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Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 27%
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About the job
Job summary
Grants are a vital tool for government. The Government Grants Management Function (GGMF) directly influences around £56bn of spending annually, and this may well increase as a result of COVID-19 and Manifesto Commitments.
Grants are a key enabler of the governments ambition for economic well being and equality. They drive innovation and fund university research, which puts Britain at the cutting edge of science and technology. This attracts best in class talent and businesses, stimulating a vibrant and dynamic economy.
Grants are critical to fund the voluntary sector, to address challenging social issues such as domestic abuse, racial or social inequality. Grants are also a lever that Britain deploys internationally, to address poverty and inequality. GGMF exists to ensure the effectiveness of grant funding and the efficiency of grant administration across government.
Our support is delivered by:
- Building grant making capability cross-government to improve compliance with the Grants Functional Standard.
- Improving grants data quality to enable insight-led decision making.
- Building digital tools and using automation to drive efficiency and effectiveness.
We are a rapidly growing inclusive and nationally based team working in a dynamic fast paced environment, operating at the heart of government as part of the Cabinet Office.
The GGMF has also recently moved to be aligned to the Government Commercial Function, and the Head of the GGMF is line-managed by the Government Chief Commercial Officer, recognising the synergies between effective Grants award and management and effective Commercial Procurement and Contract Management. All of this makes for an exciting time to join GGMF!
Job description
Do you possess the capability, experience and expertise to drive innovation and transformation across the Government Grants Management Function?
Do you bring evidence of working at scale and complexity to drive best in class grant management, governance, capability, service provision and digital tool innovation?
We are seeking a highly experienced and motivated professional to join our team as Grants Policy, Capability & Oversight Deputy Director. The successful candidate will play a critical role in promoting and delivering the functions strategic objectives, acting as a standard bearer for excellence in government grant making, and engendering leading practice across government.
In this high profile role you will provide leadership and expertise to bring improvements across government, enabling the effective use of grants to deliver key policies and priorities, such as Net Zero, Levelling-Up and economic recovery. You will work closely with ministers, senior officials, and other stakeholders to promote best practices in grant making, provide policy direction, and oversee the implementation of standards and controls. Grants also drive innovation and are critical to fund the voluntary sector to address challenging social issues, and are the lever that Britain deploys internationally to address concerns of poverty and inequality.
Key responsibilities include:
- Providing expert strategic leadership for the Grants Function to empower our grant making community to maximise outcomes by unlocking the greatest value from grant funds for citizens and the economy.
- Briefing and providing advice to ministers and senior stakeholders on grants policy and delivery of national importance.
- Developing grants policies and standards and monitor compliance ensuring cross government alignment with central guidance and regulations.
- Providing expert oversight and guidance of most complex and high risks schemes through Complex Grants Advice Panel, an independent, cross government expert panel coordinated and led by the Cabinet Office, and pipeline Control.
- Driving Grant Making Maturity through regular maturity assessments and leading quarterly reviews with Department’s Senior Functional Leads to monitor performance.
- Delivering a Capability Strategy including Implementing a Licence to Practise, and fostering sharing of best practice and knowledge across government through the Grants Centre of Excellence, an online hub providing access to expert guidance, templates, toolkits, case studies and training.
- Fostering partnerships to leverage resources, expertise, and ensure consistency of offers – across Functions and with experts in other organisations and countries.
Person specification
It is important that, through your CV and supporting statement, that you provide evidence of the professional skills, breadth of experience and personal qualities for this post.
Essential Criteria:
- Leadership in delivery of Grants at a senior expert level in government or an external organisation; an understanding of the grants funding landscape for government; and a vision for the future of the Function and delivery of Grants.
- Political acumen, ability to understand the environment and landscape and using strategy to shape work area priorities.
- Strong analytical skills and influencing skills and experience in providing challenging advice and securing support through collaboration.
- Clear evidence of financial management, including developing successful business cases, managing budgets, reporting through senior boards and detailed working with senior stakeholders.
- Clear understanding of the role of Functions/Professions within complex organisations and landscapes including how to develop standards, build capability, standardise processes and systems and track benefits.
- Experience in working with complex data. Understanding and demonstrable use of digital tools to drive improvements and efficiencies.
- Expert delivery in stakeholder management, ability to think on your feet and deliver at pace.
- A passion for improving public services and outcomes.
Behaviours
We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
Benefits
£20,250 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.
Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
Whatever your role, we take your career and development seriously, and want to enable you to build a really successful career within the Department and wider Civil Service. It is crucial that our employees have the right skills to develop their careers and meet the challenges ahead, and youll benefit from regular performance and development reviews to ensure this development is ongoing. As a Civil Service employee, youll be entitled to a large range of benefits.
This includes:
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- 25 days annual leave on entry, increasing on a sliding scale to 30 days after 5 years service. This is in addition to 8 public holidays.
- This will be complimented by one further day paid privilege entitlement to mark the Kings Birthday;
- A competitive contributory pension scheme that you can enter as soon as you join where we will make a significant contribution to the cost of your pension; where your contributions come out of your salary before any tax is taken; and where your pension will continue to provide valuable benefits for you and your family if you are too ill to continue to work or die before you retire;
- Generous paid maternity and paternity leave which is notably more than the statutory minimum offered by many other employers;
- Childcare benefits (policy for new employees as of 5 April 2018): The government has introduced the Tax- Free Childcare (TFC) scheme. Working parents can open an online childcare account and for every £8 they pay in, the government adds £2, up to a maximum of £2000 a year for each child or £4000 for a disabled child. Parents then use the funds to pay for registered childcare. Existing employees may be able to continue to claim childcare vouchers, so please check how the policy would work for you here;
- Interest-free loans allowing you to spread the cost of an annual travel season ticket or a new bicycle;
- The opportunity to use onsite facilities including fitness centres and staff canteens (where applicable); and occupational sick pay.
Things you need to know
Selection process details
Application process
To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online application process, outlined below. This should be completed no later than 23:55pm, Sunday 26th November 2023.
- A CV (max 1250 words) setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
- A Statement of Suitability (max 1250 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria in the person specification
Failure to complete both sections of the online application form (CV and Statement of Suitability) will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification.
As part of the online application process, you will be asked a number of diversity-related questions. If you do not wish to provide a declaration on any of the particular characteristics, you will have the option to select ‘prefer not to say. See the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy for more information.
Should you encounter any issues with your online application please get in touch with us via: scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Selection process
- Your application will be acknowledged when it is received.
- A panel, including the hiring manager, will assess your application to select those demonstrating the best fit with the role by considering the evidence you have provided against the criteria set out in the Person Specification section. Failure to address any or all of these may affect your application.
- The timeline later in this advert indicates the date by which decision is expected to be made, and all longlisted and shortlisted candidates will be advised of the outcome as soon as possible thereafter
- If you are shortlisted, you may be asked to take part in a series of assessments which could include psychometric tests. These assessments will not result in a pass or fail decision. Rather, they are designed to support the panels decision making and highlight areas for the panel to explore further at interview.
- You may also get the opportunity to speak to Penny Horner-Long prior to the final interview to learn more about the organisation. Please note this is not a part of the formal process.
- Full details of the assessment process will be made available to shortlisted candidates. Candidates may be asked to complete a scenario based exercise as part of the final panel interview. The exercise will assess the advertised behaviours and person specification for this role. Candidates will be given the exercise materials 30 minutes before the start of the interview to prepare. Candidates may be asked to attend a face to face interview.
- If we receive applications from more suitable candidates than we have vacancies for at this time, we may hold suitable applicants on a reserve list for 12 months, and future vacancies in the Civil Service requiring the same skills and experience could be offered to candidates on the reserve list without the need for a new competition.
- Regardless of the outcome, we will notify all candidates as soon as possible.
- We will send you a copy of any report for any assessment that you may have undergone as part of the recruitment process (if requested).
Expected timeline (subject to change)
- Expected Shortlist W/C 4th December 2023
- Expected Assessments date From W/C 11th December 2023
- Expected interview date/s W/C 10th January 2024
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 at: scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
Complete the assistance required section in the personal information page of your application form to provide information we should be aware of that will enable us to support you further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if youre deaf, a Language Service Professional.
If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the ‘contact point for applicants’ section.
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 that this role requires Security Clearance (SC) clearance, which would normally need 5 years UK residency in the past 5 years. This is not an absolute requirement, but supplementary checks may be needed where individuals have not lived in the UK for that period. This may mean your security clearance (and therefore your appointment) will take longer or, in some cases, not be possible.
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. Determine your eligibility at: https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them
to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through
building your depth of expertise.
As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above.
This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions.
Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and
conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your
personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any
absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you
to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.
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Working for the Civil Service
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).
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Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
- Name : SCS Recruitment Team
- Email : scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Recruitment team
- Email : scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Further information
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 at: scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
If you are not satisfied with the response that 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.
