Director Energy Affordability & Consumers
Department for Energy Security & Net Zero
Apply before 11:55 pm on Monday 21st October 2024
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About the job
Job summary
About the Role
The Energy Affordability Directorate was formed in 2022 in order to lead Government’s response to an unprecedented surge in energy prices. Since its formation, it has overseen delivery of over £40 billion of energy price support across the whole of the UK, funding around half of household bills last winter and providing support to businesses and charities through a challenging period. While prices are now falling, they remain high and households and businesses continue to face significant challenges.
What will the successful candidate being doing?
As Director, you will be responsible for leading the team in developing a refreshed approach to ensuring the market works for businesses and consumers. You will take overall responsibility for policy on retail markets, consumer affordability and policy costs on bills, acting as the departmental lead for our relationship with Ofgem, as well as continued delivery of the suite of policy schemes launched in 2022, ensuring successful closure and strong delivery leadership for the remainder of the schemes. This will include line management of 3 SCS1s.
Job description
Your responsibilities will include-
- Providing inclusive and inspiring leadership to a Directorate of around c. 130 staff split across 4 Deputy Director led teams with a mix of policy, delivery and analysis expertise. You will lead the Directorate through a period of change as the suite of price support schemes wind down and our approach to affordability and retail markets evolves, set the direction, empower staff and manage resources flexibly across your responsibilities, inspiring and empowering them to perform, providing continued opportunities for them to stretch and develop, and ensuring a fun and supportive atmosphere within the team.
- Ensuring effective delivery of the energy support schemes as SRO (including the Energy Price Guarantee, Alternative Fuel Payment, Energy Bills Relief Scheme and Energy Bill Discount Scheme), including effective delivery of closing stages of schemes, management of scheme budgets, and ensuring high quality management of financial reconciliation processes and fraud and error risks.
- Leading the Department’s work on retail energy market policy, including working with Ofgem on live issues relating to retail markets and developing and delivering policy on future facing issues and market reform.
- Lead the Department’s sponsor relationship with Ofgem.
- Oversee all work on consumer affordability strategy including on structure of household and business bills, policy costs and levies, and work to rebalance costs in order to incentivise take-up of key technologies for the transition to net zero.
Person specification
Skills and Experience (Essential)
- Building and inspiring high-performing teams with a strong focus on delivery through periods of change and ambiguity;
- The ability to work effectively with external partners such as Ofgem, and across professional boundaries, building strong relationships and providing appropriate challenge;
- Comfortable working in a programme management environment, managing financial risk and scrutiny;
- The ability to link strategic insights and evidence to decisions on funding and regulation; and
- Commitment to driving forward transformation and change in the department including through Places for Growth and the department’s values.
We expect all our senior leaders to be
- Inspiring – about our work and its future
- Confident – in our engagement with others
- Empowering – to allow our teams to deliver
Benefits
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero offers a competitive mix of benefits including:
- A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.
- Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme, with an average employer contribution of 27%.
- A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.
- An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.
- Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.
Office attendance
The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period. Senior Civil Servant (SCS) staff are expected to aim for closer to 60% of the time at an office or non-home based location over the accounting period.
Further Information
Reasonable Adjustment
We are proud to be a disability confident leader and we welcome applications from disabled candidates and candidates with long-term conditions.
Information about the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and some examples of adjustments that we offer to disabled candidates and candidates with long-term health conditions during our recruitment process can be found in our DESNZ Candidate Guidance. A DESNZ Plain Text Version of the guidance is also available.
We encourage candidates to discuss their adjustment needs by emailing the job contact which can be found under the contact point for applicants section.
If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.
Things you need to know
Selection process details
How to Apply
To apply for this post please follow the instructions on the CS Jobs website by no later than 23:55, Monday 21st October 2024. As part of the application process you are asked to complete the following:
- A CV setting out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role, relevant achievements in recent posts, together with reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
- A Statement of Suitability (no more than 1,000 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.
- Shortlisted candidates may be invited to undertake a series of psychometric assessments including a Staff Engagement Exercise (SEE) and Individual Leadership Assessment (ILA) as part of the recruitment process prior to the final interview. This assessment will not result in a ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ decision. Rather it is designed to support the panels decision making and highlight areas for the panel to explore further at interview.
- Final Interview which will include a presentation exercise. Full details will be shared with shortlisted candidates nearer the time. Shortlisted candidates will have the opportunity to have an informal discussion with Jonathan Mills, Director General for Energy Markets and Supply.
Overview of the Process
Government Recruitment Service will acknowledge your application and advise you of the outcome of the sift meeting. Depending on the number of applications received there may be a second stage sift.
Applications will be sifted to select those demonstrating the best fit with the post against the criteria set out in the person specification. Please ensure you keep this in mind when writing your CV and supporting statement.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview.
Arrangements for interview
The final selection panel interview will be face to face.
Panel
- Martin Spencer, Civil Service Commissioner
- Jonathan Mills, Director General for Energy Markets and Supply
- Katie Farrington, Director General Social Security, Disability and Pensions at DWP
- Dinu Ratnasinghe, Private Secretary to the Head of Clean Power 2030
Candidates will be required to prepare a presentation which will form part of the final interview. Full details of the assessment process will be provided to shortlisted candidates. At interview you will be assessed against the Essential Criteria in the person specification.
Expenses incurred by candidates during the recruitment process will not be reimbursed by the Department except in exceptional circumstances and only when agreed in advance.
Indicative Timeline
Candidates are asked to note the timetable, exercising flexibility through the recruitment and selection process. The anticipated timetable is as follows:
Advert Closing Date: 23:55, Monday 21st October 2024
Shortlist Announcement: w/c 28th October 2024
Assessment: w/c 11th November or 18th November 2024
Interview: w/c 25th November 2024
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
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).
Diversity and Inclusion
Apply and further information
Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
- Name : SCS Recruitment Team
- Email : scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Recruitment team
- Email : scsrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Further information
