Deputy Director, Local Government Reform: Strategy & Policy

Job summary

As Deputy Director, Local Government Reorganisation: Strategy you will provide strategic leadership across the Local Government Reform (LGR) programme, drawing on your direct experience of local government reform to shape a compelling, evidence led narrative. You will set and refine the overall vision and strategy for LGR, producing, maintaining and articulating the case for change and ensuring alignment with wider departmental and cross government priorities.

You will oversee the successful handling of key milestones—across Parliament, the public domain, and the local government sector—ensuring strategic coherence and effective communication at every stage. You will work to balance community and local government ambitions with pragmatic consideration of viability - and support progress through your effective navigation of financial and other constraints.

You will lead the strategic communications and briefing function ensuring it supports the overall strategy for LGR. You will oversee briefing materials, ensuring accuracy, clarity, and alignment across workstreams. You will maintain and develop the Briefing Hub as a central resource and proactively shape and support the LGR narrative; you will coordinate parliamentary and local government engagement activity in support of Ministers.

You will work closely with the wider growth and devolution programme, with oversight and accountability teams, as well as Stewardship and Interventions teams—particularly in cases of intervention or financial sustainability concerns. You will also ensure LGR is aligned with broader public service reform activity, including devolution, planning, housing, workforce regulations,health, policing, fire, children’s social care and adult social care, mitigating risks and identifying opportunities

As Deputy Director, Local Government Reorganisation: Policy you will provide overarching leadership of the legal, policy and regulatory framework for local government reorganisation. This includes managing all legislative activity—from early development to drafting and parliamentary passage, managing legal risk and potential legal challenge, and maintaining robust democratic, electoral and boundary arrangements.

You will work closely with colleagues across the department (especially analytical and legal colleagues), wider government, and the local government sector to effectively deliver the programme – in particular focussing on eleven places. You will support the establishment of clear assessment parameters and provide structured support to councils and sector stakeholders.

Throughout, you will ensure complex policy, legislative, and democratic considerations are integrated into a coherent programme that can be delivered effectively

Job description

As a senior leader, you will actively champion and drive the delivery of agreed actions following the People Survey results. In collaboration with the wider senior leadership team, you will seek to drive a positive management ethos, celebrate successes; you will focus on embedding a culture of continuous improvement.

You will ensure there are safe spaces to deliver an inclusive and high performing environment. The department is committed to reducing management layers and you will champion and support your teams to delegate work to the lowest level with autonomy, putting systems in place that show trust and support needed at all grades for staff to deliver their best. You will cultivate and lead teams who are proactive, creative, comfortable with ambiguity and storytelling. You will role model this and be focused on where your teams will drive the most impact and value; you will be an effective communicator (oral and written) with demonstrable skill in engagement; you are able to unblock delivery challenges both with policy teams in the department - and beyond.

Person specification

• You have proven, direct experience - and demonstrable knowledge of - local government policy, structures, and reform.
• Are an inspiring, confident and collaborative leader, who is also an experienced line manager demonstrating excellence in building strong, high-performing and inclusive teams, with strong personal resilience and the ability to lead effectively under pressure.
• Are a self-starter and effective communicator, with the ability to communicate both challenging and technical material clearly and succinctly, you can influence and direct, where needed, bringing out key choices and trade-offs based on evidence and analysis, for senior stakeholders and Ministers.
• Are a strategic and creative thinker, you are an expert problemsolver and can drive a pragmatic, solution-focused approach.
• Cultivate strong partnership and relationship-building skills, with a proven ability to build effective relationships with departmental colleagues, including analysts and legal teams
• You can adapt your style, particularly within the prevailing challenge of a complex and technical reform landscape, to understand and engage effectively with a variety of stakeholders and senior leaders, such as Local Government Chief Executives, Ministers and Special Advisers.
• Are confident in your ability to move smoothly between long term strategy development and delivery and tactical decision making in a fast-moving environment.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £81,000, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £23,465 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

How to apply

To apply you will need to submit a CV and Statement of Suitability via the Be Applied link. Your CV (up to two pages) should set out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years. Your Statement of Suitability (up to two pages) should explain how your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with reference to the essential and desirable criteria for the role.

Equal Opportunities

We encourage candidates to complete the Equal Opportunities Monitoring Data via Be Applied. The data will be treated in the strictest confidence and used for monitoring and statistical purposes only.

Guaranteed Interview Schemes

MHCLG is a Disability Confident employer and is committed to protecting and promoting the physical and mental health of all colleagues and applicants. We also operate the Great Place to Work for Veterans and Redeployment schemes. Applicants applying under these schemes who meet the essential criteria will be guaranteed an interview.

The panel

Sophie Langdale & Frances Oram – MHCLG Directors and Hiring Managers. Two other panel members TBC. The panel may be joined by one of our staff representatives from a pool of volunteers as part of our commitments to diversity and inclusion.

Shortlist:

Applications will be sifted after the closing date and shortlisted candidates will be invited to the next phase of assessment and interview. Your CV and Statement of Suitability will be assessed against the essential criteria, these will also be used to form the basis of the panel’s final interview questions. Desirable criteria will only be used to determine the merit order of candidates who rank evenly against the essential criteria.

Assessment:

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to attend a Staff Engagement Panel – designed to provide insight into how you engage and interact with your team. Feedback from the session is passed to the panel for consideration alongside your final interview.

Candidates may also be invited to meet with a Senior Stakeholder. This is not a formal part of selection, but an informal chance to find out more about the role and organisation.

Shortlisted candidates may also be invited to give a short presentation, or complete an exercise at interviews - further details will be provided when invited to interview.

Feedback:

This will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

ExpectedTimeline*

• Advert closes: Sunday 5th April
• Shortlisting: w/c 6th April
• Assessments: w/c 13th April
• Interviews: w/c 20th April

The selection process will conclude with a panel interview. This will take place in person; further details will be shared with shortlisted candidates in due course

* Please note that we try and offer flexibility where possible, but it may not always be possible to offer alternative interview dates.

Introduction
This is an appointment at Senior Civil Service (SCS) role at Pay Band 1 level and the appointment will therefore reflect the changes made to SCS terms and conditions introduced on 1 July 2013. The information offered in this document is supplied in good faith but does not in itself form any part of the contract of employment.

Salary

For external appointments, remuneration for this role will be circa £81,000 pa plus a bonus opportunity depending on performance (within the normal Civil Service pay arrangements) and attractive pension.

For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable. If appointed on promotion you would get the higher of 10% uplift or the new minimum for Deputy Director (£81,000 pa). Please also note that, if successful, any existing specialist allowances you currently receive will not automatically transfer or be retained upon moving to this role. Future pay awards will normally be made in line with current SCS performance-related pay arrangements.

Eligibility

This post is advertised on level transfer or promotion to existing civil servants, and externally.

Contract

This is a permanent appointment. This role is full-time and is suitable for a job share. MHCLG encourages flexible working. Nationality, internal fraud database and security clearance

Further information on nationality rules, the internal fraud database and security clearance for working in MHCLG follow on the next slides. Please read carefully before applying.

Annual leave

Full time new entrants to the Civil Service and those civil servants on modernised terms and conditions will be entitled to 25 days leave, increasing on a sliding scale to 30 days after 5 years’ service. In addition to this you are entitled to 8 public/bank holidays plus an additional day for the King's Birthday. The allowance is pro-rated for part-time staff. With competitive maternity, paternity and parental leave we also recognise the importance of a good work-life balance and offer flexible working and a family friendly approach to work.

Location

Bristol, Darlington, London, Manchester, or Wolverhampton. During the application process you will be asked to express a location preference, from the advertised locations. Any offer made will be based on that specific location. Please note that, as your normal work location, costs cannot be claimed for travel to and from your base office location.

Hybrid working

At present, a minimum of 60% of your working time will be spent in your contractual office location. Requirements to attend other office locations or off-site meetings will count towards this. There may be opportunities for candidates to work flexibly, including some home working, depending on business need and individual
circumstances. This will be discussed with the vacancy manager on a case-by-case basis, if you are successful for the role.

Near Miss Offers

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.

Terms of benefits

• Defined benefit pension scheme (a career average basis for new recruits).
• Occupational Health Services.
• Access to health and wellbeing support.
• Childcare support vouchers.
• Leave provisions including carers’ leave, paid and additional unpaid maternity leave, paid paternity leave and paid adoption leave, volunteering leave.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).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.

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 : Sophie Langdale & Frances Oram
• Email : Jobshare.Langdale-Oram@communities.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitment@communities.gov.uk

Attachments

DD LG Reorganisation x2 - Candidate Pack Opens in new window (pdf, 690kB)