Private Office: Head of Ministerial Correspondence

**Details**:
**Reference number**:

- 357157**Salary**:

- £52,412 - £68,918- National: £52,412 min to £63,517 max, London: £57,631 - £68,918**Job grade**:

- Grade 7**Contract type**:

- Permanent**Business area**:

- DWP - Private Office**Type of role**:

- Policy**Working pattern**:

- Full-time, Job share**Number of jobs available**:

- 1Contents

Location

About the job

**Benefits**:
Things you need to know

Location
- Hub Location: Caxton House, London or Quarry House, LeedsAbout the job

**Job summary**:
DWP is the UK’s biggest public service department, and administers the state pension, a range of working age, disability, and ill health benefits to around 22 million claimants and customers. What we do matters to millions of people every day.

The work carried out by the Ministerial Correspondence Team (MCT) plays a critical role in protecting the reputation of the Department and is an essential means of both influencing stakeholders and citizens and ensuring the department can be held to account. Clear communication of the Department’s policies and priorities, along with prompt action to understand and respond to queries and pressing issues are at the centre of this work.

**Job description**:
You will:

- Oversee the delivery of a high-quality service through leadership of a team of correspondence drafters, ensuring that the work aligns with requirements from Ministers, the Permanent Secretary, and the Cabinet Office.
- Work with the Deputy Principal Private Secretary to review the end-to-end process and harness the benefits of the department’s modernisation programme.
- Be required to anticipate and manage issues and to consistently improve the quality of service through clear and visible leadership, this will include leading a team of approximately 25 staff, with direct line management of 2 people.
- Build strong and productive relationships across Whitehall, including with the Cabinet Office.
- Regularly collect feedback to ensure the department is continuously improving and innovating.
- Have a clear grasp of the Department’s priorities as well as proactively horizon scanning for time critical issues that may influence departmental communications.
- Be an active member of the Private Office Senior Management Team, working with colleagues across the floor to foster a positive and inclusive culture, and to contribute to the wider leadership of Private Office.
- Evaluate the overall performance of MCT using effective management information to ensure we comply with Cabinet Office and No 10 targets.

**Person specification**:
We are looking for a tenacious, resilient, and flexible person with excellent leadership skills to work effectively across the Private Office and Whitehall to ensure we are delivering a high-quality service.

The post-holder will be able to prioritise effectively and enjoy working in a fast-paced environment.

Essential Criteria:

- Experience in leading teams with confidence, with the ability to set the right expectations, deliver a high-quality service, and to develop effective strategies for managing peaks of work. **(Lead Criteria)**:

- The ability to build strong working relationships with senior stakeholders to understand the political, policy and media landscape.
- The ability to inspire others to achieve by developing and communicating a clear team purpose and vision; using networking and other influencing opportunities to build the reputation of the team across government.
- The ability to effectively identify and resolve complex stakeholder and customer issues.

The post-holder will take responsibility for overall correspondence performance: Working closely with team leaders and ministerial offices to ensure targets are met on quality and timeliness of all correspondence.

Experience of working with Ministers is desirable but not essential.
- Caxton House, London
- Quarry House, Leeds

The role is full time or job share.

If working from Leeds you may be required to attend the occasional meeting in London.

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

- Managing a Quality Service
- Leadership
- Seeing the Big Picture
- Communicating and Influencing

**Benefits**:

- Learning and development tailored to your role
- An environment with flexible working options
- A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
- A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

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.The CV element will not be individually scored so please put the main content of your evidence and skills in your 1000 word Personal Statement.

The CV is an online tool accessed through the Civil Service Jobsite and there is no requirement to upload your personal CV.
- Experience in leading teams with confidence, with the ability to set the right expectation