Head of Office and Private Secretary to the Chief Analyst

Contents

• Location
• About the job
• Benefits
• Things you need to know
• Apply and further information

Birmingham, Leeds, London, Manchester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Sheffield

About the job

Job summary

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) – We are committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues; an inclusive and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society we serve. We want to maximise the potential of everyone who chooses to work for us, and we offer a range of flexible working patterns and support to make a fulfilling career at DWP accessible to you. Diverse perspectives and experiences are critical to our success, and we welcome applications from all people from all backgrounds with the experience and skills needed to perform this role.

This is a challenging, fast paced and high-profile post in DWP’s Chief Analyst’s (CA) Office. The CA’s Office provides support and business management for Central Analysis and Science Strategy (CASS) unit, Working Age Modelling & Forecasting (WAMForD), Analyst Resourcing and Capability (ARC) building, Data as Statistics (DaS), and the wider Analytical Community across DWP of c.900.

The Private Secretary and Head of Business Support will play a key role setting the environment to enable the Chief Analyst to focus on their top priorities and discharge their responsibilities efficiently and effectively.

Places for Growth and Social Mobility

As part of the Places for Growth Programme, we are committed to delivering a more geographically diverse Civil and Public Service that will better serve the public and ministers.

As part of this initiative, we are continuously reviewing how we recruit into each location.

Job description

The post holder will be responsible for leading the CA’s Private Office and ownership of a broad portfolio across the directorate’s remit. You will lead across a diverse set of activities, ensuring the success of the Central Analysis and Science Directorate’s (CASD) delivery and enabling the Director and SLT to focus on the most important strategic priorities.

The post holder will need to engage effectively and enhance relationships with stakeholders including Lead Analysts, Heads of Profession, Private Offices, Ministers, and analyst customers across DWP.

The roles and responsibilities for the Head of Office and Private Secretary include, but are not restricted to:

• Lead the Private Office team to support the Chief Analyst in the delivery of their objectives, priorities, long-term strategic planning and day to day needs, ensuring the wider private office team are providing proactive, high-quality support and advice.
• Maintain oversight and understanding of Chief Analyst’s priorities, refocussing resource and activity as required, anticipating issues and acting as a trouble-shooter, identifying and taking steps to mitigate risks.
• Commissioning work and advice to enable timely decisions to be taken to ensure the Director and wider directorate is provided with the right advice at the right time to enable evidence-based decision-making engaging subject matter experts, often on technical issues, to understand issues and develop concise and easy to understand briefing, for example programme boards, departmental priorities, etc.
• Reviewing, filtering and challenging strategic and technical advice to the Chief Analyst enabling them take timely and well-informed decisions on key issues in the directorate, group, and department.
• Building and maintaining strong and effective relationships across the complex stakeholder environment that makes up DWP (Finance Group colleagues including Finance Executive Team, Analyst Community) to identify issues early.
• Support CASD and wider analytical community including 20 lead analyst areas, with general business management activities, such as leading strategic workforce planning and forecasting, as well as general budget oversight, to ensure a joined-up approach across the directorate and effective business continuity planning.
• Ensuring the smooth running of the Chief Analyst’s Private Office, including line managing a small team (including Diary Manager and wider Business Support Team), ensuring effective administration across the directorate and support for the Chief Analyst.
• Secretariat to CASD SLT, Senior Analyst Leadership Team and Analyst Head of Professions.

Postings

Successful candidates will be posted in merit order based on your location preferences and the geographical requirements of the business.

Successful candidates will be posted to a specific role and will have the opportunity to express a preference as part of the selection process, although final decisions may come down to business need, and the skills and development needs of candidates. Standard promotion rules will apply, and successful candidates will be placed on the pay scale and terms and conditions of DWP.

The roles available will be based in

• Birmingham 3 Arena Central, Bridge Street, Birmingham B1 2AX.
• Leeds – Quarry House, Quarry Hill, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS2 7UA.
• Manchester – 2 St Peter’s Square, Manchester, M2 3AA.
• Newcastle – Benton Park View, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE98 1BA.
• Sheffield – 80 Hanover Way, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S3 7UF.
• London – Caxton House, London, SW1H 9NA

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

Candidates should be able to demonstrate all the below essential criteria in their application for this role. 

• Previous experience in either a Private Office role, Secretariat role (minimum management level) , Analytical role and/or a Governance role (Lead criteria).
• Excellent organisational and prioritisation skills, being able to work effectively across a range of tasks and under pressure.
• Excellent ability to work proactively, flexibly and manage you and your teams time efficiently.
• Strong ability to upwardly manage to ensure the Director and Deputy Directors can effectively execute their roles.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to manage and effectively engage stakeholders and senior officials from across DWP.
• Ability to use data and evidence and insight to effectively influence and inform senior leaders on a wide range of issues in a fast paced and concise way.
• An ability to build trust-based and collaborative relationships with a wide range of stakeholders across dispersed multi organisation teams, to identify issues early.

Behaviours

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

• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions

Benefits

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

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 : Nic Davis
• Email : nic.davis@dwp.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : dwprecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with these principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should in the first instance contact DWP by email: HR.BUSINESSASSURANCE@DWP.GOV.UK.

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission. Click here to visit the Civil Service Commission.

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