Public Bodies Sponsorship Lead in Newtownabbey

Business Area Governance & Sponsorship Team - Corporate operations Group

Terms of Appointment: Loan / Fixed Term of 2 Years with the potential for a further 1 year extension

Grade: Senior Executive Officer (SEO)

Location: Northern Ireland or London

Occasional travel between Belfast and London will be required.

Vacancy Manager: Stephen Torney - Head of Governance & Sponsorship

Applications Invited From:

• Existing Civil Servants on level transfer and promotion
• New entrants to the Civil Service will be expected to join on the minimum of the pay range.

The national starting salary is £42,914. The London starting salary is £49,325. Your salary will be dependent on your base location.

Background: The Northern Ireland Office supports the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in promoting the best interests of Northern Ireland. We make sure that Northern Ireland interests are represented within the UK Government and that UK government responsibilities are fully and effectively represented in Northern Ireland. We are the centre of expertise on Northern Ireland issues across Government. The Northern Ireland Office employs around 170 staff, with offices in Belfast and London. As a small Department, we adopt a flexible project-based approach to ensure that we have the right people, with the right skills, in the right place to support the delivery of our key objectives.

Our key priorities are set out in our Operational Delivery plan and include:

• Supporting greater inclusion, tolerance and openness in Northern Ireland
• Contributing to a safer Northern Ireland, where terrorist and paramilitary groups are less able to cause harm to communities
• Ensuring that governance in Northern Ireland is responsive, transparent and able to deliver effective public service.
• Addressing the legacy of the past in Northern Ireland

About The Role: The Governance and Sponsorship team manages a diverse portfolio of compliance and business support functions. The team lead a number of specific objectives that link directly to the strategic priorities of the Department, particularly in relation to sponsorship, public appointments and assurance to the Accounting Officer, the Board and Committees. The team sits within the NIO Corporate Operations Group working closely with colleagues within the Group and wider policy teams on a range of cross-cutting issues.

A key function of this role is the provision of coordinated sponsorship for the Departments sponsored bodies and public inquiries, ensuring adherence to the Secretary of State's accountability responsibilities to Parliament for each body. The Sponsorship lead role is a busy role that would suit someone who would like the opportunity to work on a diverse portfolio of sponsorship matters and corporate issues, particularly in relation to risk management, good governance and accountability. There will also be cross working with colleagues in governance areas which will include the management of public appointments.

The team also provides advice to policy colleagues on compliance and fulfilment of the NIOs section 75 obligations and commitments and leads on preparing an annual progress report to the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland. We are looking to recruit a highly motivated individual that can provide a consistently high level of service to internal and external stakeholders, while simultaneously managing a range of corporate and sponsorship issues in support of the delivery of objectives and compliance with best practice across the Department and its sponsored entities.

Duties And Responsibilities: The successful candidate will report to the Grade 7, Head of Governance & Sponsorship. This role is best suited to someone who is self-motivated, adaptable and thrives in a changing environment, as key responsibilities will shift over time according to departmental priorities. The main responsibilities of the role include but are not limited to:

• Coordinating all governance and accountability matters for each of the Department Sponsored bodies and established public inquiries
• Leading on governance transformation and the implementation of measures to address the recommendations made in the recent internal audit of the Departments sponsorship arrangements.
• Supporting the wider team in the managing all regulated appointment processes including Number 10 & Cabinet Office appointments liaison/reporting;
• Supporting the wider team in managing their team budget along with the coordination of the Annual Reporting and Transparency processes for the Department and wider sponsored bodies.

Essential Criteria: The post holder will need to demonstrate the following in their application and at interview:

• Excellent written and oral communications skills, including providing advice and briefing to Senior officials and/or Ministers.
• Experience of working with others and maintaining collaborative relationships with colleagues and external stakeholders;
• Experience of working in a corporate services environment and/or on governance and sponsorship matters.

Desirable Criteria: Previous experience of working with, or managing relationships with, arms length bodies or organisations in a group structure;

Behaviours: We will assess you against the following Success Profiles behaviours at the SEO level during the application sift and interview process:

• Managing a Quality Service
• Changing & Improving
• Communicating and influencing
• Delivering at Pace

Experience: Please provide a CV and statement of suitability no longer than 500 words outlining how you meet the essential and desirable criteria. Both will be used in order to assess any demonstrable experience, career history and achievements that are relevant to the role. Your statement of suitability needs to set out evidence of how your experience meets the requirements set out above.

Your layout is entirely your preference; you may choose narrative, bullets, etc. One narrative example may cover the requirements needed. You dont have to explain the whole process, just what you have done and the skills and experience you have used. Share with us what makes you suited to this role and why. What you can do, the skills you have that are transferable and the life experience or passion you have that are linked to this role. If you dont have work-based examples then give examples from school/college, clubs, volunteering or other activities you have been involved in.

You will also be asked to complete a CV with details of your education, professional qualifications, previous skills and full employment history. Your CV will not be formally assessed so please put the main evidence of your skills into your personal statement. Your CV will be used to add context to your personal statement.

More information on behaviours and success profiles can be found here.

Please note that in the event of a large number of applications being received we may run the initial sift on the lead Behaviour Communicating and influencing.

Interview: You will be assessed against the same behaviours at the interview stage and will be asked to provide examples of how you have demonstrated the behaviours. It may help to use one or more examples of a piece of work you have completed or a situation you have been in and use the WHO or STAR model to explain:

• WHO- What it was? How you approached the work/situation? What the Outcomes were, what did you achieve?
• STAR- What was the Situation? What were the Tasks? What Action did you take? What were the Results of your actions?

All applications for employment are considered strictly on the basis of merit.

Offer: Once all interviews have been completed, you will be notified of the outcome by email. Offers will be made in strict merit order to the highest scoring candidate first. The successful candidate will be notified of a start date following successful security checks.

Security Clearance: Security clearance to SC is required for this post. This role requires National Security Vetting given the access to sensitive information afforded by the job role. You can find more information by reviewing the information held in the following links United Kingdom Security Vetting: Applicant - GOV.UK ( The vetting charter - GOV.UK ( In addition, there is a minimum UK residency requirement set by the Cabinet Office which is dependent on the security level required for the role. This role requires SC and to be eligible to apply for this role you should have been present in the UK continuously for the past 5 years.

Further Information: Further information about the post may be obtained from Stephen Torney via email to All applications for employment are considered strictly on the basis of merit.

This job description should not be taken as constituting conditions of employment. Please note that due to the high interest in NIO opportunities, feedback cannot be given if you are unsuccessful at the sift stage. Feedback is available on request if unsuccessful following the interview.

Complaints: The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants. Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commissions Recruitment Principles. You have the right to complain if you feel a department has breached the requirement of the Recruitment Principles.

Reserve Lists: In the event that the advertised post following interview identifies more appointable applicants than available posts, we may hold applicant details on a merit/reserve list for a period of 12 months from which further future appointments can be made. Candidates placed on a reserve list will be informed of this.