Contents Location About the job Benefits Things you need to know Apply and further information Location Birmingham, Leeds About the job Job summary We recognise the challenges that people with protected characteristics may experience on the job market and in their career progression. We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups, including ethnic minorities, people with a disability, and people with gender diverse identities. Can you lead and motivate a team to carry out their duties effectively? Can you draft high quality written material? Do you have experience of organising and delivering high profile events or similar? If so, then this is the perfect role for you Job description As Head of Briefing, Correspondence and Engagement, you will drive the UK governments work in delivering its ambitious programme of activity. You will be responsible for a team that leads on the maritime directorates briefing, correspondence, and external engagement. You will also lead the Departments activity at the prestigious London International Shipping Week, along with delivering the honours process for the Merchant Navy Medal for Meritorious Service. This role requires exemplary leadership, excellent drafting and stakeholder management. You will lead relations with the sector to design policy collaboratively and innovatively, You will work with a range of stakeholders including ports, shipping operators, investors, local and devolved administrations, business groups and regulators. The roles will involve working in close partnership with wider DfT colleagues and other government departments. You will also work closely with the Secretary of State and Maritime Minister, their offices and Special Advisers. Responsibilities include, but are not limited to: Oversee stakeholder engagement and relationships with maritime sector, ensuring a strategic approach to all our collaboration and supporting policy teams in their engagement. Work closely with the stakeholder manager, to ensure that external engagement is supporting delivery of maritime priorities. Have oversight of all Ministerial briefings, invitations and relevant correspondence sent from the maritime directorate to Ministers and support policy officials across the directorate in administration of these tasks. This includes drafting briefing and correspondence, as well as quality assuring other teams work. Support ministerial visits and events, working with communications teams and the briefing and correspondence officers. Delivering the Merchant Navy Medal for meritorious, a state honour delegated to DfT. Delivering the government contribution to London International Shipping Week, a biennial global event showcasing the UK maritime sector to an international audience. For more information, please see the attached Role Profile. Great line management is important to us as an organisation, and we will equip and support line managers to develop the skills set out in the Civil Service Line Management Standards. We aim to empower line managers to create teams where people can flourish and deliver excellent outcomes for the public. Person specification To thrive in this role, you will have: Experience of leading and developing a team. Experience of drafting skills with the ability to write concisely and compellingly for different audiences. Experience of organising and delivering high profile events or similar. Experience of building and maintaining working relationships with senior stakeholders / officials. Additional information A minimum of 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace, although requirements to attend other locations for official business, or carry out detached duty in another DfT workplace, will also count towards this level of attendance. There will be occasional national travel with this role. Behaviours We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process: Delivering at Pace Communicating and Influencing Making Effective Decisions Working Together We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form: Delivering at Pace Benefits Alongside your salary of £54,857, Department for Transport contributes £15,892 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides. Please note, the above example is based on the National minimum salary. The employer pension contribution will be 28.97% of your specific salary. Being part of our brilliant Civil Service means you will have access to a wide range of fantastic benefits. We offer generous annual leave, attractive pension options, flexible working, inclusive working environments and much more to support a healthy work/life balance. Find out more about what it's like working at the Department for Transport. 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. As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete a CV and 1000 word personal statement. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form. Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be conducted using your behavioural example of Delivering at Pace. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift or progressed straight to interview. In your CV and Personal statement please provide detailed evidence of the following: Experience of leading and developing a team. Experience of drafting skills with the ability to write concisely and compellingly for different audiences. Experience of organising and delivering high profile events OR SIMILAR. Experience of building and maintaining working relationships with senior stakeholders / officials. The sift is due to take place 2nd and 3rd January 2025. Interviews are likely to be held from week commencing 13th January 2025. We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change. You will be provided with sufficient notice of the confirmed dates. The selection process will be designed specifically for the role. As a result, your assessment will include: An interview. This interview will be conducted online via Teams. Further details will be provided to you should you be selected for interview. Youre encouraged to become familiar with the role profile, as you may be assessed against any of the criteria recorded within. The Department for Transport alongside other Government Departments recruit using Success Profiles. This means for each role we consider what you will need to demonstrate in order to be successful. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, drives up performance and improves diversity and inclusivity. For further information on Success Profiles visit our Careers website. Reasonable Adjustments As a Disability Confident Leader employer, we are committed to ensuring that the recruitment process is fair, accessible and allows all candidates to perform at their best. If a person with a visible or non-visible disability is substantially disadvantaged, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes. Complete the Assistance required section in the Additional requirements page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need during the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at an interview, or if youre deaf, a Language Service Professional. If you need a reasonable adjustment so that you can complete your application, you should contact Government Recruitment Service via dftrecruitment.grscabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs. Document Accessibility If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section. This job advert contains links to the DfT Careers website. Our website provides useful guidance and information that can support you during the application process. If you cannot access the information on our website for any reason, please email DRGCommsdft.gov.uk for assistance. Further Information For more information about how we hire, and for useful tips on submitting your application for this role, visit the How We Hire page of our DfT Careers website. You can find detailed information about the recruitment process and what to expect when applying for a role. Pre-employment Checking Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicants details held on the IFD will be refused employment. A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government. For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the following page https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/demystifying-vetting. Please be aware the levels of national security clearance are changing which may impact on the level needed for this role by the time of appointment. All efforts will be made to keep candidates informed of any changes and what that will mean in terms of vetting criteria. For more information please See our vetting charter. 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 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) 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. Diversity and Inclusion The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window). Apply and further information This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative. The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window). Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records. Contact point for applicants Job contact : Name : Sarah Leonard Email : Sarah.Leonarddft.gov.uk Recruitment team Email : dftrecruitment.grscabinetoffice.gov.uk Further information If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact Government Recruitment Services via email: dftrecruitment.grscabinetoffice.gov.uk If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: Visit the Civil Service Commission website Here Attachments Role Profile Opens in new window (docx, 67kB) Salary Information for DfTc Opens in new window (pdf, 324kB) Share this page Print Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn GMail