Strategic Advisor to Midlands, Places for Growth

Job summary

Places for Growth (PfG) is a 10-year Civil Service transformation programme at the heart of delivering Civil Service transformation in a Productive and Agile State. The programme supports the wider Public Sector Reform agenda, Government mission delivery, and the future strategy for the Civil Service. As part of PfG we are strengthening our ambition for impacting in Place; developing thriving and sustainable Civil Service communities and strengthening our cross government partnerships in place.

This is an exciting and unique high-profile role working across the East and West Midlands regions to drive the Places for Growth (PfG) strategy and delivery plan in the regions.

Job description

As a Place Strategic Advisor, you will be a core part of the Places for Growth team in the Cabinet Office, driving the full breadth of the programme in your region and delivering genuine civil service transformation. The role is based in Birmingham and are offered on a loan, fixed term contract or secondment basis for 12 months, with the possibility to extend to March 2028.

You will work across government, leading a team to deliver Places for Growth regional activities to facilitate cross-public sector collaboration, build a strong Civil Service community, develop our talent pipelines, and engage stakeholders at the local level. You will provide strategic leadership in the region, supporting the Head of Place, Permanent Secretary Place Champion, and the wider senior leadership community to bring to life the ambition of a modern, innovative, thriving Civil Service that is connected to its communities and delivering the Plan for Change.

The role is an interesting blend of delivering a national programme at a local level, with the opportunity to shape and influence central policy directly. You will need to be a credible local leader with excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, and the ability to cultivate strong relationships in place. You will be responsible for articulating the purpose of the PfG programme, influencing senior leaders to support delivery, and help set strategic direction to local place plans, including supporting delivery of the West Midlands Transport and Infrastructure Campus. You should be creative in your approach, supporting the civil service to be ambitious and innovative in every region and nation, utilising data to provide a sound evidence base of regional insights, and delivering a regular drumbeat of public comms to share best practice.

This exciting role will provide the right candidates with the opportunity to work with a wide variety of stakeholders across government and external partners.

Place is a very live programme of work and the role may evolve to meet PfG priorities.

Person specification

Key responsibilities will include, but not limited to:

• Leading local delivery of Places for Growth place activity for the West and East Midlands, including developing a shared cross-government Place Plan and establishing senior support of key workstreams.
• Supporting delivery of the West Midlands Transport and Infrastructure Campus, sharing best practice from other thematic campuses, convening across government and wider sector, and creating opportunities for the campus.
• Supporting senior stakeholders including the Heads of Place and Permanent Secretary Place Champions for both the West Midlands and East Midlands to deliver the programme objectives; offering guidance and challenge in setting local priorities.
• Co-ordinate and lead cross-government teams working in place to achieve ambitions including delivering impactful events and engagement opportunities; delivering through others and facilitating sharing of best practice at a local level.
• Establishing and developing Places for Growth place policy, ensuring Places for Growth ecosystems and leadership in regions/nations can be strengthened and leveraged to contribute to wider government priorities.
• Working with the wider Places for Growth team to understand the Civil Service talent pipeline and workforce in your region, highlighting barriers and enablers to relocations in place and spotting opportunities to collaborate.
• Ensuring sound evaluation and implementation of a monitoring framework to measure the impact of regional PfG activities on delivering programme objectives.
• Drafting briefings for ministers and directors to inform policy, outline challenges and issues, and update on progress.

  Additional information:

  Cabinet Office policy is that a minimum 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace. For some roles, due to their nature and the business need, this may be up to 100%. Requirements to attend other locations for official business will also count towards this level of attendance.

Behaviours

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

• Communicating and Influencing
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Leadership
• Making Effective Decisions

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £57,204, Cabinet Office contributes £16,571 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

• Learning and development tailored to your role.
• An environment with flexible working options.
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity.
• A Civil Service Pension which provides an attractive pension, benefits for dependants and employer contributions of 28.97%.
• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by one day per year up to a maximum of 30.

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

The Behaviours we will be assessing in the selection process are:

● Communicating and Influencing (Lead Behaviour)
● Seeing the Bigger Picture
● Leadership
● Making Effective Decisions

We will be utilising the behaviour and experience elements of the Success Profiles through this campaign and will review your statement of suitability.

Selection process

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete:

• A CV
• A 500 word personal statement outlining your suitability for the role, and how you meet the essential requirements as set out in the 'Person Specification' / ‘Skills and Experience’ section of the job advert, including examples of how you can demonstrate each of the four behaviours listed.

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

Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be undertaken using the lead Behaviour, [Communicating and Influencing

At interview you may be required to provide a brief presentation, 5-10 minutes, further details will provided if required

Expected timeline (subject to change)

Expected sift date – w/c 03/08/2026

Expected interview date/s – w/c 10/08/2026 or w/c17/10/2026

Interview location - Your interview will either be conducted face to face or by video. You will be notified of the location if you are selected for interview.

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

Contact Government Recruitment Service via cabinetofficerecruitment.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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

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.

Existing Civil Servants and applicants from accredited NDPBs are eligible to apply, but will only be considered on loan basis (Civil Servants) or secondment (accredited NDPBs). Prior agreement to be released on a loan basis must be obtained before commencing the application process. In the case of Civil Servants, the terms of the loan will be agreed between the home and host department and the Civil Servant. This includes grade on return.

Feedback

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

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 : Catriona Boyd
• Email : catriona.boyd@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : cabinetofficerecruitment.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 by email at : cabinetofficerecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
If you are not satisfied with the response 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 Terms and Conditions - External 2025-02-20 Opens in new window (docx, 83kB)Cabinet Office Employee Offer Opens in new window (pdf, 302kB)