Contents Location About the job Benefits Things you need to know Apply and further information Location Ashington, Beverley, Bishop Auckland, Cramlington, Doncaster, Gateshead, Goole, Grimsby, Morpeth, Selby, Sheffield, South Shields, Stanley, Sunderland, Thorne, Whitby About the job Job summary Are you someone who strives to make a difference to peoples lives? If so, we would like to hear from you DWP is looking to fill 21 Operational Leader roles in various locations across the North East and Yorkshire (see above). These r oles will be non-hybrid office based with travel across each respective District(s) expected. Candidates must note that successful applicants will have Saturday working considerations within their working patterns. This is a high profile and business critical role, with responsibility for functions undertaken supporting Universal Credit Service Delivery. You will be at the centre of DWPs front line operations helping to positively change people lives in our communities. Universal Credit is at the heart of the governments welfare agenda designed to simplify the benefit system by bringing together a range of working age benefits into a single payment whilst supporting customers to find work. The service made up of c45,000 colleagues, provides support through an extensive network of Jobcentres that deliver face to face labour market support. Our Service Centres - responsible for delivering benefit payments are located across Scotland, England, and Wales. The service has recently undergone a rapid expansion programme in response to the economic challenges brought about by the pandemic. DWP welcomes applications from candidates who demonstrate i nspirational and resourceful leadership to help drive performance and deliver a positive and efficient service to our customers. Standard promotion rules will apply, and successful candidates will be placed on the pay scale and terms and conditions of DWP. Job description UC Operational Managers are responsible for coaching, leading, and building the team to achieve national performance measures. They will achieve this by: Creating an inclusive team environment, embracing different individual needs, views, and ideas. Motivating, developing, and encouraging teams and undertaking regular performance reviews. Identifying risks to performance and ensuring continuous improvement by ensuring colleagues are capable and empowered to build their skills and confidence. Identifying priorities to ensure the delivery of your and others objectives. Monitoring and improving the quality of the customer experience. Suggesting continuous improvement ideas themselves and encouraging and enabling their people to suggest and implement continuous improvement activity and innovation. A focus on building collaborative working relationships with internal and external stakeholders, partners and organisations to deliver excellent service. Being an active member of the Senior Leadership Team, providing visible and effective leadership taking a personal lead in engaging with and communicating key messages and implementing corporate changes. Roles will be non-hybrid office based with travel across each respective District(s) expected. Candidates must note that successful applicants will have Saturday working considerations within their working patterns. Person specification Key Criteria What we are looking for Strong leadership and excellent people engagement skills ( Lead Criteria ) A driven, energetic leader who can improve quality and consistency Good communication and organisational skills Able to innovate and make sound decisions at pace Someone with honesty and integrity, who inspires confidence and loyalty Behaviours We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process: Leadership Managing a Quality Service Communicating and Influencing Working Together Benefits Alongside your salary of £37,497, Department for Work and Pensions contributes £10,862 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides. DWP have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes: Working patterns to support work/life balance such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours. Generous annual leave at least 23 days on entry, increasing up to 30 days over time (prorata for part time employees), plus 9 days public and privilege leave. Support for financial wellbeing, including interest-free season ticket loans for travel, a cycle to work scheme and an employee discount scheme. Health and wellbeing support including our Employee Assistance Programme for specialist advice and counselling and the opportunity to join HASSRA a first-class programme of competitions, activities and benefits for its members (subscription payable monthly). Family friendly policies including enhanced maternity and shared parental leave pay after 1 years continuous service. Funded learning and development to support progress in your role and career. This includes industry recognised qualifications and accreditations, coaching, mentoring and talent development programmes. An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join professional and interpersonal networks including Womens Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more. 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 personal statement. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form. Your interview will either be conducted face to face or by video. You will be notified of the location if you are selected for interview. Some need-to-know information. How to Apply, Civil Service Careers (civil-service-careers.gov.uk) provides advice and tips on applying for roles in the Civil Service. Stages for applying See Candidate Pack for more details about each stage. Stage 1 Complete eligibility section of the application form. Stage 2 - If eligible, you will be invited to complete your application and undergo a written sift using evidence from your Personal Statement of 1250 words. Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be conducted using the Lead Key Criteria (Strong leadership and excellent people engagement skills). Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to interview. When completing your Personal Statement, please read and understand the Key Criteria thoroughly. Your layout is entirely your preference; you may choose narrative, bullets, etc. You may choose to address each criteria separately, however, one narrative example may cover and evidence several Key Criteria. You may not be able to meet all the Key Criteria, but please ensure you provide as much evidence as you can to allow us to assess your skills, knowledge and experience. Share with us what makes you suited to this role. We would like to find out what you can do, the skills you hold and the life experience or passion that you have that could be aligned to the Key Criteria. The evidence you provide must relate to your own experiences. If evidence of plagiarism, or sharing of questions, information or answers throughout any part of the selection process is found, your application will be withdrawn. Examples of plagiarism can include: Presenting the work, ideas and experience of others as your own Copying content from an online/published source Using forms of Artificial Intelligence to produce application content which you present as your own Stage 3 - The interview process: This will consist of an interview which will be face to face and will last approximately 40 to 45 minutes. This will be a blended interview assessing a mixture of behaviours and strengths as detailed in Success Profiles, Blended Interview You will be asked a mixture of Behaviour and Strength questions. A blended interview aims to be more of a conversation at interview, offering a more inclusive approach. The Behaviour and Strength based questioning explores what the candidate can and has done, but also their potential. An example of a Behavioural question would be; Tell me about a time you have set about improving customer service, giving a sense of pace and criticality of success? How did you ensure this activity achieved its objectives whilst keeping costs under control? What tools and techniques did you use? It may help to use one or more examples of a piece of work you have completed or a situation you have been in and used the WHO or STAR model to explain. It is difficult to prepare for Strength type questions. While Strength questions are shorter and we do not expect a full STAR response, the panel is interested in your first reaction to the question and information or reasoning to support this. To help you prepare and settle into the interview you will be sent the behaviour questions in advance, 5 days prior to your interview. These questions should be treated as confidential and should not be shared. The interview panel will ask you other questions which will not be shared in advance, including follow-up questions, and those about your strengths. Sift and interview dates to be confirmed. Further Information Find out more about Working for DWP A reserve list may be held for a period of 3 months from which further appointments can be made. Any move to DWP from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out. In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grscabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading. 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. New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band. Before applying for this vacancy, current employees of DWP should check whether a successful application would result in changes to their terms & conditions of employment, e.g. mobility, pay, allowances. Civil Servants that would transfer into DWP from other government organisations, following successful application, will assume DWP's terms & conditions of employment current on the day they are posted, unless DWP has stated otherwise in writing. The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles. Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. Applications will be screened and if evidence of plagiarism or copying examples/answers from other sources is found, your application will be withdrawn. Internal DWP candidates may also face disciplinary action. DWP takes development seriously. Our aim is for our colleagues in these roles to be appropriately skilled and qualified as determined by the business. To support this aim you may be required to undertake a work based qualification, which may be in the form of an apprenticeship, which will support you in further developing your professional knowledge and skills for this role and your future career development. The qualification can be undertaken in work time, you agree to take this job on the basis that you may be required to undertake a work based qualification; a candidates failure to participate fully in the professional programme, once appointed, may be a breach of their employment contract. Important If you hold a level 3 qualification (2 A levels or equivalent) then please bring your certificates with you to the interview if you have them. Reasonable Adjustment At DWP we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce. We consider visible and non-visible disabilities, neurodiversity or learning differences, chronic medical conditions, or mental ill health. Examples include dyslexia, epilepsy, autism, chronic fatigue, or schizophrenia. If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:Contact Government Recruitment Service via DWPRecruitment.grscabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs. Complete the Reasonable Adjustments section in the Additional requirements page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if youre deaf, a Language Service Professional. If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section. Feedback Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment. Security Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. 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 : North England and Yorkshire Recruitment Team email Email : nee.recruitmentDWP.GOV.UK Recruitment team Email : dwprecruitment.grscabinetoffice.gov.uk Further information Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commissions Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with these principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should in the first instance contact DWP by email: HR.BUSINESSASSURANCEDWP.GOV.UK. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission. Click here to visit the Civil Service Commission. Attachments HEO Advert - Final Opens in new window (docx, 53kB) HEO Candidate Pack - North England & Yorkshire Jan 2025 Opens in new window (pdf, 900kB) DWP Terms and Conditions January 2024 Opens in new window (docx, 27kB) Success Profiles Candidate Overview Accessible Version Opens in new window (docx, 79kB) Share this page Print Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn GMail