Licencing and Customer Enquiries Associate

This role is based in the Casework and Enforcement Team within Ofwat’s Casework, Enforcement & Customers Directorate.

The Casework and Enforcement Team is the “front door” for many of the customers and stakeholders who contact Ofwat with enquiries or complaints about the sector or their water company. Where we have the legal powers to do so (typically under the Water Industry Act 1991, or the Competition Act 1998), we investigate and resolve customer disputes or water company failures, to ensure that water and wastewater companies meet their legal obligations to their customers, society, and the environment. Our work can range from helping an individual customer resolve a dispute with their water company, to imposing multi-million-pound fines on a water company where it has failed to meet its legal obligations.

The Casework and Enforcement Team also assesses applications from companies wanting to be granted a licence to serve customers in the water sector. In deciding on these applications, we aim to ensure that customers can benefit from having a choice of provider, whilst being sufficiently protected for the provision of their water and wastewater services.

Our team works with a diverse range of stakeholders, including water companies, new entrants to the sector, Government, other regulators, investors, environmental groups and customers and their representative bodies. Communicating effectively with our customers and internal and external stakeholders is central to our team’s success.

As an Associate – Licensing & Customer Enquiries, you will primarily work across our licensing activities, leading the assessment of licence applications we receive from companies wishing to operate in the water sector. Subject to business need, you may also support with responding to customer enquiries and complaints. 

Your responsibilities will involve:

• Leading on the processing and assessment of applications from companies wishing to be granted licences to operate in the water sector, reviewing the evidence submitted against our legal and policy requirements.
• Being responsible for assessing and responding accurately and effectively to customer enquiries and complaints received by Ofwat, including contacts made to our Chief Executive and Chair.
• Making recommendations to senior decision-makers on the next steps in considering a licence application or customer enquiry.
• Proactively and independently planning, prioritising and managing various work items in parallel in order to provide a high-quality service to customers and meet our service level timeframes.
• Working with internal and external stakeholders, including those from other professional disciplines (for example legal, engineering, communications), to gather and share information relevant to each other’s work.
• Maintaining accurate and up-to-date case / project files within our case management system.
• Working with colleagues to identify and consider trends, insights and lessons learnt from your day-to-day work, to feed into improvements in how Ofwat and water companies can better deliver for customers, society and the environment.
• Adapting and responding to changing workloads and priorities.

You will be proactive and have the ability to take ownership of the work you are responsible for, demonstrating Ofwat’s SAILOR values and ways of working. Ofwat is dedicated to providing you with opportunities to further develop your knowledge and experience. We have a well-supported, agile working environment, and have a trust-based culture intended to help empower, enable, and support you to succeed.

Essential Experience, Skills and Knowledge 

• LEAD CRITERION: Experience of working directly with customers and external stakeholders to provide a frontline service.
• Experience of working under pressure, effectively planning, prioritising and managing a varied and changing workload to meet different, and often tight, deadlines, whilst maintaining the quality standards.
• Experience of gathering and assessing complex information to make evidence-based conclusions and recommendations.
• Responsibility for maintaining accurate and up-to-date case files, with strong attention to detail.
• Experience of communicating complex information to customers in writing and verbally.
• Ability to work with internal and external stakeholders to gather and share information and to deliver a common objective.

Attributes

• Delivers outcomes
• Creates clarity
• Promotes collaboration
• Adaptable thinker

You can read more about Attributes in Ofwat’s Framework for Success.

• A generous Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%
• 25 days annual leave (increasing to max 30 with each year of service) plus bank holidays and 2.5 days privilege leave days
• access to exclusive discounts on a range of goods and services such as retail outlets, theatre tickets, holidays, insurance and gym membership;
• flexible working arrangements;
• fees paid for membership of relevant professional bodies;
• up to 3 volunteering days per year
• generous shared parental leave and pay
• cycle-to-work scheme;
• season ticket loan for travel between home and office;
• regular professional development;
• health and well-being initiatives

Job contact :

• Name : recruitment@ofwat.gov.uk
• Email : recruitment@ofwat.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitment@ofwat.gov.uk