Policy Adviser Roles - Elections Directorate

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government; London; On-site; GBP 33,000 - 38,000; Full time

Job summary

Join the Elections Directorate as an HEO policy officer, driving initiatives in electoral policy and reform. Engage with a range of stakeholders, including ministers, while leading high-impact projects like voter ID and lowering the voting age. This role offers a unique opportunity to contribute to significant democratic changes.

Benefits

Flexible working options

Learning and development tailored to your role

Civil Service pension with employer contribution

Inclusive environment promoting diversity

Qualifications

• Ability to assimilate complex information quickly and see connections.
• Excellent communication skills to explain complicated ideas clearly.
• Highly motivated, comfortable working independently with good time management.

Responsibilities

• Lead individual policy strands within the portfolio.
• Work collaboratively and engage with ministers and stakeholders.
• Support the passage of a Parliamentary Bill with policy expertise.

Skills

Communication

Policy Development

Time Management

Analytical Skills

Education

Experience with legislation

Job description

Bristol, Leeds, London, Manchester, Wolverhampton

Job Summary

Are you looking to develop strong policy-making skills in a critical and high-profile sector?

If so, this is an exciting time to join the Elections Directorate!

The Elections Directorate is responsible for a challenging and dynamic policy landscape, always in the public eye, covering electoral policy and law. This includes how elections are run, who can participate and how elections and campaigning are regulated. The Directorate delivers changes that realise the Government Manifesto Commitments and other Ministerial priorities (e.g. introduction of Votes for 16 and 17-year-olds, improvements to elector registration, revised list of Voter Identification that electors produce at polling stations, etc.).

We are recruiting for two HEO policy roles within our Electoral Administration and Registration and Franchise teams. Both teams are close-knit, friendly, versatile, and inclusive, with a broad portfolio of work across complementary policy areas. Both teams’ work is high-profile, with significant senior and ministerial interest, including in No.10.

The Electoral Administration team has a range of policy interests which set out and support how the electorate chooses the elected representatives that populate our major democratic institutions – such as the UK Parliament and English Local Authorities.

Their primary focus is supporting the delivery of elections, working with Returning Officers and key stakeholders such as the Electoral Commission and the Association of Electoral Administrators, as well as suppliers in the sector such as printers and Royal Mail. The team has a number of specific responsibilities relating to the running of elections and plays an important role in the lead up to local and UK Parliamentary General Elections.

The Registration and Franchise team is responsible for a number of high-profile government manifesto priorities, including policy on lowering the voting age to 16 and improving voter registration. It is also responsible for ensuring that the policy and legislative framework for electoral registration and the electoral franchise is clear and fit for purpose. which involves working with a range of Government departments, the Electoral Commission, the devolved administrations, as well as the wider electoral community and external stakeholders such as political parties and civil society groups.

These roles offer a rare opportunity to engage with Ministers, administrators and electors and be part of introducing democratic change from policy through to delivery.

Job Description

The post holder will have a role that includes an interesting mix of exposure to legislative, policy and operational issues.

The Responsibilities Of The Post Will Include The Following:

• Leading on individual policy strands and associated projects within the team portfolio such as Voter ID and Votes at 16 amongst others
• Working collaboratively with your team and colleagues from across the Department, as a subject matter expert
• Effectively engaging with Ministers, senior leaders and stakeholders, providing advice and driving forward the work of the team
• Supporting the passage of a Parliamentary Bill by providing policy expertise, ministerial briefing, and in-person support
• Building relationships with sector experts and engaging with them to support the development of policy and legislation
• Leading on correspondence, managing our responses to a wide variety of external and cross-government partners.
  
  

This list is not exhaustive, and the post holder needs to be flexible and adapt their responsibilities to meet business demands.

The post holder will have a role that includes an interesting mix of exposure to legislative, policy and operational issues.

The Responsibilities Of The Post Will Include The Following:

• Leading on individual policy strands and associated projects within the team portfolio such as Voter ID and Votes at 16 amongst others
• Working collaboratively with your team and colleagues from across the Department, as a subject matter expert
• Effectively engaging with Ministers, senior leaders and stakeholders, providing advice and driving forward the work of the team
• Supporting the passage of a Parliamentary Bill by providing policy expertise, ministerial briefing, and in-person support
• Building relationships with sector experts and engaging with them to support the development of policy and legislation
• Leading on correspondence, managing our responses to a wide variety of external and cross-government partners.
  
  

This list is not exhaustive, and the post holder needs to be flexible and adapt their responsibilities to meet business demands.

Person specification

Elections and Registration policy is governed by a highly complex set of legislation and processes. We are therefore particularly interested in candidates with experience working in fields involving complexity, precision and/or legislation.

Essential Criteria

• An ability to assimilate complex information quickly and see connections and the ‘bigger picture’
• Excellent communication skills, which you can use to explain complicated ideas clearly, enabling effective decision making by seniors and ministers
• Be highly motivated, comfortable working independently and have excellent time management skills to proactively prioritise workloads and conflicting demands.
• Experience of policy development
  
  

Desirable Criteria:

• Experience of working with primary and/or secondary legislation
• Ability to work with a range of contacts from Ministers to council staff and representatives of electors with particular needs (e.g. RNIB)
  
  

Alongside your salary of £33,787, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £9,788 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• 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 employer contribution of 28.97%
  
  

Selection process details

As part of our pre-employment checking process, we will be using your CV to confirm your job history. Please note that by providing us with your CV you are consenting to us using the information enclosed as part of the checking process.

CV and Cover Letter Declaration

We recruit based on your knowledge and skills, and not background, gender or ethnicity - this is called name blind recruitment.

Please Remove References To Your:

• name/title
• educational institutions
• age
• gender
• email address
• postal address
• phone number
• nationality/immigration status
  
  

You will need to merge your CV and covering letter into one document. When submitting your application Applied will ask you to upload a CV, when doing this you should upload your merged document of your CV and covering letter.

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that your application would be viewed by different assessors.

At sift, through your CV and covering letter we will be assessing:

Experience

Please Provide a Covering Letter of up to 750 words setting out your interest in the roles and explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role in reference to the essential and desirable criteria listed above.

In your CV - setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Provide employment history that relates to the essential criteria. The CV should not exceed more than 2 x A4 pages.

The interview will be of a blended nature consisting of the following success profiles elements:

Behaviour: Seeing The Bigger Picture, Making Effective Decisions.

Ability - Yes

Candidates will be asked to prepare a short presentation, further details on this will be sent along with the interview invitation.

In the full campaign we will test the below Success Profile Elements:

Experience: Yes

Behaviours: Yes

Ability: Yes

Please contact the vacancy manager if you have any questions about the role.

We do not consider direct CV applications – you must apply for this role via the application link on Civil Service Jobs.

Please note that near miss offers may be made at the lower grade to candidates who do not meet the grade criteria for this campaign.

HEO salary

• The salary for this role is £37,170 (London) or £33,787 (National).
• For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable. If you apply for a role that requires a transfer of location, for example if you are transferring from London to a National location, your salary will be adjusted in accordance with our policy on transfer between HQ pay ranges.
  
  

Please note that the average employer pension contribution is based upon the National minimum salary for this role. Should your agreed starting salary for this role be different, the average employer pension contribution will be calculated accordingly. If you are a Secondee, this will not apply as you will remain on your home organisation’s terms and conditions.

Benefits

Transfers across the Civil Service on or after 4 October 2018: Any move to MHCLG 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.

For further information about the benefits available to MHCLG employees, please see the attached Candidate Pack.

Location

• London
• Wolverhampton
• Leeds
• Manchester
• Bristol
  
  

There may be opportunities for candidates to work flexibly depending on the business needs. This will be discussed with the vacancy manager on a case-by-case basis if you are successful for the role.

At present, a minimum of 60% of your working time will be spent in your contractual office location. Requirements to attend other office locations or off-site meetings will be counted towards this. You will be asked to express a location preference during the application process.

Sift and Interview dates

We will be sifting applicants as we go – so please don’t wait until the deadline to submit your application. Interview dates will be confirmed at a later stage, all interviews are currently being held remotely via videocall.

We will perform a sift to assess and score the evidence provided in the CV and covering letter. Applicants achieving the pass mark will be offered an interview on a rolling basis. We will be sifting and interviewing applicants as we go – so please don’t wait until the deadline to submit your application. All interviews are currently being held remotely via videocall.

Reserve List

In the event that we identify more appointable candidates than we currently have posts available, we will hold applicant details on a reserve list for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made. This may include roles at a lower grade. Candidates placed on a reserve list will be informed of this. Those candidates who do not wish to remain on the reserve list should contact [e-mail] to be removed from the reserve list.

Security Clearance Requirements:

Please note that successful candidates will need to pass the CTC security checks – this requires you to have been resident in the UK for the past 3 years. Please refer to the MHCLG Notes on Security Clearance section of our Candidate Pack for further information on Counter Terrorism Clearance (CTC).

Candidates should also note that with effect from 1st August 2018 the department will also check all applicants who are successful at interview, against the Internal Fraud Database (IFD) held by the Cabinet Office. In accordance with the Civil Service Internal Fraud Policy, any applicant who is included on the IFD will be refused employment by MHCLG. Please see the Candidate Pack for further information on the Internal Fraud Database.

Before starting your application it’s very important to make sure that you are eligible to apply and meet the Civil Service nationality requirements. All candidates are expected to read the information provided in the MHCLG candidate pack regarding nationality requirements and rules

Candidate Pack Information

Please see attached Candidate pack for further information.

Internal Fraud Database

The Internal Fraud function of the Fraud, Error, Debt and Grants Function at the Cabinet Office processes details of civil servants who have been dismissed for committing internal fraud, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned. The Cabinet Office receives the details from participating government organisations of civil servants who have been dismissed, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned, for internal fraud. In instances such as this, civil servants are then banned for 5 years from further employment in the civil service. The Cabinet Office then processes this data and discloses a limited dataset back to MHCLG as a participating government organisations. MHCLG then carry out the pre employment checks so as to detect instances where known fraudsters are attempting to reapply for roles in the civil service. In this way, the policy is ensured and the repetition of internal fraud is prevented.

For more information please see- Internal Fraud Register

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check (opens in a new window).See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check (opens in a new window).See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).

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.

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 the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

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 : Claerwyn Hamilton-Wilkes
• Email : [e-mail]
  
  

Recruitment team

• Email : [e-mail]