Acas
Head of Strategy Planning and Insight
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Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle or Nottingham Office with an element of working from home. Please be aware that this role can only be worked in Great Britain and not overseas. You will be asked to express a location preference during the application process. Informal hybrid arrangements are available and the balance between home and workplace working is to be agreed with the line manager to achieve the right balance between collaboration, in-person engagement and flexibility.
This role will require some travel and overnight stays.
Job Summary
The purpose of the role is:
As a senior leader within Advice & Business Solutions (A&BS), the postholder will Lead coordination and oversight of high strategic priorities, organisational change activity and major directorate initiatives, ensuring alignment between business objectives and priorities.
The role will act as the Director's principal strategic advisor on organisational planning, performance, governance, organisational readiness and future direction, providing challenge, insight and recommendations to support executive decision-making.
The postholder will maintain strategic oversight of all significant programmes, projects, risks, dependencies and organisational initiatives across Advice & Business Solutions.
Provide leadership across strategic planning, organisational insight, risk, workforce planning and business coordination activities into clear priorities, informed decisions and effective delivery.
Lead the integration of strategic planning, organisational change
The role will operate across functional boundaries, ensuring strategic priorities, operational planning, governance arrangements and organisational dependencies are aligned to support delivery of Acas objectives and customer outcomes.
The postholder will operate with a high degree of autonomy, representing the Director where required and providing leadership continuity across strategic and cross-functional activity.
Job Description
The main accountabilities of this role are –
- Act as principle senior strategic adviser to the Director and Senior Leadership Team providing strategic advice and challenge on organisational planning, operational performance, governance, organisational risk and strategic priorities.
- Lead development and coordination of integrated short, medium and long-term business planning across Advice & Business Solutions.
- Provide strategic oversight of organisational performance, planning and insight activity to support Executive and Directorate decision-making.
- Lead development of directorate governance frameworks, planning arrangements to support effective decision-making and accountability.
- Maintain oversight of the full Advice & Business Solutions portfolio, ensuring strategic initiatives, operational improvements and organisational change activity are prioritised, coordinated and aligned to capacity, funding, risks and organisational objectives.
- Lead assessment of organisational readiness for major change, identifying capability, capacity, governance and delivery risks and ensuring appropriate mitigation is in place.
- Lead the integration of strategic planning, organisational change, performance, workforce, financial and operational information to provide a single directorate view of priorities, risks, dependencies and organisational readiness.
- Maintain oversight of strategic activity across Advice & Business solutions, ensuring the Director and Senior Leadership Team have timely visibility of emerging issues, risks, opportunities, dependencies and delivery pressures requiring intervention or escalation.
- Contribute to organisation-wide planning, governance and improvement activity, representing Advice & Business solutions interests and ensuring alignment with wider Acas priorities.
- Coordinate cross-directorate planning activity to ensure alignment between operational priorities, workforce capacity, financial planning and organisational objectives.
- Support development of future operating models, organisational structures and workforce planning activity in response to changing operational and organisational requirements.
- Provide strategic interpretation of organisational performance, insight, customer information, identifying emerging risks, opportunities and priorities requiring executive action.
- Lead prioritisation and coordination activity relating to organisational change, improvement initiatives and strategic delivery programmes.
- Provide strategic challenge, coordination and support to operational leaders without direct responsibility for delivery of frontline operational services. Work collaboratively with operational leaders to support development of business plans, performance frameworks and service improvement activity without direct operational ownership of frontline services.
- Provide oversight and coordination of strategic planning and scheduling functions to support organisational resilience and effective resource planning.
- Lead development of Executive Board papers, strategic briefings, business cases and governance submissions.
- Deputise for the Director on agreed strategic matters and provide leadership continuity across planning, governance, organisational coordination and change activity.
- Build effective relationships across Acas, government departments and external stakeholders to support delivery of strategic priorities.
- Lead and develop multidisciplinary teams operating across planning, insight, governance and business coordination functions.
- Promote a culture of accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement and evidence-led decision-making.
- Undertake other duties commensurate with the grade and scope of the role.
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Who We Are
Acas exists to make working life better for everyone in Britain. We are the experts in workplace matters, we’re impartial, so we’re not on anyone’s side. That means we’re working for everyone to help prevent, manage and resolve workplace issues.
Acas helps employers and employees by providing information, advice, training, conciliation and other services that prevent, manage or resolve workplace problems.
Acas: Britain’s Workplace Experts
Acas has been recognised for its Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace from the Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion awards; it has been Disability Confident Highly Commended, a Pay Gap award winner, and an Overall winner for public sector organisations. Acas is committed to providing services and developing policies which embrace diversity, promote equality of opportunity and eliminate unlawful discrimination.
Person specification
Experience
Essential Criteria:
- Leading strategic planning or organisational coordination activity within a complex operational environment (Lead criterion).
- Experience of identifying emerging risks, opportunities and dependencies and taking proactive action to support organisational decision making (Lead criterion).
- Ability to provide objective advice and constructive challenge, including communicating difficult messages and escalating concerns where required.
- Experience of building constructive relationships and influencing a wide range of stakeholders, including senior representatives, corporate functions and external partners.
- Leading multidisciplinary teams across planning, governance, insight or operational support functions.
- Working across organisational boundaries to coordinate priorities, dependencies and organisational activity.
Desirable Criteria (the following will be assessed only in the event of tie-breaker scenarios) -
- Experience of operating within a public sector, regulated or complex governance environment.
- Experience supporting large operational or customer-facing services.
- Experience of organisational redesign or workforce planning.
- Experience of operational scheduling, planning or resource management.
- Financial and commercial awareness.
- Understanding of strategic and operational planning considerations.
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Qualifications
- Degree-level qualification or equivalent professional experience in business management, organisational leadership, governance or related discipline.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Seeing the Big Picture
- Leadership
- Communicating and Influencing
- Making Effective Decisions
Salary and Benefits
Alongside your salary of £76,123, Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service contributes £22,052 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).
We’re Big Believers In Rewarding People For The Amazing Work They Do. Take a Look At Some Of The Fantastic Benefits We Offer:
- Learning and Development
- Health and wellbeing
- Pension scheme
- Cycle to work scheme
- Interest free season ticket loans
- Volunteering opportunities
Could you ask for any more?
You’ll have access to a Lifestyle website where you’ll be able to grab savings on a wide range of products, from holidays to your weekly shop.
To find out more, check out: Working for Acas
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.
How To Apply
Please click on the 'Apply now' button.
As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete:
- An evidence-based Personal Statement and CV reflecting the essential and desirable Experience requirements as listed in the Person Specification section of this advert. Your Personal Statement should be no longer than 1,250 words. It should avoid generalised assertions, instead including specific examples of achievements, explaining the degree of challenge, what you did and the outcomes.
- Desirable criteria will only be assessed in the event of a tie-breaker scenario at sift or interview.
Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be conducted using the Lead Essential Experience Criteria:
- Leading strategic planning or organisational coordination activity within a complex operational environment, and
- Experience of identifying emerging risks, opportunities and dependencies and taking proactive action to support organisational decision making.
Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift of all the above requirements or progressed straight to interview.
If a large number of applications meet the minimum standard an interview wait list may be created for this position. This means that if you have met the minimum requirements at sift you may be placed at a ‘Hold’ status for up to 12 months and if we are able to invite you to an interview we will be in touch.
Interview Details
If you have successfully passed sift at the application stage, you will be invited to an interview which will either take place via Microsoft Teams or Face-to-Face, and which will take place from the week commencing 17 August 2026.
It will be a Behaviour and Experience based interview. The following Behaviours will be assessed at Interview:
- Leadership
- Seeing the Big Picture
- Communicating and Influencing
- Making Effective Decisions
The following Essential Experience criteria will be assessed at Interview
- Leading strategic planning or organisational coordination activity within a complex
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