Location

Coventry, West Midlands : Darlington, North East : Manchester, North West : Nottingham, East Midlands : Sheffield, Yorkshire and the Humber 

This role can be undertaken from the above offices and is also available on a remote-working basis, enabling you to work from home whilst being attached, with occasional attendance, to one of these offices. You’ll be asked as part of the application form to specify the location(s) you want to be considered for. 

Please note, we will not meet relocation expenses, or travel from home to designated office expenses will not be paid. 

Regular travel to London required and occasional travel throughout country.

 

About the job

Job description

Do you want to help to make a difference to children’s everyday experience of going to school? 

Capital Directorate – within the Department for Education - is a dynamic environment, delivering multi billion pound construction programmes, with involvement in the wider government industrial strategy to transform the UK construction sector; and undertaking over 1000 land transactions and consents annually. We are one of the largest public sector construction clients in England, with a capital budget of £23.5bn to 2020-21, and over 600 school building projects. 

For further information on working for the Department for Education, please look up the link: https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/departments/working-for-thedepartment-for-education/ 

We are advertising three roles in Capital Directorate. We will sift and interview for these roles together, and consider candidates for each role. Please do indicate an interest in your application if one role particularly interests you. 

All three posts involve working at the centre of high-profile, fast paced and strategically important areas of policy. As a technical expert, you will need to work flexibly and independently, managing conflicting priorities and being confident in working with senior leaders and engaging directly with stakeholders. 

The roles focus on particular aspects of the school and college estate, but all provide a lot of variety, demanding a wide range of skills and abilities. Each day will be different. Today you may be doing a detailed analysis of a strategic estate plan to judge practice or consider the case for restructuring funding. Tomorrow you may be a key member of a group modelling costs and outcomes of a new capital programme. Next week you may be visiting a school, presenting to stakeholders on government policy and practice, or meeting with commercial organisations to review cost models and develop benchmarks to support value for money. 

Post 16 Capital Programme Manager 

The Post 16 Team works with colleges on estate strategy and planning to improve efficiency and suitability to meet needs of learners and curricula, including capital support requirements to deliver the new vocational technical qualifications (T Levels) and new Institutes of Technology. 

The Post 16 Capital Team is responsible for the provision of strategic advice and support on the condition, utilisation and management of college buildings (owned by individual colleges). This includes estates data collection and analysis, supporting business cases to HMT for capital funding allocations to deliver specific policy objectives, e.g. new T Level qualifications, implementation of approved capital funding rounds, including process design and assessment of competitive bids, monitoring and evaluating the delivery of capital projects to ensure they address funding condition requirements. This also includes supporting DfE on delivering major policy initiatives such as National Colleges and new Institutes of Technology by ensuring funding allocations and project delivery satisfy capital due diligence requirements. We also work closely with Intervention colleagues in reviewing college estates strategies linked to financial support requests to ensure they address strategic merger requirements in delivering efficiencies and fit for purpose college estates. 

The post-holder will need to work closely with senior colleagues across the Department, as well as with numerous external stakeholders and suppliers to lead on the building related technical aspects of the team’s work to support both the Department’s developing strategy and existing policy. 


You will: 

• Collate and assess complex and often inconclusive technical information from a wide range of internal and external stakeholders, e.g. academy trusts, colleges, local authorities, policy colleagues. 
• Use evidence and sound judgement to provide technical advice, ensuring projects are well developed and offer value for money. 
• Communicate sensitively and professionally with stakeholders and colleagues, driving positive working relationships. 
• Consider the political, commercial, legal and financial context of all projects. 
• Draft high quality advice for ministers and attend ministerial meetings as required. 
• Draft clear and succinct project reports, ensuring management information is accurate and always up to date. 
• Provide support to colleagues in a diverse environment, contributing to new ways of working 
• Be a key point of point of technical expertise and knowledge within the DfE on surveying professional services, specifically: 

- Advice on current and historic construction methods to enable risk management and maintenance guidance. 

- Strategic asset management including maintenance 
- Condition surveys 
- Lifecycle planning/whole life considerations 
- Other building technical advice to the education estate management community 

• Contribute to the development of policy on condition and estate management, advice to stakeholders, the collation and reporting of good practice and where necessary benchmarking. 
• Contribute to the development and delivery of a long term and sustainable programme for the collection of condition and estates-related data applicable to the maintenance and management of data on the condition of the whole education estate. 
• Manage other building surveying/asset management experts, ensuring that they contribute effectively to competing priorities across the team, division and wider DfE. 
• Work closely across the Division and the wider DfE to provide timely and robust advice and support to senior colleagues, in the development of policy and to Ministers. 
• Draft briefings and handle correspondence on condition and estate/asset management issues 

Successful candidates will: 

• Work and make decisions independently within clear guidelines and understand when it is appropriate to escalate issues or seek advice. 
• Be innovative in creating solutions to project delivery issues and engender this in the work across the team. 
• Think strategically, make links, understand complex problems and develop effective solutions to accelerate outcomes. 
• Bring strong, inspiring, confident and engaging leadership to the team, giving direction to colleagues and building capability to help drive high performance. 
• Organise and manage time and prioritise work effectively whilst delivering a number of projects and strategic objectives. 
• Negotiate, influence and persuade within and outside the organisation at an appropriate level in order to achieve required results. 
• Proven record of successful multi-project delivery, preferably in the construction/development industry, through management of a skilled team of people. 
• Outstanding programme and project management skills and ability to drive forward change. 
• Committed to working within an Equal Opportunities environment. 
• Flexible and able to work outside normal working hours, when necessary.

 

Person specification

Specialist skills, knowledge and experience 

Essential: 

• RICS accredited quantity surveying, building surveying or real estate surveying degree or equivalent 
• Experience of providing strategic advice to senior leaders within a client organisation. 
• Experience of successfully managing multiple senior stakeholders with conflicting demands and priorities. 
• Experience of developing and/or assessing capital project costs, estate strategies and management plans. 
• Experience of effective estate management and building maintenance. 
• An understanding of value for money principles in making decisions on capital investment 

Desirable: 

• Full membership of a professional body (the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) ideally as a quantity surveyor, building surveyor or a general practice surveyor. 
• Experience of advising on project costs and/or managing/ delivering capital projects within education sector 
• Experience of implementing and managing capital programmes including assessment of capital grant applications, monitoring project delivery and managing budgets

 

Qualifications

A relevant professional or technical qualification to degree level or equivalent. For example: Building Surveying, Quantity Surveying, Building Services Engineering, Construction Project Management.

Behaviours

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

• Making Effective Decisions
• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and Influencing

Benefits Pensions

Civil Service pension schemes may be available for successful candidates.

Benefits

Applicants currently holding a permanent post in the Civil Service should note that, if successful, their salary on appointment would be determined by the Department’s transfer / promotion policies. 

As a member of the DfE, you will be entitled to join the highly competitive Civil Service Pension Scheme, which many experts agree is one of the most generous in the UK. 

Other Benefits 

You will have 25 days leave, increasing by 1 day every year to a maximum of 30 days after five years’ service. In addition, all staff receive the Queen’s Birthday privilege holiday and 8 days’ bank and public holidays. 

We offer flexible working arrangements, such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours. 

As an organisation, which exists to support education and lifelong learning, we offer our staff excellent professional development opportunities.

Allowances

The salary range for this role is up to circa £58k, consisting of £48,493-£55,912 base salary plus a £15k non-pensionable market supplement allowance. The salary offered will be dependent on qualifications, skills and experience, with the higher end reserved for exceptional candidates. 

Applicants currently holding a permanent post in the Civil Service should note that, if successful, their salary on appointment would be determined by the Department's transfer/promotion policies.

Things you need to know Security

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check.

Successful candidates must pass basic security checks.

Nationality statement

Candidates will be subject to UK immigration requirements as well as Civil Service nationality rules.

If you're applying for a role requiring security clearance please be aware that foreign or dual nationality is not an automatic bar. However certain posts may have restrictions which could affect those who do not have sole British nationality or who have personal connections with certain countries outside the UK.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Behaviours 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. 

If a large number of applications are received for this role, the sift will be conducted on the lead behaviour, making effective decisions. If your application progresses to a full sift, all behaviours will then be considered. 

The interview will include questions on your CV and will also include a presentation from the candidate (followed by questions from the panel). We will inform candidates of the subject for presentation.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Nationality requirements

Open to UK, Commonwealth and European Economic Area (EEA) and certain non EEA nationals. Further information on whether you are able to apply is available here.

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code 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.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a guaranteed interview scheme (GIS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Apply and further information Contact point for applicants

For further information on this vacancy please contact: 

Urgent Capital – Martin Cooper: Martin.Cooper@education.gov.uk 

Rachael Davies - Rachael.davies@education.gov.uk 

Post-16 – David Johnson - David.JOHNSON@education.gov.uk

Sift/interview dates and location

Sift taking place on week commencing 10th June and 17th June 2019. 
Interviews taking place from week commencing 1st July 2019. 
Interview Location to be confirmed. 

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check maybe carried out.

Further information

Any move to Department for Education (DfE) will mean you will no longer be able to carry on claiming childcare vouchers. 

Department for Education do not cover the cost of travel to your interview/assessment unless otherwise stated. 

A reserve list may be held for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made. 

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band. 

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 applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment. 

Terms and conditions of candidates transferring from ALBs and NDPBs: 

1. Bodies that are not accredited by the Civil Service Commission and are not able to advertise at Across Government on Civil Service jobs will be treated as external new starters and will come into DfE on modernised terms and conditions with a salary at the band minimum. 

2. Bodies that are accredited by the Civil Service Commission but do not have civil service status will be offered modernised terms and will not have continuous service recognised for leave or sickness benefits. Salaries should be offered at band minimum, but there is some flexibility where this would cause a detriment to the individual. 

3. Bodies that are accredited by the Civil Service Commission and do have Civil Service status will be treated as OGD transfers. Staff appointed on lateral transfer will move on to pre-modernised DfE terms (unless they were on modernised terms in their previous organisation). Staff appointed on promotion will move on to modernised DfE terms. Staff will transfer over on their existing salary (on lateral transfer) and any pay above the DfE pay band maximum will be paid as a mark time allowance. Staff moving on promotion will have their salaries calculated using the principles set out in the attached OGD transfer supplementary information. 

Reasonable adjustment
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: 
- Contact Government Recruitment Service via dferecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs. 
- Complete the “Assistance required” 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 you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional. 

Civil Service Commission 
The Department for Education’s recruitment processes are underpinned by the Civil Service Commissioners Recruitment Principles, which outlines that selection for appointment is made on merit based on fair and open competition. 
If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the values in the Civil Service Code and/or if you feel the recruitment has been conducted in such a way that conflicts with the Civil Service Commissioners Recruitment Principles, you may make a complaint, by contacting the Central Recruitment Team at the following address CentralRecruitment.Operations@education.gov.uk 

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint you have the right to complain to the Civil Service Commissioners.