these techniques. Experience in commissioning programmes of research from external organisations.

Skills And Personal Qualities

• Proven ability to develop and apply a strategic vision to develop multi-disciplinary research and analysis, balancing immediate needs with the bigger picture, able to articulate questions and translate outputs into organisational activity.
• An analytical background with expertise in one or more of the following: performance analysis; social research; operational research; economics; statistics.
• A thorough understanding of the principles of effective performance management and research techniques and the ability to apply these to complex real-world challenges.
• Good understanding of data analytics and other technology solutions relevant to delivery of analysis services, including experience of commissioning and implementing new systems.

Desirable: Familiarity with the relevant Government Functional Standards.

Behaviours

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

• Changing and Improving
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Managing a Quality Service
• Making Effective Decisions

Alongside your salary of £71,212, Disclosure & Barring Service contributes £20,630 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

The DBS offers a number of excellent benefits for its employees. These can include:

• Generous annual leave entitlement
• Excellent maternity, paternity and adoption schemes (after a qualifying period)
• Commitment to the health and wellbeing of our employees
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Flexible working opportunities
• Eyecare voucher scheme
• Occupational Health Service including referrals for counselling and physiotherapy
• 24/7 Counselling and Wellbeing Service
• A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

The DBS vision and purpose is to make people safer by being a visible, trusted and influential organisation, providing an outstanding quality of service to all our customers and partners, where our people understand the important safeguarding contributions they make and feel proud to work here. To do this, the DBS is committed to being an employer that is able to attract, develop, retain and engage diverse talent that is representative of the communities we serve, and to be an organisation providing outstanding service to all our existing and new customers, who are diverse and have a range of different needs. We want all our staff to be able to bring their ‘whole self’ to work.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

To apply for this post - Please Provide Your CV Together With a Personal Statement Of No More Than 750 Words, Outlining How Your Skills, Experience And Qualifications Meet The Requirements Of The Role, Including All Essential And Desirable Criteria, And Key Responsibilities. You Will Also Need To Provide Behavioural Statements Of No More Than 250 Words For Each Of The Following Civil Service Behaviours:

• Changing and improving
• Seeing the big picture
• Delivering a quality service
• Making effective decisions

If large numbers of applications are received, we will sift on the behaviour- Changing and Improving only.

For all candidates who are successful at the initial sifting stage, you will be invited to interview. The interview will consist of a panel-based interview. The aim of the panel interview will be to assess your ability to demonstrate the following behaviours:

• Changing and Improving
• Seeing the bigger picture
• Delivering a quality service
• Making effective decisions

For all candidates who are successful at the initial sifting stage, you will be expected to deliver a 10 minute presentation to the panel followed by a panel-based interview. Topic will be supplied when interview is arranged.

The following timetable outlines indicative dates. Please note, these dates may be subject to change without prior notice. The initial candidate sift is due to take place week commencing 13 June 2025. Interviews are due to take place week commencing 30 June 2025. Whilst we will endeavour to provide some flexibility with regards to dates wherever possible, it is unlikely that we will be able to offer an alternative date once an appointment has been scheduled. 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 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)
• 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

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code 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. 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.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found.