Government Finance Function Skills & Capability Lead

HM Treasury

Apply before 11:55 pm on Tuesday 1st October 2024

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Details

Reference number

367810

Salary

£41,630 - £47,500

London: £44,630 - £47,500 / National: £41,630 - £44,500. If the successful candidate is a current Civil Servant joining on level transfer, HM Treasury will honour their current substantive salary if higher.

A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Job grade

Senior Executive Officer

Contract type

Permanent

Business area

HMT - Public Spending - Government Finance Function - People & Capability

Type of role

Finance
Human Resources

Working pattern

Flexible working, Full-time, Part-time

Number of jobs available

1

Contents

• Location
• About the job
• Benefits
• Things you need to know
• Apply and further information

Location

London (1 Horse Guards Road), Norwich (Rosebery Court) or Darlington (Feethams House)

About the job

Job summary

HM Treasury

If you’re interested in making a difference to people’s lives, the Treasury can offer you an exciting opportunity to influence decision making that affects the whole of the UK. Working at the heart of government, we collaborate across government to promote responsible public spending and drive strong and sustainable economic growth.  

Our work ranges from protecting customers through the regulation of the financial sector, helping to reduce carbon emissions and creating a greener economy, to promoting British trade around the world and supporting people across the country on jobs, growth and more.  

We are part of the Darlington Economic Campus, a pioneering new cross-government hub which brings people together to play an active role in the most important issues of the day whilst working closer to the communities we serve. The campus provides the opportunity for people from all over the UK to help shape the future of the country, and our flexible working practices ensure you can collaborate effectively with our partners. It’s central government, made more accessible to you! 

Job description

Public Spending Group

The Public Spending Group is a high-profile and rewarding place to work.  We help the Chancellor decide what to spend £1.2trillion a year on and ensure government delivers value for money for the taxpayer. We are responsible for reporting to Parliament and the public on how taxpayers’ money is spent. We drive forward improved outcomes and efficiency in public services and make sure value for money is at the centre of decision-making through better evaluation, data and analysis. 

We advise on overall government policy on public sector pay and pensions, the biggest single driver of public spending. We collaborate with and directly support departments to deliver the Government Finance Function strategy, building finance, debt and risk capability across government and developing the management information, tools and frameworks to better understand and ensure value for money.

The Government Finance Function (GFF)

The GFF ensures that finance is at the heart of decision making in Government – delivering value for money, strengthening public trust.

The Finance Function comprises of over 10,500 FTE spread across 39 Government organisations.

The Function needs to move at pace to make further progress towards its vision and the decision has been taken to strengthen and formalise the functional centre for the Government Finance Function, aligned to the Civil Service Functional Leadership model.

The People and Capability Team
This role sits within the People & Capability team. Priorities for the team include:

• Developing a high performing, capable and diverse Function for the future, with great people in the right roles with the right skills now and in the future.
• Learning & Development – the Government Finance Academy (GFA), determining the future strategy for the GFA ensuring a future focussed and sustainable model to deliver a high quality learning and development offer for the Government Finance Function.
• Career Framework: Standardising expectations of skills, qualifications and experience required to succeed in roles across GFF, supporting attraction, development and retention of diverse talent across the function.
• Talent Management: developing a robust and diverse talent pipeline through a dynamic and engaging talent management strategy.
• Encouraging a diverse and inclusive environment across the Finance Function.
• Developing an attractive reward and retention strategy to help attract and retain great people.
• Resourcing and strategic workforce planning to ensure succession plans are in place for the function’s pivotal roles.

Building excellent links with networks across Government to utilise expert services and embed our initiatives in departments, sharing knowledge, best practice and resource.

As the Skills and Capability Lead for the Government Finance Function, you will be joining our team of HR, Finance and L&D Professionals who are responsible for leading the GFF People and Capability offer for the function across government.

At the heart of this work is developing capability for the Government Finance Function, ensuring a high quality, evidenced based, diverse and value for money capability and skills offer for the GFF (c11,000 people) to ensure staff working across Government Finance have the right skills and capability to manage public money.

This role provides an excellent opportunity to work across Government and professional boundaries to provide a single point of contact for capturing insights about finance skills in and out of government, and then to use this to develop the Government Finance Academy curriculum, our capability offer for all GFF staff and our approach to developing new skills across the finance community.

Success in this role will require you to work across and collaborate with a variety of stakeholders across organisational boundaries as a trusted partner, utilising your skills and experience to build a strong network of relationships with internal and external stakeholders at all levels to drive outcomes for the Government Finance Function.

This role plays a key role in identifying and defining the skills required across the finance function, utilising insight from sources across the team and shaping our learning and development offer and ensuring the offer reaches our intended audience in an engaging and impactful way.

Key accountabilities include:

• Build understanding and insight around the key skills requirements for the finance function and highlight areas of strength and weakness – by using external benchmarks, research from professional bodies and internal insights from departments.
• Provide analysis to show where we need to invest to build skills across the function and use this analysis to help define future learning and development requirements.
• Support design and delivery across a full range of finance L&D interventions and ensure key topics and themes are prioritised for Face to Face and Virtual learning interventions.
• Lead the skills elements of the development of the GFF Learning and Development strategy, undertaking independent research on best practice from across Government and Private Sector and embedding good examples.
• Lead on crucial relationship with GFF Comms and Engagement team to ensure that communications for the GFA and wider skills agenda are advertised in a timely manner and ensuring the curriculum is up to date and visible to all.
• Lead on contract processes and management for GFA and capability/professional requirements, liaising with Crown Commercial Services and HMT Commercial teams, on local procurement ensuring full compliance with standard processes and value for money.

If you would like to speak to the hiring manager informally prior to the closing date for applications to find out more about the job, please contact Thea.dall@hmtreasury.gov.uk

Person specification

We are looking for the below skills, experience and behaviours and we will ask you to demonstrate these in your application form. Please review the Candidate FAQ document that is attached to the advert for guidance on how to complete your application form.  

1.    Confident and effective communication skills both orally and in writing, with people within and outside the GFF (Communicating and Influencing).
2. Experience working in learning / L&D and a passion for building skills and capability across government with an understanding of Civil Service Learning Frameworks desirable (Experience).
3. Strong organisational and stakeholder management skills with the ability to work effectively with wide range of stakeholders across boundaries, making connections and bringing people along with you. A strong team player with the ability to work flexibly across a demanding but rewarding team (Working Together).
4. Strong research and analysis skills including the ability to present data insights with impact (Changing and Improving).

The lead criterion is: Communicating and Influencing

If we receive large volumes of applications, we will conduct an initial sift on the lead criterion only.

Candidate Guidance Support Session

We will be running an overview of Success Profiles and the STAR approach including top tips for the application and interview process and an opportunity to ask general questions around our recruitment practices. Please note that this session is not role specific, so we will be unable to answer specific questions about roles we are advertising. If you would like to join us, please use the link below to join the call at the right time.

Thursday 19th September at 12:30: Join the meeting now

At interview stage, you will be assessed on the below criteria:

• Experience
• Strengths
• Behaviours:
  • Communicating and Influencing
  • Working Together
  • Changing and Improving
  • Delivering at Pace

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Changing and Improving
• Delivering at Pace

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Changing and Improving

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £41,630, HM Treasury contributes £12,060 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• 25 days’ annual leave (rising to 30 after 5 years), plus 8 public holidays and the King's birthday (unless you have a legacy arrangement as an existing Civil Servant)  
• Flexible working patterns (part-time, job-share, condensed hours)  
• Generous parental and adoption leave package. 
• A Civil Service Pension which provides an attractive pension, benefits for dependants and average employer contributions of 28%  
• Onsite restaurant and coffee bar. The London office also offers a gym, showers and prayer room  
• Access to a cycle-to-work salary sacrifice scheme, season ticket advances and payroll giving  
• Access to a retail discounts and cashback site  
• A Rental Deposit Advance Scheme to help meet the total costs of deposits for privately rented homes  
• A range of active staff networks, based around interests and diversity

Flexible Working Arrangements

HM Treasury views flexible working as essential in enabling us to recruit and retain talented people, ensuring that they can enjoy a long-lasting career with us. All employees have the right to apply for flexible working and there are a range of options available including; part-time, compressed hours and job sharing. Additionally, we operate flexitime systems, allowing employees the flexibility to adjust their working patterns throughout the week which is subject to operational needs and line management approval.  

At HM Treasury we have an incredibly broad remit; our work touches every citizen of the country. So, it’s important our employees come from the widest possible range of backgrounds, bringing us the widest possible range of perspectives and ways of thinking. We are committed to ensuring that all staff can realise their potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance. 

HM Treasury operates an office based working approach across all Treasury sites - Darlington, London, and Norwich, and along with the rest of the Civil Service, has an expectation of a minimum of 60% attendance in the office, along with working remotely. This blended working approach allows you to work collaboratively, meet stakeholders face to face, support others and promotes a healthy work life balance (please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK and not overseas). Some roles will not be suitable for Hybrid Working. Similarly, Hybrid Working will not suit everyone’s circumstances. Arrangements will be discussed and agreed with the successful candidate(s) and subject to regular review. All our offices have been recently modernised and designed to collaborate and connect with colleagues as well as desk and quiet space to allow a range of ways to work.

The office working expectation is linked to the location of the role. If you apply to a post in a single location, then you will not be able to meet this expectation at any of our other sites or move your role to another location. 

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

Recruitment Timeline 

Closing date: 01/10/24

Shortlisting: From 02/10/24

Interviews:  w/c 14/10/24

This timeline is indicative and may be subject to change. We will inform you if there is a substantial change to the recruitment timeline. 

If your contact details change at any time during the selection process, please ensure you update your Civil Service Jobs Profile. 

Please note that only applications submitted through Civil Service Jobs will be accepted.

Location-Based Reserve Lists 

You will be placed on a reserve list if your application is successful, but we cannot offer you a post immediately. Where more than one location has been advertised, candidates will be approached for roles in merit order according to the first preferred location stated on your application form. 

Please note that a place on the reserve list does not guarantee an offer. We would still encourage you to apply for other HM Treasury opportunities that you are interested in. If you are offered a role in your first preferred location and you decline the offer or you are unable to take up the post within a reasonable timeframe, you will be removed from the reserve list, other than in exceptional circumstances. 

Eligibility Statement 

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role in the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government. Checks will be performed as part of pre-employment checks in line with this. Please refer to the Candidate FAQ document attached to the advert for more information. 

Everyone working with government assets must complete Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks. Additionally, individuals appointed to the Treasury group will be subject to National Security Vetting. The level of security vetting required for this role is Counter Terrorist Check (CTC) 

To allow for meaningful checks to be carried out, applicants will need to have lived in the UK for at least 3 out of the past 5 years. In exceptional circumstances, a lack of residency would not be a bar to security clearance however the Department will need to consider eligibility on a case by case basis once the advert closing date has passed. 

Please read the Vetting Charter for information on what to expect during the vetting process and what will be expected from you.  Many areas of your life may be explored during your vetting journey, and it is important that every individual, regardless of their background and experiences, should feel comfortable going through this personal process, whilst having confidence that it is fair, proportionate, and inclusive.  

These short videos address common concerns and preconceptions which applicants may have about national security vetting.  If you have questions relating to security clearances, please contact HMTSecurityVetting@hmtreasury.gov.uk

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

Security

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)