Area Lead for North East, Tees Valley and Cumbria

Darlington

Job Summary

This is an exciting opportunity to be the Area Lead for North East, Tees Valley and Cumbria within MHCLG. You will be based out of the Darlington Economic Campus. Area Leads are MHCLG’s experts on places. You will understand the local challenges and opportunities in your region and how they align to MHCLG’s and wider Government priorities. You will manage MHCLG’s relationship with Local Authorities, holding regular conversations with Chief Executives, and key delivery partners in these places.

The role will work collaboratively with partners across the region maximising opportunities for collaboration, while sharing invaluable insight to help inform policy development and decision making. MHCLG rely on area teams to work with people and places across the UK to develop and deliver policies to deliver Ministers’ objectives. The teams are an integral part of the policy development and delivery mechanisms.

Local government play a critical role to so many parts of our everyday lives and delivers vital services for the most vulnerable in society. From tackling homelessness to delivering social care, from bin collection to driving local economic growth, good local government is the foundation of a good state.

The Local Government Reform & Strategy Directorate (LGRS) leads on the oversight system for all English local authorities, ensuring accountability works and people have confidence their council is operating effectively and delivering good services.

LGRS is focused on ensuring we have a strong, resilient and accountable local government sector. Our objectives are focused on:

• Devolution to empower local leaders and renew the emphasis on place.
• Supporting local government reorganisation, and coordinating a long-term vision and data-led approach to sector improvement.
• Creating strong relationships between central government and councils, enabling better policy making, increased resilience, and joint problem solving, particularly during emergency responses.
• Monitoring and supporting councils facing significant challenges, where they are unable to resolve issues independently.

Job Description

As the North East, Tees Valley and Cumbria Area Lead your responsibilities will include:

• Lead Government’s relationships in your area and represent MHCLG at key sub-regional meetings.
• Produce high quality local intelligence across the breadth of Local Government, Growth and Communities priorities and the impact of Government policies on place.
• Use your relationships and influence with partners across central and local government to shape outcomes.
• Co-lead the negotiation of any devolution deals and local government reform changes with local authorities in the area, working closely with the English Devolution and Institutions and Local Government Reform teams.
• You will lead and support Ministerial briefings on regional risks and opportunities and ensure a high-quality service on parliamentary business and ministerial visits.
• Deputise for and support the Deputy Director and / or G6 in their responsibilities as appropriate. You will be an inspiring leader for your team of 3 and across the wider division.

As the North East, Tees Valley and Cumbria Area Lead your responsibilities will include:

• Lead Government’s relationships in your area and represent MHCLG at key sub-regional meetings.
• Produce high quality local intelligence across the breadth of Local Government, Growth and Communities priorities and the impact of Government policies on place.
• Use your relationships and influence with partners across central and local government to shape outcomes.
• Co-lead the negotiation of any devolution deals and local government reform changes with local authorities in the area, working closely with the English Devolution and Institutions and Local Government Reform teams.
• You will lead and support Ministerial briefings on regional risks and opportunities and ensure a high-quality service on parliamentary business and ministerial visits.
• Deputise for and support the Deputy Director and / or G6 in their responsibilities as appropriate. You will be an inspiring leader for your team of 3 and across the wider division.

Person specification

• Excellent verbal communication and influencing skills – this is a highly outward facing role, you should be adept at building trusted relationships outside the organisation.
• Able to competently discuss and disseminate a wide range of complex policy and delivery to both expert and non-expert audiences.
• A positive, proactive and collaborative approach – we work closely with colleagues across MHCLG and other government departments on a range of policy areas.
• Enthusiasm for place-based working and a passionate advocate for North East, Tees Valley and Cumbria.
• Robust written communication skills, able to translate complex policy detail into simple and strategically consistent briefs.
• Line management – performance management and development of junior colleagues, identifying and supporting their development needs and wellbeing.
• Proven leadership skills and the ability to identify and advocate an evidence-based response to risks/issues/opportunities

Alongside your salary of £54,531, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £15,797 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• 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 employer contribution of 28.97%

Selection process details

As part of our pre-employment checking process we will be using your CV to confirm your job history. Please note that by providing us with your CV you are consenting to us using the information enclosed as part of the checking process. Unless stated otherwise in the advert, your CV will not form part of the assessment but will be used for information purposes and only shared with the panel at interview stage.

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) : Seeing The Big Picture – Provide an example of when your understanding of the political, social and/or economic context has enabled you to achieve a quality outcome.

Behaviour 2 Leadership

Behaviour 3 Working Together

Behaviour 4 Communicating and Influencing

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 progressed 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, Working Together.

Strength – Yes

The strength based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.

You will be asked to present a 5 minute presentation – assessed against Seeing the big picture.

In the full campaign we will test the below Success Profile Elements:

Behaviours: Seeing The Big Picture, Leadership, Working Together, Communicating and Influencing, Making Effective Decisions.

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.

Grade 7 salary

• The salary for this role is £54,531 (National).
• For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable. If you apply for a role that requires a transfer of location, for example if you are transferring from London to a National location, your salary will be adjusted in accordance with our policy on transfer between HQ pay ranges.

Please note that the average employer pension contribution is based upon the National minimum salary for this role. Should your agreed starting salary for this role be different, the average employer pension contribution will be calculated accordingly. If you are a Secondee, this will not apply as you will remain on your home organisation’s terms and conditions.

Benefits

Transfers across the Civil Service on or after 4 October 2018:

Any move to MHCLG 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 MHCLG employees, please see the attached Candidate Pack.

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION:

• Darlington*

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.

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 07/06 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 in 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 recruitment@communities.gov.uk to be removed from the reserve list.

Candidate Pack Information

Please see attached Candidate pack for further information. The candidate pack contains information about the CS Commissioners appeals and complaints procedure.

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 MHCLG 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 MHCLG as a participating government organisations. MHCLG 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

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

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.

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.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job Contact

• Name : Katie Munro
• Email : katie.munro@communities.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitment@communities.gov.uk

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