Casework Principal
Ofwat (Water Services Regulation Authority)
Apply before 11:55 pm on Monday 25th November 2024
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About the job
Job summary
We are looking for a customer-centric leader to join our growing Casework team at Principal level.
The Casework 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. 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. The team also assesses applications from companies wanting to be granted a licence to serve customers in the water sector.
As a Principal in the Casework team, you will provide expert management, support, and leadership of our customer enquiries and complaints functions. You will also be responsible for delivering our work to determine disputes between customers and their water company. You will work closely with peers to bolster our leadership capacity and resilience across our licensing and enforcement work, and you will build strong relationships with colleagues internally and externally to identify key issues, anticipate service demand and plan effectively.
More generally, our Principals play a key role in delivery through project and resource planning and line management. You will be expected to support, empower and be a role model for junior members of the team, and to involve yourself in corporate activities that make Ofwat a great place to work. There will also be opportunities to work with colleagues across Ofwat on other programmes and projects to raise understanding of our casework and enforcement work and role, share expertise and deliver joint projects.
You can find out more about this opportunity and why you should join Ofwat, our strategy, values and our framework for success in the attached Information for Candidates Pack.
Job description
The successful candidates for these roles will be expected to:
- Lead and maintain a high-quality casework service that consistently achieves service level agreements.
- Successfully manage the delivery of casework and enforcement investigations (as necessary, under the Water Industry Act 1991 and the Competition Act 1998) and/or policy projects.
- Lead the development of policy and process improvement to support delivery by the Casework and Enforcement teams and working across Ofwat as appropriate.
- Provide visible leadership and guidance to members of the Casework and Enforcement team to help develop the skills and experience of its junior members and to continue to support all members’ professional development. As a leader in Ofwat, you will also role model our values and ways of working.
- Act as a People Leader and/or Project Manager, taking on budget management responsibilities and, where appropriate, people management responsibilities in line with Ofwat’s Governance Framework.
- Create and champion an inclusive working environment that supports growth, well-being, and continuous improvement in our delivery.
- Listen to, influence and work with complex, and sometimes challenging external stakeholders to optimise the impact of our work, including customers, water companies, representative bodies and Government departments. You must be able to establish and maintain these relationships and operate independently of senior management where necessary and appropriate.
- Engage effectively with internal stakeholders to share insights and expertise from and for our casework and enforcement activities, so that we are maximising synergies with related work areas and effectively focusing our combined efforts to deliver better outcomes for customers and the environment.
- Strongly contribute to Ofwat’s wider leadership, by engaging, contributing and supporting our work to make Ofwat a great place to work.
Person specification
To be successful in this role you will need the below essential experience, skills, knowledge and attributes:
Experience, skills and knowledge
- Lead criterion: Experience of leadership and delivery in a high-volume, complex customer focussed or regulatory environment, ensuring work is effectively prioritised and progressed.
- Proven track record of applying legal and analytical frameworks to deliver successful outcomes on complex investigations and/or policy projects.
- Experience of designing, managing and improving operational procedures within a complex environment, including the identification, mitigation and management of risks.
- Experience of identifying, analysing and accurately interpreting a range of data and insights to inform and build confidence in evidence-based decisions on complex problems.
- Experience of communicating complex information and messages in writing and verbally, so that it is clear and persuasive to a range of audience types.
- Experience of building and maintaining constructive working relationships with internal and external stakeholders to understand their needs and expectations, and to influence and collaborate effectively to deliver desired outcomes.
- Experience of developing and maintaining an understanding of how your work and priorities sit within wider corporate landscape and interdependencies.
- Experience of leading people, with experience of managing people and supporting growth, inclusion and well-being.
- Experience of encouraging and role-modelling a growth mind-set and a culture of continuous improvement.
Attributes
Attributes as per Ofwat’s Framework for Success for Principal Grade. You can read more about our attributes here
• Promotes collaboration
• Builds the team
• Creates clarity
• Delivers outcomes
Benefits
Why You Should Join Us:
We’re forward-thinking, creative, innovative, and ambitious. We constantly push the boundaries and embrace new ways of working.
With us, your work matters, your voice is heard, and your impact is felt. Ours is a culture of trust, flexibility, autonomy, collaboration, and innovation. We all want positive change for water customers, the environment, and the future of water.
But for us, change is more than what happens on the outside – we’ve always pushed boundaries internally, too. From becoming the first Civil Service organisation to achieve ‘Smarter Working’ status, to gaining our prestigious ‘Smarter Working Maturity’ award, we’ve consistently demonstrated our commitment to embracing innovative ways of working. Our people do their best work when given freedom over where, when, and how they work. Which is why we trust our teams to balance meaningful collaboration in the office with the flexibility of working from home.
You will also benefit from:
- Excellent employer pension contributions of 28.97% (approx. £15,940 - £18,540 per annum at this salary level).
- 27.5 days leave (25 days annual leave + 2.5 days privilege leave) increasing to max 32.5 days with each year of service, plus bank holidays
- Access to exclusive discounts on a variety of goods and services, including retail outlets,
theatre tickets, holidays, insurance, and a gym membership - Flexible working arrangements that suit your lifestyle
- Fees paid for membership of relevant professional bodies
- Up to 3 volunteering days per year
- Recognition vouchers scheme
- Generous shared parental leave and pay
- Enhanced sick pay
- Regular development opportunities
- Health and wellbeing initiatives
- Cycle-to-work scheme
- Season ticket loan for home-to-office travel
- Free eye tests and contribution to lenses/spectacles for VDU users
Things you need to know
Selection process details
How to apply
Apply through the Civil Service Jobs website where you’ll be asked to create an account and complete an application form (CV and personal statement). If you’re unable to make an electronic application, please contact recruitment@ofwat.gov.uk and we will support you in completing your application.
Please ensure you have submitted your application in full ahead of the deadline listed below. Unfortunately, we won't be able to consider late applications.
Please see the candidate guidance on our website for more detail and tips on how to best make your application.
Selection timetable
- Closing date: 23:55 on 25 November 2024
- Sifting: 26 – 29 November 2024
- Interview date(s): Week commencing 9 December 2024
Assessment process
Sift Stage
At sift stage we will assess your application (CV and Personal Statement) against criterion 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 listed in the professional requirements section (Experience, Skills & Knowledge) above
Use your personal statement to address the lead criterion (criterion 1):
• Experience of leadership and delivery in a high-volume, complex customer focussed or regulatory environment, ensuring work is effectively prioritised and progressed.
In the event of receiving a large number of applications, a pre-sift may take place on just the lead criterion.
Please ensure that anything submitted as part of your application is factually accurate, and you are not presenting the ideas and experience of others, or generated by AI, as your own.
Please note that if a high volume of candidates meet the minimum pass mark at sift stage, we will only progress the highest scoring candidates to interview. Candidates not invited to interview, who have achieved the minimum pass mark, will be placed 'on hold' until the final stage of the assessment process is completed. Should the role/s remain unfilled, candidates placed 'on hold' may be invited to interview in merit order.
Interview Stage
Our transparent interview process involves candidates receiving a list of attribute-based questions in advance. This has been proven to help neurodiverse candidates and others to perform better at interview and is part of our inclusive culture.
We will assess your Experience, Skills and Knowledge as well as Attributes (set out in the professional requirements section) at Interview Stage.
You can read more about Attributes in Ofwat’s Framework for Success.
As part of the interview process, we will require short presentation. Further details will be provided to shortlisted candidates upon invitation to interview.
Please note that the interviews will be conducted via video conferencing software such as Microsoft Teams.
Please ensure anything you present in your interview answers is factually accurate, and you are not presenting the ideas and experience of others, or generated by AI, as your own. You may expect follow up questions.
If the assessment process identifies more appointable candidates than roles available, a reserve list will be created for 12 months from which further appointments in merit order can be made.
If you have any queries about any aspect of this role, selection process, or you require any reasonable adjustments please email recruitment@ofwat.gov.uk.
Please read the attached "Candidate Information Pack" for details on terms and conditions.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
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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).
Diversity and Inclusion
Apply and further information
Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
- Name : recruitment@ofwat.gov.uk
- Email : recruitment@ofwat.gov.uk
Recruitment team
- Email : recruitment@ofwat.gov.uk
Further information
