Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service

Cabinet Office

Apply before 11:55 pm on Sunday 20th October 2024

Return to search results

Details

Reference number

372392

Salary

£200,000

If you are successful you can expect your salary on appointment to be circa £200,000 per annum. If you are an existing civil servant, your salary will be agreed in line with the Civil Service pay rules in place on the date of your appointment.

A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Job grade

SCS Pay Band 4

Contract type

Permanent

Type of role

Senior leadership

Working pattern

Full-time

Location

London

About the job

Job summary

The Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service is the most senior civil servant in the UK and the principal official adviser to the Prime Minister and Cabinet. As the Prime Minister's principal official adviser, the Cabinet Secretary supports the Prime Minister and his Cabinet to deliver the Government’s mission-driven programme; pursue reforms that make government work better; create a more united democracy; and, strengthen and secure the United Kingdom at home and abroad.

The Cabinet Secretary oversees the processes for collective agreement, the propriety and ethics systems, effective inter-departmental working and works closely with colleagues, particularly across the Prime Minister’s Office, Cabinet Office and HM Treasury.

As Head of the Civil Service, the Cabinet Secretary is the leader of the profession as well as a large and complex organisation driving delivery of public services and supporting the Government of the day to develop and implement its policies. There are currently around 500,000 civil servants working in over 40 departments across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. There are also 12 cross-Government functions and numerous arms’ length bodies across the public sector that are a critical part of the Government’s delivery systems.

The Cabinet Secretary is responsible for leading reform and improvement in the Civil Service to ensure it has the capability and capacity to implement the new Government’s mission-led approach to governing the United Kingdom; making it more joined up, pushing power to communities and harnessing new technology to enable delivery of the Government’s five key Missions.

Job description

Responsibilities of the Cabinet Secretary are:

ensuring the effective implementation of the Government’s priorities and delivery of public services through departments. This includes providing advice to the Prime Minister and Cabinet on policy, propriety and the structure and operation of government, bringing departments together to deliver on cross cutting issues and unblocking problems where they arise;
as Head of the Civil Service, it also means ensuring that departments have the necessary capability and leadership through the recruitment, performance management and development of Permanent Secretaries. This includes upholding the Ministerial, Special Adviser and Civil Service codes;
supporting proper and effective government decision-making through the organisation and provision of advice to Cabinet and its sub-committees. The Cabinet Secretary attends all meetings of Cabinet and is responsible for the smooth running of Cabinet meetings and for preparing records of its discussions and decisions. This includes responsibility for advising the Prime Minister on all questions connected with the appointment and organisation of Cabinet committees;
leading an effective and politically impartial Civil Service that commands the confidence of Ministers and Parliament. This includes ensuring that the Civil Service is a modern, professional and digitally enabled organisation that leads the way in world class administration of government and delivery of modern public services. It also means representing the Civil Service in all forums including in Parliament;
overseeing the security and intelligence agencies and ensuring compliance with constitutional standards. The Cabinet Secretary is Principal Accounting Officer for the Single Intelligence Account;
developing and maintaining a network of external stakeholders from across business, industry, civil society and the wider public sector in support of the Government’s wider priorities, and using this network to ensure that the Government and Civil Service is able to draw on external expertise and advice where necessary;
overseeing the Government’s relationships with the Royal Household and ensuring the proper functioning of the United Kingdom’s honours system; and,
maintaining strong relationships with overseas counterparts to ensure that the United Kingdom’s interests are well-served through these partnerships.

Person specification

To succeed in this role, you will need to demonstrate these essential criteria:

the ability to secure the confidence of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, developing and translating complex policy and strategy into successful and sustainable delivery in an environment of uncertainty;
exceptional leadership skills with an ability to inspire a large and complex organisation and as a significant proportion of this will be leading through Permanent Secretaries of departments - commanding the confidence and respect of this group is critical to ensure they are working across boundaries and delivering the mission-led approach to government;
a sharp intellect combined with an understanding of the geopolitical and security challenges faced by the UK and what needs to be done to ensure the UK is both secure at home and strong abroad – now and for the years to come;
exceptional communication skills and high personal impact, and the ability to command credibility with senior politicians and colleagues across Whitehall. The ideal candidate will be able to tailor their communication style to enable them to work closely with senior politicians but also to deliver key messages to civil servants;
well-developed political sensitivity to secure the confidence of Ministers and key stakeholders and strong personal resilience to operate under high levels of scrutiny and sustained pressure;
a track record of working with others to deliver common goals and objectives, coupled with an ability to build deep collaborative partnerships across Whitehall, with arms-length bodies and third-party organisations;
strong commitment to the Civil Service values of impartiality, honesty, integrity and objectivity; and,
confident, inclusive and compassionate leadership skills, with a proven ability to enthuse and lead others through changes and an interest in talent and development to ensure we have the most skilled Civil Service to meet the demands of today and the future.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £200,000, Cabinet Office contributes £57,940 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

A Civil Service Pension which provides an attractive pension, benefits for dependants and employer contributions of 28.97%.
30 days of paid annual leave.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

Application process

To apply please submit the following documents to permsecappointments@cabinetoffice.gov.uk copying in joanne.whitehead1@cabinetoffice.gov.uk by no later than 23:55 on Sunday 20 October:

Your CV, with educational and professional qualifications and full employment history, including an explanation of any gaps in your employment history, and details where possible of budgets and numbers of people
A short covering statement of no more than two A4 sized pages (1000 words) explaining why this appointment interests you and how you can evidence your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the criteria in the ‘experience required’ section.
A Diversity Questionnaire: The Civil Service is committed to achieving a workforce that reflects the society it serves, at all levels including the most senior. Collecting this information enables us to identify whether we are recruiting from the widest possible pool of talent and check that all groups are being treated fairly throughout the process. This form will not be disclosed to anyone involved in assessing your application. Please complete the attached form at Annex A. Please note that applications will not be accepted unless the form is returned. If you do not wish to provide a response to a particular question, you should complete the ‘prefer not to say’ option.
A completed Declaration of Interests form - please complete the form attached at Annex B. Please note that applications will not be accepted unless the form is returned.
We operate a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS). We are committed to making reasonable adjustments in order to support disabled job applicants and ensure that you are not disadvantaged in the recruitment and assessment process. All monitoring data will be treated in the strictest confidence and will not affect your application in any way. If you wish to make an application under the DCS, please complete the form at Annex C.

Please note that references and open-source due diligence checks (including into social media accounts) will be undertaken for all short-listed candidates.

Selection process

The closing date for applications will be 23:55 on Sunday 20 October
A shortlist of the applications will take place in the week commencing 21 October
Candidates who are shortlisted will be informed of the dates for leadership assessments (to take place in the weeks commencing 21 and 28 October) that will lead to a panel interview in the week commencing 4 November. The panel will be chaired by the First Civil Service Commissioner Baroness Gisela Stuart, and will include Brian McBride (Lead Non Executive Director MoD, and Non-Executive member of the Civil Service Senior Leadership Committee), Lord Gus O’Donnell (former Cabinet Secretary) and Dame Sharon White (former Second Permanent Secretary at HM Treasury)
The appointment will be made by the Prime Minister

Reasonable adjustments
If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

Further information
If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'contact point for applicants' section.

Please note that this role requires DV clearance, which would normally need 10 years’ UK residency in the past 10 years. This is not an absolute requirement, but supplementary checks may be needed where individuals have not lived in the UK for that period. This may mean your security clearance (and therefore your appointment) will take longer or, in some cases, not be possible.

Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.

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 developed vetting (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

Open to UK nationals only.

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.