Radiological & Nuclear (RN) Recovery Policy Advisor

Job summary

Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) incidents, whether malicious use by terrorist groups or state actors, civil nuclear accidents or spills of hazardous materials, present significant challenges when it comes to recovery. An area contaminated with a CBRN agent could remain dangerous, unhabitable and a serious public health risk if not dealt with appropriately. It also means that CBRN incidents, whether accidental or malicious, can cause serious issues when affecting critical sites.

Defra is the Lead Government Department (LGD) for Recovery from CBRN incidents in England. Defra is also responsible for the provision of remediation (including decontamination) capabilities for incidents which overwhelm local arrangements for the whole of the UK and its overseas territories.

Defra’s CBRN Recovery Team is looking for a Radiological and Nuclear (RN) Recovery Senior Policy Advisor. This is an exciting, stretching post with the opportunity to challenge assumptions and shape the role of government during CBRN events, particularly in the Radiological and Nuclear (RN) space. We are looking for someone enthusiastic and interested in this fascinating policy area.

The CBRN Recovery Team sits within the Flood, Water and CBRN Emergencies Division. The division is a fast paced and high-profile team at the heart of Defra’s contingency planning, working closely with resilience teams across government, scientists and engineers, operational leads, communications colleagues, Private Offices and Ministers.

• We prepare for the recovery following the release of CBRN material into the open or built environment, and the recovery of the environment from a nuclear accident.
• We plan for and respond to natural hazards such as flooding and drought.
• We lead on risk management and planning for threats to water supply and lead on incidents working closely with the water sector and other sector leads across government.
• We also coordinate Defra’s interests in other incidents such as flooding and water security issues, working across the Defra Group to understand risks and provide ministers with advice, consistent and timely information during an emergency.

The Flood, Water and CBRN Emergencies team consists of permanent staff based across Defra hubs including London, Bristol and York.

Job description

The successful candidate will be responsible for developing Radiological and Nuclear (RN) Recovery policy within Defra. The candidate will work in close partnership with the CBRN Recovery Team’s Radiological and Nuclear Recovery Policy Lead, alongside wider policy, science and operations colleagues. Defra’s RN Recovery policy programme is rapidly developing, and the successful candidate will have significant influence on Defra’s future direction and resilience in this space. This will include identifying policy gaps and working to address these. Much of this work will operate under the governance of the Radiation Recovery Group (RRG). The post will involve a significant amount of cross-Government work feeding into other Departmental RN strategies.

This is an exciting, stretching post with the potential to have a real-world impact during high-profile incidents of significant public, political and media interest. As such, we are looking for someone who is strong across the SEO behaviours with the ability to develop and deliver evidence-based policy, solve complex problems and work as part of a wider HMG team. The successful candidate must be able to successfully influence key stakeholders (including Ministers, industry specialists and international partners), be capable of understanding and communicating information to a non-technical audience, and be confident in building networks as well as see the bigger cross-HMG picture. Strong written, reasoning, and verbal communication skills are a must.

As part of the Floods, Water and CBRN Emergencies team the successful candidate should also expect to work closely with members of the wider team and other Defra teams during major incidents such as flooding. Given the nature of our work, we need members of the team to be willing to work unsociable hours when the need arises. You will also be expected to part of our out of hours duty rota – you will be compensated for this role.

Person specification

We are looking for an individual who will enjoy shaping and driving work in a complex policy area, with a willingness and enthusiasm to learn from and collaborate with a diverse range of colleagues and stakeholders. You will need to be able to show, through your application, that:

• You quickly build long lasting relationships based on mutual trust and respect.
• You work collaboratively, constantly seeking better ways of doing things and working with others to challenge assumptions and shape policy direction.
• You are confident in taking ownership for decisions and using your judgement at pace, recovering quickly from setbacks and learning from your experiences.
• You are innovative, and enjoy thinking of new ways to engage stakeholders, including international partners, local authorities and industry specialists.
• You are comfortable dealing with scientific and technical information.
• You are experienced in communicating complex ideas to a non-technical audience.
• Be part of a 24/7/365 on-call rota covering the full range of flood, water and CBRN emergencies and to participate in emergency operation centres if required.

Experience and Qualifications

• You have some domain knowledge of malicious use of radiological and/or nuclear materials, and/or civil nuclear accidents, or a willingness and interest to learn.
• You will hold or be willing to apply for DV clearance. You will need to hold SC clearance on entry.

Behaviours

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

• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions
• Leadership
• Delivering at Pace

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £42,665, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs contributes £12,360 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.

Application process

As part of the application process, you will be asked to provide a CV and two behaviour statements – Communicating & Influencing and Making Effective Decisions.

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Sift

Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be conducted on the lead behaviour Communicating & Influencing.

Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift or progressed straight to assessment/interview.

Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.

Interview

If successful at application stage, you will be invited to interview where you will be assessed on behaviours.

A presentation or additional exercise will also be assessed.

The Interview will be conducted via MS Teams.

Location

As part of the pre-employment process for this post, successful candidate(s) will be able to agree a contractual workplace from those locations listed in this advert. The agreed contractual workplace is then the substantive and permanent place of work for the successful candidate(s).

Where the location is ‘National’ the successful appointee should discuss and agree an appropriate contractual location in line with both Defra’s location policy and site capacity, prior to proceeding with pre-employment processes.

Successful applicants currently employed by the hiring Defra organisation for this post may choose to remain in their current contractual location or may choose to change contractual location to one of those listed above. This should be discussed and agreed prior to proceeding with pre-employment processes.

The agreed amount of time spent at a workplace for this post will reflect the requirement for Civil Servants to spend at least 60% of their working time in an organisation workplace with the option to work the remaining time flexibly from home. Working time spent at a workplace may include time spent at other organisational locations including field-based operational locations, together with supplier, customer or partner locations. This is a non-contractual agreement which is consistent with common Civil Service expectations.

Travel costs to non-contractual workplaces will be subject to departmental travel and subsistence policies. Travel costs to contractual workplaces are the responsibility of the employee.

The successful candidate is required to carry out all their duties from a UK location, and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time.

Defra includes the core department, APHA, RPA, Cefas and VMD.

Salary

New entrants to the Civil Service are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band. The internal roles rules apply to existing Civil Servants, i.e. level transfers move on current salary or the pay range minimum, transfers on promotion move to new pay range minimum or receive 10% increase. Either case is determined by whichever is the highest.

Reserve List

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

Childcare Vouchers

Any move to DEFRA 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.

Reasonable Adjustment

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 need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

Contact Government Recruitment Service via defrarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the ‘Assistance required’ section in the ‘Additional requirements’ page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Accessibility

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

Visa Sponsorship Statement

Please take note that Defra does not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker License sponsor and are unable to sponsor any individuals for Skilled Worker Sponsorship.

Merit Lists

Where more than one location is advertised, candidates will be appointed in merit order for each location. You will be asked to state your location preference on your application.

Criminal Record Check

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

Higher Security Clearance

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the Demystifying Vetting website.

Internal Fraud Database Check

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

Feedback

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

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.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).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 : FandW.resourcing@defra.gov.uk
• Email : FandW.resourcing@defra.gov.uk

Recruitment team

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

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact Government Recruitment Services via email: defrarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: here