Innovation Policy Adviser

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

- 326608**Salary**:

- £32,188- Leeds: £32,188 - London: £36,244- A Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 27%**Job grade**:

- Higher Executive Officer**Contract type**:

- Permanent
- Loan
- Secondment**Length of employment**:

- This role is being advertised on a permanent basis. If preferable, Loan or Secondment options will also be available for existing Civil Servants (Loan) and applicants from accredited NDPBs or any other employer (Secondment).**Business area**:

- DHSC - NHS Policy and Performance - Innovation and Health Technology**Type of role**:

- Policy
- Strategy**Working pattern**:

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

- 2Contents

Location

About the job

**Benefits**:
Things you need to know

Location
- London and LeedsAbout the job

**Job summary**:
In DHSC, we are proud of our purpose - to enable everyone to live more independent, healthier lives for longer. To achieve this, and create a great place to work, we have four values: we are inclusive, we constantly improve, we challenge, and we are agile. If this sounds like an environment you would like to work in, we would love to hear from you.

The Innovation Division is responsible for addressing one of the Department’s top Ministerial priorities - to increase the adoption of safe, ethical and effective innovations in the health and care system.

It is a new function, established to set a compelling vision for innovation across the health and social care system, develop a clear strategy for achieving it, and coordinate delivery so the work gets done. It will address cross-cutting innovation policy questions through its projects team, promote and support a culture of innovation in the Department, and serve core briefing needs.

We are looking to staff this function with a team of creative self-starters who build trusting relationships easily and know how to get things done.

As a top Ministerial priority, it will have significant exposure to Ministers, the Department Board and the Department’s most senior officials. It will work closely with the Department’s wider policy teams and senior leaders in NHS England, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and Health Research Authority (HRA).

**Job description**:
This is a new team welcoming a diverse mix of skills and experience which we expect to be key to its success.

We are looking for two Innovation Policy Advisors who are creative and independent thinkers to play an important role developing the Department’s innovation agenda and making sure it is delivered. You will support the scoping and delivery of projects that support the Division’s objectives, which are to:

- Clarify innovation priorities: Work closely with other key stakeholders across DHSC and its Arm’s Length Bodies to provide our policy teams, delivery partners and the wider health system with more clarity on the Department’s innovation priorities and turn this into an actionable and widely supported plan.
- Coordinate system efforts: Align Ministers, senior officials, and senior delivery partners behind the Department’s plan and ensure they deliver the elements that they are responsible for. Oversee mapping of innovation challenges to prioritise and allocate responsibility for addressing any gaps in government provision.
- Solve cross-cutting innovation challenges: Develop creative approaches to solving high-priority innovation challenges which span several policy teams and therefore require central ownership, or where independent challenge is needed.
- Promote and support a culture of innovation in the Department**:Provide thought leadership, lead by example and create platforms to encourage innovative policy thinking across the Department’s grades and policy teams.
- Briefing: Innovation is a significant ministerial priority, you will develop high quality advice and briefing for Ministers, including correspondence, speeches and visits.

**Person specification**:
**Role Responsibilities**:
You will be expected to:

- Be the team’s single point of contact for coordinating cross-cutting innovation commissions
- Produce high quality drafting for all Parliamentary Questions and relevant correspondence
- Initiate and maintain a database of innovation statistics and case studies
- Run a programme of work to encourage more innovative policymaking in DHSC, for example through innovation competitions, policy sprints, and bringing in more external thinking
- Provide secretariat support to a senior official level Innovation Forum
- Support the team with research and analysis tasks as required
- Deliver accurate, insightful work under significant time pressure
- Build a strong network of staff across DHSC, its Arm’s Length Bodies and externally that can support your work
- Demonstrate excellent writing skills in products pi