Senior Officer - Departmental Strategy, Governance and Reporting

Job summary

We are MHCLG

The Senior Officer - Departmental Strategy, Governance and Reporting sits within the Departmental Governance, Oversight and Planning team in the Strategy Directorate. The team supports the department’s senior leadership to maintain strong grip on delivery, governance and organisational performance and reporting across Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government.

You would lead the department’s core governance and assurance reporting, including the Annual Report and Accounts, Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) reporting, the Accounting Officer System Statement, and wider governance assurance reviews. These products are critical to demonstrating the department’s stewardship of public resources and ensuring ministers, the Accounting Officer and Parliament have confidence in MHCLG’s systems of control and accountability.

You would engage in extensive collaboration across, and outside of, the department. Alongside these core responsibilities, you would work flexibly on wider priorities within the team including governance, secretariat and committees, delivery reporting and strategic planning, and/or other ad hoc strategic projects, helping ensure senior leaders have clear insight into the department’s performance and priorities. In many cases, this work will require you to have close collaboration with Private Offices. Given the breadth and opportunities of this role, similar post-holders from our team have then moved on level transfer or promotion to roles in strategy, governance, private office, policy and project/portfolio management

Job description

• Lead delivery of core departmental governance and assurance products, including the Annual Report and Accounts, TCFD disclosures, and the Accounting Officer System Statement.
• Coordinate complex, cross-departmental inputs to produce high-quality, accurate and timely reporting for ministers, senior leaders and Parliament.
• Provide oversight and continuous improvement of governance assurance processes, identifying risks, gaps and opportunities to strengthen control frameworks.
• Build and maintain effective working relationships with key stakeholders across corporate, policy and delivery teams, as well as external partners such as auditors.
• Support senior governance forums and committees, ensuring clear, structured information is available to enable effective decision-making.
• Contribute flexibly to wider team priorities, including delivery reporting, strategic planning and ad hoc projects, to support grip on departmental performance.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

• Sound judgement and organisational awareness, with the ability to navigate departmental governance processes and competing priorities.
• Strong project and process management skills, with the ability to coordinate complex, multi-stakeholder work and deliver high-quality outputs to tight deadlines.
• Ability to quickly understand complex organisational, policy and/or governance issues and translate them into clear and structured reporting.
• Excellent stakeholder management, with experience working collaboratively across teams and functions to bring together contributions from multiple sources.
• Strong written communication skills, including the ability to produce clear and concise material for senior leaders and external audiences.

Desirable Criteria

• Any relevant experience to the MHCLG policy and delivery agenda
• Experience operating in a strategy, corporate centre, secretariat or senior leadership support function within government or a similarly complex organisation.
• Experience working on corporate governance, assurance or accountability processes, such as Annual Reports and Accounts, audit processes, or departmental governance reviews.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £44,004, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £12,747 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 , Experience , Strengths

Please ensure your CV does not contain any personally identifiable information.

Note: We do not consider direct CV applications. All applications must be submitted via the provided application link.

Important: Your CV and Cover Letter must be merged into a single document before uploading.

Stage 1: Sift (CV & Cover Letter)

Experience:

In your CV please include:

• how you meet the essential skills and experience required

In your covering letter( no more 1 page of a standard size 12 font), please include:

• why you are interested in this role and your motivation for applying.

Stage 2: Interview

• Behaviours: Seeing The Big Picture, Communicating and Influencing, Managing A Quality Service.

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

Sift and Interview

Sifting is envisaged to take place starting 22/05/2026

Interviews are currently being held remotely via videocall. This could be subject to change.

Disability Confident Scheme (DCS)

We are a Disability Confident employer.

We apply a fair and proportionate interview process for all candidates. In line with our commitment to the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS), we aim to progress candidates who apply under the Disability Confident Scheme and meet the required minimum selection criteria.

However, where high application volumes are received, progression to interview may be limited to those who best meet the role criteria. In these circumstances, the benchmark required to proceed to interview may be raised for all candidates.

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

• 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

• Appeals and Complaints

Security Clearance Requirements

National Office: + CTC

London Office: + CTC

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 counter-terrorist 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

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 : Isaac Turner
• Email : isaac.turner@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