Policy Advisor - Building Safety

Job summary

Are you keen to promote collaborative ways of working amongst your team and stakeholders? Have you got exceptional written and oral communication skills?

If so, we have an exciting opportunity for a Policy Advisor to join our team at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and we'd love to hear from you!

In response to the Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2017, the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government established a Building Safety Programme to ensure that buildings are safe, and people feel safe, now and in the future. Our buildings are inter-generational assets. The way that we shape, regulate, repair, our built environment affects the peace of mind of everyone: the financial interests of hundreds of thousands; the health of major parts of the economy; and the legacy we leave subsequent generations.

In Buildings, Resilience and Fire Group (BRFG), we are rebuilding confidence in building safety by putting past errors right, re-shaping the industry and its regulators, and ensuring our buildings are fit for the future. The Buildings in Use Division in BRFG leads on policy development to enhance the performance, safety and stability of buildings, so people in the community remain safe in their homes. To make this happen we are working in partnership with industry to help fix unsafe buildings, improving building safety and ensuring there are better products, standards and professionals.

We are recruiting HEO roles to work in a fast-moving policy area of building safety, attracting significant Ministerial, media and public interest. The postholders will work flexibly and proactively across Buildings Resilience and Fire and wider MHCLG to manage building safety risks and to develop and deliver policy, guidance and legislation.

We are seeking individuals who can quickly get up to speed with a range of complex policy issues and communicate with clarity. They will be comfortable liaising with a range of different stakeholders (e.g. lawyers, analysts, policy leads in MHCLG, regulators (including the Building Safety Regulator) other Government Departments. They will be alert to the bigger picture and able to make reasoned decisions where necessary.

Job description

This is an opportunity to contribute to the development and delivery of policy related to the Building Safety and Fire Safety Acts delivering crucial reforms, working with local regulators and across government.

The successful individuals will understand the strategic drivers for their area of work and remain alert to emerging trends and issues, working in line with wider organisation priorities. They will communicate with clarity, contribute to advice, briefings and correspondence for senior officials and Ministers on high-profile and sensitive issues. Postholders will access a range of relevant, credible information from internal and external sources to support decision-making and the development of policy improvements. Work may include working collaboratively with delivery partners, legal colleagues, regulators, other government departments and industry to build relationships to develop policy, guidance and legislation.

The post holders must remain flexible and be ready to support other priority areas as required.

Duties may include:

• Drafting contributions to ministerial briefings and correspondence
• Collaborating with others such as lawyers, analysts and stakeholders to gather credible information and develop evidence- based policy options
• Building and managing strong relationships with a range of policy leads across the Group, wider MHCLG, regulators and external stakeholders to deliver effective and deliverable policy, systems and procedures.
• Regularly monitoring activity against milestones, tracking and reporting progress and acting promptly to reassess workloads and priorities when there are conflicting demands, to maintain progress.

Person specification

Essential skills:

• Ability to ‘see the strategic picture’ in a complex and fast-moving policy area
• A proactive and flexible approach to problem-solving and change
• Excellent communication skills, both spoken and written
• Strong analytical skills, with an ability to bring together a wide range of credible evidence and information from different sources to support effective decision-making;
• Strong relationship management skills, able to build effective working relationships across a wide range of internal and external stakeholders
• Self-starter, committed to following the appropriate procedures to ensure results are achieved on time whilst still enabling innovation;
• Strong organisational skills, with a positive approach to keeping the whole team focused on top priorities and able to manage competing demands to achieve positive, high-quality outcomes even under pressure.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £34,801, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £10,081 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• At MHCLG we offer many benefits that range from tailored career pathways and flexible working to MyLifestyle Staff Benefits Scheme, Childcare Vouchers, and Cycle to Work Schemes. For more information, please click here.

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

Application and Selection
The application process will be split into 2 stages, testing the following Success Profiles:

Behaviours , Strengths

Stage 1: Sift

• Behaviour: (Lead Behaviour) Communicating and Influencing

• Behaviour: Working together

• Behaviour: Making Effective Decisions

• Behaviour: Delivering at Pace

There is a 250-word limit per question.

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!)

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that each of your answers would be viewed by different assessors.

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 interview.

If you run into any technical problems when applying through Be Applied (for example, trouble logging in or submitting your application), their support team can help. Please contact them at hello@beapplied.com.

Stage 2: Interview

• Behaviours: Working together,, Making Effective Decisions, Communicating and Influencing, Delivering at Pace.

• Strengths: The strength-based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.

Sift and Interview Dates

Sifting is envisaged to take place the week commencing 13/04.

Interviews are envisaged to take place the week commencing 27/04 and are currently being held remotely via videocall. This could be subject to change.

How We Recruit

Find out more about our recruitment processes here.

• Applying

• Sifting

• Interview

• Interview Results & Feedback

• Reserve List

• Near Miss

• Civil Service Grades

• We are a DCS, RIS & GPTWV employer

• Reasonable Adjustments

How to Apply

Find out everything you need to know before applying here.

You must review the following information from the MHCLG Career's Site before submitting your application. This step is essential to ensure your eligibility for the role and that your application is completed correctly.

• Security Clearance Requirements

• Civil Service Nationality Requirements

• Right to Work

• Artificial Intelligence

• Civil Service Code and Recruitment Principles

• CV Declaration

• Sponsorships

• Salary and Grade

• Existing Civil Servants

• Conflict of Interest

• Location and Flexible Working

• Fixed Term Contracts

• Internal Fraud Database - Internal Fraud Register

• Appeals and Complaints

• Conflict of Interest

Security Clearance Requirements

National Office:

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.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

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 : Rebecca Baumgartner
• Email : Rebecca.Baumgartner@communities.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitment@communities.gov.uk

Further information

If you are unsure about any part of the process or require additional information about the post to enable you to progress your application, you should speak to the Resourcing team - recruitment@communities.gov.uk. Candidates can appeal at any stage of the recruitment process if they believe there has been:

a procedural irregularity

an infringement of the Civil Service equal opportunities policy

exceptional circumstances which were not notified to the interview panel which might have affected performance on the day.

It is important to note that these are appeals about the process not the decision. In the first instance, an appeal should be directed to the MHCLG Resourcing Hub at recruitment@communities.gov.uk.

If the MHCLG Resourcing Hub is unable to satisfactorily resolve your complaint, you may contact put your complaint in writing to the Civil Service Commission, Room G8,1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ or by email to: info@csc.gov.uk