3838 - Head of Road Safety Policy

Job summary

Transport is a key enabling function, experienced by everybody and central to the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of Wales.

The Transport and Digital Connectivity Directorate leads on many high profile Government commitments across 6 divisions and 150 people, leading on policy, finance, planning, and delivery – as well as a wide portfolio of capital projects with an annual budget of around £1.4bn to deliver these functions, (one of the largest for any Directorate outside of health).

Job description

This is a key role in the Directorate, where activity is subject to significant scrutiny. The post holder will be responsible for working closely with Ministers and senior management teams and will be expected to be the expert lead in their policy area to develop, deliver and implement road safety and blue badge policies and lead on Welsh aspects of non-devolved related areas.

The area generates a significant amount of external interest: the post holders will support the SEO/HEOs in their area to manage correspondence, media enquiries, support ministerial meetings and manage key stakeholder relationships. They will also be responsible for management of key functions including policy and strategy, delivery of support structures, research and analysis as well as team matrix-management.

The post holder will lead a programme of work focusing on road safety and other aspects of roads policy, both in WG and work of WG funded staff based in the Welsh Local Government Association. They will be leading on risk management and working closely with policy and senior officials to support timely delivery of key work.

You will also work closely with the Strategic Road Network Division and in particular the Road Safety Delivery team to ensure full alignment between policy and trunk road delivery, maintaining a strong two‑way relationship where policy direction informs programmes of work on the Strategic Road Network, and operational delivery insights from the programmes of work on the trunk road actively shape future policy development.

Person specification

What You Will Be Doing?

You will lead the Road Safety and Blue Badge teams in WG, whose functions include leading on road safety policy development and implementation, supporting local authorities to fulfil their road safety duties and supporting blue badge scheme delivery.

Policy Development and implementation

• Leading the delivery of the new Road Safety Partnership Plan
• Take forward recommendations arising from Senedd Committees and the review of the Blue Badge scheme.
• Leading on policy implementation and development relating to parking, the digitisation of Traffic Regulation Orders, and Autonomous Vehicles.
• Liaison with the UK Government and its agencies on non-devolved areas, including traffic offences, driver and vehicle licensing, vehicle regulations, micromobility, automated vehicles.
• Prepare and engage on changes to secondary legislation, as required
• Provide policy and technical advice to Ministers, Senior officials, the Road Safety Partnership Board and its sub-groups
• Work with evidence leads in WG and TfW on strengthening the monitoring and evaluation of road safety schemes and interventions as well as the development indicators and targets and, as well as improved reporting.

Funding oversight

• Oversee the allocation of funding for road safety and unadopted roads schemes to local authorities as part of the Regional Transport Fund.
• Oversee funding for third sector delivery partners.
• Negotiate funding parameters for camera enforcement and complementary initiatives with GoSafe and police forces as key partners and manage the grant funding relationship.
• Lead on procurement of external contracts to support our work and new grants, as required.

Stakeholder and Cross-Government Engagement and Communication

• Provide strategic oversight to stakeholder relationships with third sector and other delivery partners, including Emergency Services, Public Health Wales, Local Authorities and Corporate Joint Committees, WLGA, & RoSPA.
• Represent Welsh Government in UK-wide and international road safety forums, ensuring road safety policy in Wales shapes and is informed by national and international best practice.
• Build effective relationships with the Head of Road Safety Delivery in Strategic Road Network Division to ensure alignment between policy and operational delivery.
• Lead engagement with professionals and academics working in the sector
• Engagement with internal and external stakeholders to support integration of transport policies and programmes; leading on cross-departmental engagement and collaboration on cross-cutting objectives and programmes
• Support cross-cutting divisional and departmental work as required
• Work closely with and advise the communications team and press office on all policy and technical issues covered by the post

Leadership

• Provide leadership and development for the road safety and blue badge function, ensuring sustainable workloads and high professional standards.

Memberships

You will be a member of a relevant professional institution, such as the ICE, CHIT, or IHE and be working towards becoming a Chartered or an Incorporated Engineer. A thorough understanding of safe system principles and experience in road safety is essential.

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £61,098, Welsh Government contributes £17,700 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%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

Welsh Government, like all other Government Departments use Success Profiles when we recruit. For each role we consider what you will need to demonstrate to be successful. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job. It raises performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.

The selection process and stages are:

Number of Stages:2 stage processStage 1Application FormStage 2Interview

Pre-sift

In the event of many applications, an initial sift will be conducted against the lead assessment criterion: 2. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift or progressed straight to assessment/interview.

Presentation

A presentation on experience criterion 2 will be required at Interview stage. More information will be provided in the invitations to that stage.

CV

CVs will not be scored but will be used by the panel to gain a fuller understanding of your experience and employment history.

Reserve List

A reserve list may be held for this opportunity. Any candidate who is successful in being offered a reserve status, will remain on the reserve list for 12 months.

In the event of two or more candidates having the same total score, the following list will be used to determine a merit order/which candidate will be appointed. Weighting the criteria - which candidate had the highest score for Experience 2, Experience 1, Seeing the Big Picture, Delivering at Pace, Working Together

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.

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.

Diversity and Inclusion

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

Apply and further information

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 : Transport and Digital Connectivity
• Email : Roadsafety@gov.wales

Recruitment team

• Email : SharedServiceHelpdesk@gov.wales

Further information

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition. Please see the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles on the Commission's website.

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with these principles and wish to make a complaint please email complaints@gov.wales. Please ensure that you refer to the vacancy reference number.

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Welsh Government, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: info@csc.gov.uk