Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
UCR Operational Team Leader
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Bangor, Basildon, Birkenhead, Burnley, Canterbury, Dudley, Dundee, Glasgow, Grimsby, Hastings, Hull, Kilmarnock, Leeds, Leicester, Newcastle, Pembroke Dock, Plymouth, Preston, Sheffield, Sunderland, Swindon, Pontypridd (Ty Taf), Wigan, Wrexham
For candidates requesting to work in Newcastle, this role will be based at Newcastle Benton Park View and will then move to Pilgrim Place in Newcastle city centre by the end of 2027.
For candidates requesting to work in Glasgow Northgate, please note these roles will initially be based at Glasgow Northgate and will then move to Glasgow Atlantic Quay by September 2027.
For candidates requesting to work in Sunderland Wear View House, please note these roles will initially be based at Sunderland Wear View House and will then move to Sunderland Faber Building by April 2027.
For candidates requesting to work in Sheffield King’s Court, please note these roles will initially be based at King’s Court and then move to 1 West Bar by early 2028.
Job Summary
As part of the DWP Operational Delivery, Universal Credit Review (UCR) Team you will be at the heart of DWP’s front line operations helping to change people's lives in our communities from a customer base of over 20 million people.
DWP is responsible for helping people move into employment, supporting pensioners and protecting some of the most vulnerable in our society. We help people lift themselves out of poverty and to stay out of poverty, through work, saving and support. This is a hugely important public service, and our challenge is bigger than ever.
These are key roles that require flexibility and versatility, to help us deliver excellent customer service, make sound decisions, implement change and lead others.
This job would be ideal for people who have a passion for public service and are able to encourage and influence others to deliver quality outcomes to help claimants become financially independent.
Job Description
UCR Operational Team Leaders are responsible for coaching, leading and building a team in a DWP location helping to design and deliver critical activities to ensure customers receive the right entitlement to benefit.
You will be responsible for the line management of a UCR team. UCR teams review the entitlement and circumstances of claims to ensure that claimants are receiving the correct level of entitlement. This work contributes to the Department’s commitment to reduce fraud and error within the social security system.
As a leader you will lead colleagues to ensure the team delivers excellent customer service. You will monitor performance and conduct Tier 1 quality assurance within your team coaching agents to deliver.
You Will Be Responsible For:
- Ensuring UCR agents are UC confident, understand the aims of UCR and are capable to deliver the review process to a diverse claimant base.
- Effectively manage relationships to ensure delivery of UCR as part of the One Service ethos.
- Maintain oversight of UCR agent’s personal workloads and be responsible for prioritising work across the team as part of the team-based approach.
- Deal effectively with escalations and complex queries from UCR Agents, either directly or by escalating to stakeholders for resolution
- Coach agents to analyse data and conduct robust interviews with claimants.
- Ensure Agents record outcomes on departmental systems, and complete actions to satisfy corrective activities.
- Working collaboratively, effectively, flexibly and proactively contribute towards the development of the role.
You must be able to line manage and coach a team of agents using multiple communication methods, specifically face to face and virtually via teams telephone calls.
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Person specification
Key Criteria for the Role
What We Are Looking For:
- Strong leadership and excellent people engagement skills (Lead Criteria).
- Ability to positively inspire, encourage and influence others, and actively seek/listen to feedback by encouraging discussion and ideas.
- Excellent communication skills and ability to deal appropriately with challenging and vulnerable individuals.
- Excellent people engagement skills and a focus on building collaborative working relationships with colleagues and stakeholders.
- Ability to gather, understand and analyse performance data to monitor performance, identify risks and take actions to prevent issues.
- Confident decision maker, taking a leading role in proactively managing team performance, demonstrating a firm and fair approach to line management responsibilities in accordance with policy and procedures.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Leadership
- Communicating and Influencing
- Changing and Improving
- Managing a Quality Service
Benefits
Alongside your salary of £38,772, Department for Work and Pensions contributes £11,232 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).
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 (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.
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, Strengths and Experience.
Written Application and Sift.
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The written sift will be conducted using evidence from your Personal Statement and will be assessed against the Key Criteria above.
In no more than 1250 words, your personal statement needs to set out evidence of how your skills and experience meet the Key Criteria requirements.
The 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 do not have to explain the full process, just what you have done and the skills and experience you have used.
Share with us what makes you suited to this role and why. What you can do, the skills you have that are transferable and the life experience or passion you have that are linked to this role.
In the event of a large number of applications we may use the Lead Criteria, "Strong leadership and excellent people engagement skills" to initially assess your application during the Sift stage. In this instance candidates who pass the initial Sift will be progressed to a full Sift.
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.
Interview
The interview will include a blend of strength based and behaviour-based questions. This will consist of an interview which will last approximately 40 to 45 minutes conducted by Microsoft Teams video.
Please see Success Profiles link in this advert that gives details about the behaviours and their demonstration to HEO standard.
Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.
After The Interview:
Once all the interviews have been conducted, candidates will be notified of the outcome by email.
Hybrid Working
This job role may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in their DWP office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work.
If a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for the role and for you, you must be able to work on site, in person, in the location you are posted to for at least 60% of your contracted hours.
The number of days that anyone will be able to work at home will be determined primarily by business need, but personal and other relevant circumstances will also be considered. If you are successful, any opportunities for hybrid working will be discussed with you prior to you taking up your post.
Important
This campaign has roles available in several locations. Whilst you are able to select up to 3 location preferences, this is not mandatory and you should not choose any locations you are not prepared to travel or re-locate to at your own expense. Candidates who are made an offer for any of locations they have expressed a preference for and decline or are unable to take up post within a reasonable timeframe will be withdrawn from the campaign.
Please note that these vacancies are not currently eligible for new applications for Visa Sponsorship on the Skilled Worker route, for any candidates who do not currently have permission to be in the UK as a Skilled Worker where they were sponsored
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