Senior Business Manager - Planning Casework Unit
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Apply before 11:55 pm on Monday 14th October 2024
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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.
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About the job
Job summary
We are seeking a Senior Business Manager within the Planning Casework Unit (PCU) which coordinates administrative, reporting and corporate functions across the team to ensure that it undertakes its work appropriately and efficiently. This post will report directly to the Head of Unit, and will be key to the efficient operation of the team.
PCU is based in 11 locations across the country, and it determines and administers applications relating to 40 different types of planning casework. This includes decisions on whether to call in planning applications, confirm a compulsory purchase orders, EIA screening, or whether to grant planning permission, among other things. These decisions may be very high profile and complex in nature, and cover a wide range of policy issues such as housing, prisons, design, energy, minerals or climate change. PCU advises the Secretary of State and other Ministers on those cases which require a Ministerial decision.
Job description
The post-holder will support the delivery of a high-quality decision-making service to Ministers and senior officials, so that they can make informed, legally sound casework decisions within specified targets.
The post involves leading on the corporate and administrative activities and functions across the team, including the reporting of its performance, data and record management, allocation of individual cases, risk management, financial monitoring and progressing wider strategic management actions. The postholder would be expected to support wider corporate activities such as the Exceptional Performance reward scheme.
The post comes with line management responsibility to support the post-holder in leading on these functions and activities.
The post-holder will be closely involved with the senior management of the PCU and will act as a leader within the wider teams they are part of. They will empower their team members, who may work across a variety of different locations, working effectively together in an inclusive environment.
Specifically, the post-holder will be responsible for:
- Assuming a leadership role within PCU, with line management responsibility for a small team;
- Leading on the reporting of PCU’s decision-making performance against specified targets, and improving and collating systems to more efficiently collect data to support this.
- Coordinate record management across the PCU to ensure consistency in how work is recorded and communicated, including oversight of filing conventions, templates and operation of specialist software packages.
- Leading on the allocation of cases to individual case officers across the PCU.
- Maintaining and continually reporting on risk and financial management within the Unit, using existing organisation frameworks.
- Administrative functions across the PCU, such as the monitoring, reporting, requests for recorded information and distribution of correspondence.
- Being the Secretariat for senior leadership meetings, and implementing wider strategic initiatives on behalf of management.
- Support the implementation of the Exceptional Performance reward scheme across the Chief Planner’s Directorate and beyond.
- Undertaking any other duties required by the line manager, which are within PCU’s responsible functions.
Person specification
Essential:
- Can develop, implement, maintain and review systems and services to ensure delivery of professional excellence.
- Able to deliver outcomes while continuously seeking to implement ways to improve a service, and use technology where possible to increase efficiency.
- Can regularly monitor and reassess their own and team's tasks, and reassess workloads and priorities when there are conflicting demands.
- Has significant experience in using the main computer-based reporting packages, such as Microsoft Excel and Power BI, as well as bespoke software packages.
Desirable:
- Experience in an office manager or project management capacity.
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 employer contribution of 28.97%
Things you need to know
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
Technical Ability
Your covering letter should be no more than 1 page referencing how you meet the criteria set out in the person specification, to support the experience set out in your CV.
The interview will be of a blended nature consisting of behaviour and strength based questions as listed in the advert. The strength based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.
In full the campaign will test the below Success Profile Elements:
Experience: Yes - Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description
Technical: Yes – Technical questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description.
Strength: Yes
Behaviours: Changing and Improving, Working Together, Managing a Quality Service, Delivering at Pace
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
SEO salary
- The salary for this role is £38,732 (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
- Wolverhampton
- Darlington*
- Birmingham
- Bristol
- Leeds
- Manchester
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.
*Please note: The Darlington Economic Campus is a pioneering new cross-government hub which will bring together people across departments and public organisations to play an active role in the most important economic issues of the day. The work of the Campus will make a real difference to people both across the UK and internationally. There will be substantial career opportunities and exciting prospects - a career at the Campus means you will be working at the heart of Government, with access to the benefits and fantastic opportunities offered by the civil service.
For further information on the DEC, please take a look at the attached DEC candidate pack.
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. 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.
Sift and Interview dates
Sifting is envisaged to take place W/C 14th October 2024 with interview dates to be confirmed. 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 recruitment@communities.gov.uk to be removed from the reserve list.
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
Nationality requirements
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).
Diversity and Inclusion
Apply and further information
Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
- Name : Lewis Thomas
- Email : lewis.thomas@communities.gov.uk
Recruitment team
- Email : recruitment@communities.gov.uk
