Senior Policy Advisers

Job summary

Are you able to confidently back your own ideas and opinions with the ability to explain your thought process in a clear and effective way? Are you able to build strong relationships that will enable you to influence and challenge at all levels?

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

This is an opportunity to work at the forefront of delivering on the Government's commitment to build 1.5 million homes. The New Towns, Infrastructure and Housing Delivery directorate works directly with places and oversees funds that enable homes and places to be built.

The directorate's work includes establishing the Government's flagship New Towns programme, boosting delivery of high quality places across the Ox-Cam growth corridor and London, and accelerating the delivery of large-scale sites. We are seeking ambitious and proactive senior policy advisers to help lead on the directorate's programmes, ensuring they are delivered in line with minister's ambitions and help deliver the homes that are needed.

Job description

We are recruiting for two Grade 7 Senior Advisers in the directorate, to help advance the delivery of the homes and places that are needed. These two roles are:

Policy and Programme Lead, providing effective programme management for a housing delivery programme, working closely with Homes England to deliver on the 1.5 million homes target.

• Leadership of the design of the programme, including developing new ways of working and creative solutions to ensure the programme is delivering as many homes as possible.
• Managing the overall performance of the programme, including leadership of the governance structure and effective decision-making – supporting senior civil servants and ministers.
• Leading the relationship with Homes England to deliver the programme, as well as with wider departmental stakeholders.
• Leadership responsibilities, as well as being an active part of the division’s leadership team.

Senior Policy Adviser in the Oxford Strategy Unit, leading on the strategy and delivery associated with the Oxford Growth Commission and its legacy.

• Leadership of the departments work on Oxford and Oxfordshire, including developing new ways of working and creative solutions to ensure the programme is supporting growth in Oxford and its surrounds.
• Managing the overall delivery of the place-based work on Oxford, including leadership of the governance structures and decision-making – including with senior civil servants and ministers.
• Leading the relationship with Homes England to support delivery of the programme, as well as with wider departmental stakeholders.
• Leadership responsibilities, as well as being an active part of the division’s leadership team.

Person specification

We are seeking an individual with the following:

• Ability to lead on, and clearly communicate, the strategy for their work, balancing conflicting priorities using critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
• A self-starter who can oversee the delivery of a programme of work, ensuring that a clear plan is established and milestones are met, to deliver high quality work to tight deadlines.
• Excellent communication skills, working with stakeholders, including place-based leaders, other Government departments and agencies, including Homes England, to ensure the success of the work.
• Robust reporting to relevant boards and ministers, and having accountability for their own work and an understanding of how their work is situated within a wider context of legal, financial and political frameworks.
• Effective team work and leadership skills.
• Experience of working on housing and / or planning policy would be an advantage.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £56,167, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £16,271 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 Childcare Voucher 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:

Ability , Behaviours , Experience , Strengths , Technical

Stage 1: Sift

• Experience: (Lead) "What prior experience do you have that would be helpful for these roles?"

• Behaviour: Delivering at Pace

• Behaviour: Seeing The Big Picture

• Behaviour: Communicating and Influencing

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: Seeing The Big Picture, Communicating and Influencing, Delivering at Pace.
• Experience: Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description.
• 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 02/03.

Interviews are envisaged to take place the week commencing 23/03 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 : Jennifer Thomas
• Email : jennifer.thomas@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