Deputy Director, Special Adviser HR

Job summary

The Propriety and Ethics Directorate (P&E), within the Propriety and Constitution Group, is responsible for providing advice to the Prime Minister, Cabinet Secretary and departmental Permanent Secretaries on standards and ethics issues linked to the Ministerial Code, Civil Service Code and the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers. This includes advice on ministerial appointments and senior civil servants, policy on the Business Appointment Rules, advice on conduct in respect of elections and referendums, and support to the Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests. The P&E Directorate is also responsible for advice on public appointments and inquiries, and Special Adviser HR.

Job description

This is an HR leadership role in a unique environment. Following the centralisation into the Cabinet Office of payroll for special advisers in 2019, a central Special Adviser HR team was formed. The Deputy Director, Special Adviser HR is accountable for the team’s strategy, keeping service delivery professionally anchored in the wider HR function and in step with employee offers across the wider Civil Service, whilst creating bespoke policies and processes for special advisers where their contracts and context require it. The postholder will be responsible for senior stakeholder management within the Cabinet Office, No10, departmental Secretaries of State and Civil Service HR, and for quality assuring all advice and operational activity.

The Deputy Director, Special Adviser HR will be responsible for:

• Leading and developing an inclusive, engaged and high performing team in a high profile environment, ensuring they are motivated, supported to deliver and change priorities at short notice.
• Building relationships in No 10 with the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff and senior special adviser team, supporting them in the management of the special adviser workforce.
• In close collaboration with No10 and private offices across other government departments, ensure that special advisers are effectively onboarded and offboarded. This includes assessing relevant outside interests and providing HR input into the remuneration process.
• Understanding business requirements and translating those into a set of clear and tailored employment policies are in place for special advisers, ensuring they are in keeping with broader Civil Service policies.
• Driving the delivery of longer term HR interventions (e.g. learning and development), evolving the in role support and the employee offer for special advisers.
• With or on behalf of Secretaries of State, managing complex casework and offering HR consultancy support where appropriate.
• Ensuring finances are secured to fund special advisers across departments, and that budgets (of £10-15m) are appropriately managed, with close working with CO Finance and HM Treasury (HMT) on observing MPM (Managing Public Money) and other HMT requirements.
• Publication of annual transparency releases and regular handling of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, Parliamentary Questions, and correspondence.

Person specification

It is important that, through your CV and supporting statement, you provide evidence of the professional skills, breadth of experience and personal qualities for this post.

Essential Criteria:

• Knowledge of current and emerging Employment Law, with a proven track record of designing and embedding end to end HR frameworks, where employees are supported and senior stakeholders are confident in HR policies and processes.
• Exceptional leadership skills with the ability to maintain team morale and productivity during periods of pressure, ambiguity and sudden changes of priorities.
• Experience negotiating complex employment solutions with senior colleagues, ensuring alignment between business needs and HR best practices.
• Experience of rapidly re prioritising resources to meet shifting departmental goals without compromising on the quality of output or staff wellbeing.
• Experience of influencing those in authority, and specifically influencing, consulting and negotiating with senior stakeholders on HR/employment issues.
• Experience mediating between competing interests across diverse business units, with an ability to find "middle ground" solutions between stakeholders in complex, ambiguous and sensitive environments.
• Proven experience of drafting high quality briefing materials, including (or similar to) Ministerial Submissions, Parliamentary Questions, and Freedom of Information responses.

Essential Qualification:

• Specialist skill requirement; CIPD Level 7 qualification. You must already hold the CIPD Level 7 qualification as this is essential for the role. You will be asked this question as part of your application. Please indicate this in your application if you hold the qualification and provide further details in your application on how you meet this criteria.

Desirable criteria (this will only be considered in a tie break situation or if there is a need for a second sift):

• Knowledge of the Civil Service Code, Special Adviser Code of Conduct and wider integrity systems (e.g. Business Appointment Rules, conflicts of interest) and experience of applying these in the HR space.
• Experience of engaging directly with Trade Unions

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Leadership
• Delivering at Pace
• Changing and Improving

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £81,000, Cabinet Office 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.

Whatever your role, we take your career and development seriously, and want to enable you to build a really successful career with the Department and wider Civil Service. It is crucial that our employees have the right skills to develop their careers and meet the challenges ahead. You’ll benefit from a wide range of training and development opportunities, regular performance and development reviews to ensure this development is ongoing. As a Civil Service employee, you’ll be entitled to a large range of benefits.

This includes:

• 25 days annual leave on entry, increasing on a sliding scale to 30 days after 5 years’ service. This is in addition to 8 public holidays.
• This will be complimented by one further day paid privilege entitlement to mark the King’s Birthday;
• A competitive contributory pension scheme that you can enter as soon as you join where we will make a significant contribution to the cost of your pension; where your contributions come out of your salary before any tax is taken; and where your pension will continue to provide valuable benefits for you and your family if you are too ill to continue to work or die before you retire;
• Generous paid maternity and paternity leave which is notably more than the statutory minimum offered by many other employers;
• Childcare benefits (policy for new employees as of 5 April 2018): The government has introduced the Tax- Free Childcare (TFC) scheme. Working parents can open an online childcare account and for every £8 they pay in, the government adds £2, up to a maximum of £2000 a year for each child or £4000 for a disabled child. Parents then use the funds to pay for registered childcare. Existing employees may be able to continue to claim childcare vouchers, so please check how the policy would work for you here.
• Interest-free loans allowing you to spread the cost of an annual travel season ticket or a new bicycle;
• The opportunity to use onsite facilities including fitness centres and staff canteens (where applicable); and occupational sick pay.

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.

Application process

To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online application process, outlined below. This should be completed no later than 23:55pm, Monday 25th May.

1. A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
2. A Statement of Suitability (no longer than 1250 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria in the person specification.

Failure to complete both sections of the online application form (CV and Statement of Suitability) will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification.

As part of the online application process, you will be asked a number of diversity-related questions. If you do not wish to provide a declaration on any of the particular characteristics, you will have the option to select 'prefer not to say’. See the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy for more information.

Should you encounter any issues with your online application please get in touch with us via: scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Short List

Your application will be acknowledged when it is received.

A panel, including the hiring manager, will assess your application to select those demonstrating the best fit with the role by considering the evidence you have provided against the criteria set out in the ‘Person Specification’ section. Failure to address any or all of these may affect your application.

The timeline further down this page indicates the date by which decision is expected to be made, and all longlisted and shortlisted candidates will be advised of the outcome as soon as possible thereafter.

Selection process

If you are successful at the application stage, you will be invited to attend a panel interview, in order to have a more in depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence in relation to the criteria set out in the Person Specification. We will be assessing against the Success Profile Behaviours and Experience at interview.

You may also have the opportunity to speak to Simon Madden prior to the final interview to learn more about the role and organisation. Please note this is not part of the formal assessment process.

Full details of the assessment process will be made available to shortlisted candidates. You are required to prepare a presentation for the final interview you will be given the subject in advance.

If we receive applications from more suitable candidates than we have vacancies for at this time, we may hold suitable applicants on a reserve list for 12 months, and future vacancies in the Civil Service requiring the same skills and experience could be offered to candidates on the reserve list without the need for a new competition.

Offer

Regardless of the outcome, we will notify all candidates as soon as possible.

Please note feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview. This will be on a request basis.

Indicative timeline

We will try and offer as much flexibility as we can, but it may not be possible to offer alternative dates for assessments or interviews. You are therefore asked to note the below timetable, exercising flexibility through the recruitment and selection process, in order to meet the dates given. Please note that these dates may be subject to change.

The anticipated timetable is as follows:

Advert Closing Date: 23:55pm Monday 25th May.
Shortlist: Week commencing 8th June.
Interview: Week commencing 15th June and 22nd of June.
Reasonable adjustments
If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you feel that you may need a reasonable adjustment to be made, or you wouldlike to discuss your requirements in more detail, please contact: scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.ukin the first instance.

• Contact Government Recruitment Service at: scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date, and/or before the stage of the process adjustments will be required, to discuss your needs.
• Complete the ‘assistance required’ section in the ‘personal information’ page of your application form to provide information we should be aware of that will enable us to support you further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Reserve lists:

We may hold suitable applicants on a reserve list for 12 months, and future vacancies in the Civil Service requiring the same skills and experience could be offered to candidates on the reserve list without the need for a new competition.

Further information

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'contact point for applicants' section.

Any move to Cabinet Office 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; for further information visit the Childcare Choices website.

Current Civil Servants (all contract types) will need to ensure that they are still employed as a civil servant at the point of starting in the relevant new post. If their contract ends (e.g. end of FTA contract or resignation) at any point during the recruitment/onboarding process for the advertised role, they will no longer be eligible and may be withdrawn.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'contact point for applicants' section.

Please note that this role requires SC clearance, which would normally need 5 years’ UK residency in the past 5 years. This is not an absolute requirement, but supplementary checks may be needed where individuals have not lived in the UK for that period. This may mean your security clearance (and therefore your appointment) will take longer or, in some cases, not be possible.

Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.

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 : SCS Recruitment Team
• Email : scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles.
If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and wish to make a complaint, then in the first instance you should contact Government Recruitment Service at: scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk.
If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission at: info@csc.gov.uk.
For further information on the Recruitment Principles, and bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission, please visit their website at: https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk.

Attachments

Cabinet Office DD, Special Adviser HR - Final CIP (1) Opens in new window (pdf, 767kB)Cabinet Office DD, Special Adviser HR - Accessibility Pack Opens in new window (docx, 429kB)