Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
Disability & Health Reform Leads
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Locations:
Quarry House, Leeds, LS2 7UA; Caxton House, 1-11 Tothill St, London, SW1H 9NA; King’s Court, Hanover Way, Sheffield, S3 7UF
Job Summary
We are seeking experienced policy professionals to lead high-profile areas of the Government's Disability and Health Reform agenda. These roles offer the opportunity to shape major reforms that will improve outcomes for disabled people and those with health conditions, working closely with ministers, senior officials, and key stakeholders across government and beyond.
Available Opportunities Include:
-
Access to Work Policy Lead (Head of Access to Work)
- Leading the reform of the Access to Work scheme to ensure it continues to provide effective and sustainable support for disabled people to start, stay, and progress in work.
-
Welfare Reform Policy Lead
- Leading work on major health and disability benefit reforms, including Child DLA, and working with Ministers, HM Treasury, and No.10 to develop and deliver the Government's reform agenda.
Successful candidates will be strategic leaders with strong policy skills, excellent judgement, and the ability to operate confidently in a fast-paced, high-profile environment.
Job Description
Access to Work Policy Lead (Disability & Health Reform) 1 Role
The team is now working at pace to design the policy of fundamental reform of the Access to Work scheme, which contributes to the disability-related additional costs of working, whether that’s to help individuals to stay in work or start work. The scheme is 30 years old and requires reform to provide support to disabled people in a sustainable way that aligns with our understanding of the current labour market and the overall landscape for support disabled people to enter and progress in work. The current available role is as Head of Access to Work. This is an exciting time to lead this policy as it is high profile and with lots of scope for owning and shaping a policy area to have a wider reach and benefit more disabled people into work, working with employers. The post holder is expected to lead conversations with ministers and senior stakeholder (e.g. CEOs of leading charities) and will lead a team of around 5 people.
This Is a Wide-ranging, Fast-Paced Role, And The Successful Candidate Will Be Expected To Remain Flexible As The Policies Around Health And Disability Benefit Reform And Access To Work Develop. The Role Will Involve:
- Leading an area of health and disability benefit reform policy – Access to Work.
- Working in partnership with a range of stakeholders, including other policy teams, analysts, legal, Private Office, Press Office/External Affairs, and Service Delivery.
- Drafting and delivering high-quality advice and briefing for ministers and senior officials on Access to Work Reform which considers the bigger picture, including the latest evidence and analysis, to meet ministerial objectives.
- Leading ad hoc strategic work/projects in the area in response to ministerial priorities.
Welfare Reform Policy Lead (Disability and Health Reform) 1 Role
The division has responsibility for reform of health and disability benefits, including Universal Credit Health, Personal Independence Payment, and Child DLA. This includes the development of the government response to the Milburn and Timms reviews and any future legislation for delivering these reforms.
The Postholder Will Play a Pivotal Role In Delivering These Reforms, Working Across Policy Group, Ministers, HMT And Number 10 To Obtain Collective Agreement On The Shape Of The Reforms. This Is a Fast-paced Role And Responsibilities Will Evolve As The Reforms Are Developed But The Postholder Will Be Expected To:
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- Lead on the potential reforms to Child DLA, including how eligibility is assessed and working with the Department for Education on the interaction with reforms of the Education, Health and Care Plan.
- Lead the programme of work on reform for young people, co-ordinating with DGs, Number 10, and HMT.
- Drafting and delivering high-quality advice and briefing for ministers and senior officials on Health and Disability Reform which considers the bigger picture, including the latest evidence and analysis, to meet ministerial objectives.
- Leading on the development of policy costings for the reformed system and prioritising the analytical work programme, engaging with the lead analyst and analytical teams to ensure costings are robust and quality assured.
- Leading ad hoc strategic work/projects in the area in response to ministerial priorities.
For Both Roles successful Applicants Will:
- Be a skilled, proactive, and engaging leader, adept at nurturing high-performing teams, with a commitment to personal and team development and wellbeing.
- Be an experienced policy professional and motivated self-starter with the ability to quickly get to grips with a range of complex policy issues.
- Be capable of developing strong relationships with a diverse range of stakeholders in DWP and across government with No.10 and HMT, and where required resolving conflicting priorities across DWP to deliver ministerial priorities.
- Have strong written and communications skills and be adept at advising seniors and ministers on complex policy issues.
- Be comfortable with managing competing priorities delivering high-quality work to tight timescales.
- Have the opportunity to work at the heart of policy making within the Department and regularly work closely with senior officials, DWP Ministers, and with other Government Departments on issues that impact the lives of millions of customers.
Person Specification
To be considered for this role, you must be able to demonstrate the following experience criteria:
- An inclusive and effective leader (lead criterion)
- Proven experience of working in policy or policy analysis.
- The ability to bring together multiple perspectives to provide sound advice on complex policy proposals.
- Strong written communication.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Making Effective Decisions
- Communicating and Influencing
- Leadership
- Delivering at Pace
Salary and Benefits
Alongside your salary of £75,026, Department for Work and Pensions contributes £21,735 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
DWP has 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 (pro-rata 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 year’s 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 Women’s Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE), and many more.
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Application Process
Selection Process Details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.
Application Process, Sift & CV
As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete a CV and 500-word Personal Statement. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.
- The CV is for reference only and will not be scored.
- Your Personal Statement needs to set out evidence of how your experience meets all the experience criteria set out in the advert and not the published behaviours. Your statement must not exceed 500 words, and you are advised to take advantage of the full word count.
- Your Personal Statement must show demonstrable evidence of what you did, how you did it, and what outcome was achieved. This should include the impact of your approach and evidence of your ability to take forward different approaches in different circumstances.
The standards detailed in the experience criteria are the minimum expectations for the role, and only candidates with the strongest evidence will be invited to interview.
Interview Stage
If you are successful at the sift, you will be invited to an interview. The interview will comprise behaviour-based questions. Interviews will take place via MS Teams and will include questions based on the behaviours listed below:
- Making Effective Decisions
- Communicating and Influencing
- Leadership
- Delivering at Pace
We aim to conduct the sift in early September, followed by interviews in late September.
Important Location Information
Please note that Caxton House, London, is only available to existing DWP employees already based at Caxton House and Sanctuary Buildings, London. All other locations are available to all candidates.
When applying for these roles, you will be required to state in preference order which of the Hub locations you can work from. Please be aware these roles can only be carried out in the UK, not overseas, and your office base must be one of the following hubs:
- Quarry House, Leeds, LS2 7UA
- Caxton House, 1-11 Tothill St, London, SW1H 9NA
- King’s Court, Hanover Way, Sheffield, S3 7UF
Appointments will be made to candidates in merit.
The Department is committed to promoting flexible ways of working, whilst enabling the business to operate at maximum efficiency and will expect colleagues to work from a blend of locations, including some time working at home,
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