Length of employment:
Job Summary:
Shaping policy that touches lives across the UK. That's our purpose.
We're hiring Policy Advisors into Department for Work and Pensions, the UK's largest government department.
You'll join our brilliant Policy Group team. We help bring about social change by translating Ministers' ambitions and decisions on the labour market, delivering and protecting the welfare system, child poverty and pensions into practical policies and services.
It's work with real-world impact. Our policy supports solutions and services that everyone in the UK will interact with, often at important and vulnerable times in their lives.
We are looking for people with a range of backgrounds, all sorts of real-life experience and have a real passion and ability to make a difference.
You don't need a policy background, but you need the skills to become an expert Policy Advisor. We are looking for people that can demonstrate they have keen attention to detail, have strong verbal and written communication skills, analytical skills, and the ability to make strategic decisions.
Job Description:
As a Policy Advisor, you will need to be flexible and confident in analysing different types of information, communicating in different ways to suit the audience, and understanding people's varied perspectives. Being an SEO in Policy Group means working with and delivering through others, building strong and effective relationships across your team and the wider department, with other government departments and across a wider stakeholder community.
You will own a particular policy area and will be developing policy that is based on qualitative and quantitative evidence and working with a range of internal and external experts. You'll develop written policy advice and guidance to colleagues for Ministers and their private offices and Other Government Departments including Number 10.
You will quickly build relationships with key stakeholders and grow your knowledge of strategy for your area and develop political awareness and understanding of legislative changes that will impact your work.
The work we do supports citizens, Ministers, government, and parliament.
You will work alongside a highly collaborative and established community of policy experts, operational teams and external stakeholders.Together we translate legislation into workable policy by collaborating with a broad spectrum of stakeholders to draft change and manage associated risk, ensuring the best outcomes for UK citizens.
Regardless of where you work in Policy Group you can expect to be involved in:
* Owning a policy area, with agency over how you plan and organise your area of work.
* Working across organisational boundaries, and with key partners, to deliver outcomes.
* Problem solving to achieve outcomes for citizens, working out ways to approach a new problem and develop strategy for delivery or improvement.
* Policy development as well as the management of the wider division and strategic management of Policy Group.
* Advising on decisions affecting direction and delivery, assessing risk, and advising on mitigation, including assessing the consequences of any proposed changes.
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.
We particularly welcome people from ethnic minority backgrounds applying as they are under-represented groups in DWP; and applications from people able to work from our Leeds and Sheffield hubs .
To understand more about DWP and Policy Group - and full information on applying for this vacancy - you must read the attached Candidate Pack.
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.
When applying for these roles, you will be required to state in preference order which of the three Policy Group Hub locations you can work from, Sheffield, Leeds, and London. Please be aware these roles can only be carried out in the UK, not overseas, and your office base must be one of the three Policy Group Hubs:
Quarry House, Leeds, LS2 7UA
Caxton House, 1-11 Tothill St, London, SW1H 9NA
King's Court, Hanover Way, Sheffield, S3 7UF
Appointments may be made to candidates in merit order based on location preferences and geographical requirements
By indicating your preferred Policy Group hub location(s) in your application you are stating that you are willing to accept a post in any of your chosen hub location(s).
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, as required.
Certain job roles 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. The number of days that anyone will be able to work at home will be determined primarily by business need, but personal circumstances and other relevant circumstances will also be taken into account. If you are successful, any opportunities for hybrid working, including whether a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for you, will be discussed with you prior to you taking up your post.
The corporate hub location will be the designated place of work and any remote or home working arrangement does not constitute a change to your designated place of work or contractual Terms and Conditions.
You will be assessed against these Experience Criteria during the selection process. You must provide clear evidence examples for each of the following. Your personal statement needs to set out evidence of how your experience meets all the Experience Criteria.
We are not looking at how much time you have spent in a job, but rather how you have performed. 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.
Communication
Communicate clearly in writing and verbally understanding complex written work with the ability to distil the salient points from both written and analytical material conveying messages to diverse audiences, delivering the point/telling the story, in an accessible and compelling ways. Understand how to work effectively with and provide a wide range of advice to senior stakeholders/ministers and to write for a variety of audiences providing structured argument and demonstrating effective communication skills. You will demonstrate exceptional writing skills that evidence the importance of clarity, concise writing, engaging presentations, confident delivery, with connection with the audience to foster and facilitate understanding.
Analytical and Critical Thinking
You will be able to generate, assess and apply evidence and analysis to understand delivery context, interpret data to enable informed decisions or recommendations and develop new strategies. You will understand wider systems and decision making to apply research methods for commissioning evidence from a wide range of sources. This requires attention to detail, data interpretation, assessing complex data to understand implications, distilling data into insights, identify trends, problem solving and clarifying the desired outcomes to get to the heart of a policy/project challenge.
Strategic Thinking
You will understand an evolving policy or political landscape, with the ability to assess situations considering impacts and broader consequences of decisions or recommendations. Have the ability to work across boundaries, identifying and setting direction including understand the benefits and impacts of technology on service delivery to enable faster and responsive policy making to meet changing demands. You proactively develop political awareness and curiosity sharing knowledge with colleagues to build a culture of understanding an evolving policy landscape.
Working across Boundaries and Collaboration
You must demonstrate how you engage and collaborate with stakeholders at all levels having the ability to confidently deliver and connect with a diverse audience, fostering understanding and build trust to work towards a common goal supporting end-to-end implementation. Designing implementation and delivery systems in collaboration with delivery partners and users, engaging with cross sector partners to agree the most appropriate delivery options and navigate disagreements and conflict resolution using effective negotiating and influencing skills .
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. In the event of a large number of applications, meeting the pass standard for the lead criteria Communication will determine if the other criteria are scored. Candidates will have to meet the standard for all criteria to progress to interview.
If high application volumes are received, the benchmark for candidates to proceed to the next stage may be raised. In line with our commitment to the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS), we aim to advance all candidates applying under the DCS who meet the minimum standard. However, we may only progress those candidates who best meet the required standards.
Your statement must not exceed 1250 words, and you are advised to take advantage of the full word count.
As part of the application process you will be asked to complete an online test, CV and 1250 personal statement. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.
Stage 1 - The Civil Service On-Line Assessment Test
After submission of the first stage of your application you will be invited to complete the Civil Service Work Strengths test. If you successfully pass this test, you will be invited to complete the next stage of the application.
Please complete the online test well before the deadline to ensure you do not experience any technical issue and fail to meet the deadline. The closing date for the application is 05/06/25 at 23:55.
Please also leave time to practice. The test is administered online and accessed via the CS Jobs website. When you are invited to take the test, you will be sent full guidance and a link to Practice tests which provide an authentic test-taking experience, so you can understand how the tests work. It is a timed test and so practice will help.
You must have completed the test and submitted your full application in advance of this deadline. Do not leave it to the last minute. If you fail to complete the online test and submit your application before the deadline, your application will be unsuccessful.
Online Test Important Information
Our online test supplier (Talogy) will be performing a scheduled release at both
* 1am on Saturday 31st May 2025. At this time there will be up to 4 hours where candidates will not be able to access tests. AND
* 5pm on Sunday 1st June 2025. At this time there will be up to 1 hour where candidates will not be able to access tests.
All Online Tests will be affected.
Candidate Impact
Candidates who are taking the test when the downtime starts will have their test paused. They will be able to pick up where they left off after the downtime. They can do this by accessing the test again from their application centre.
Candidates will not be able to launch new tests during the downtime. Candidates reporting issues should be advised to return to take the test until:
* After 5am on Saturday 31st May. The release window is 1-5am AND
* After 8pm on Sunday 1st June. The release window is 5-8pm.
Stage 2 - Your Personal Statement
Your personal statement needs to set out evidence of how your experience meets all the Experience Criteria set out in the job advert.
We are not looking at how much time you have spent in a job, but ratherhow you performed and what you have achieved in the role. Your Personal Statement must demonstrate clear evidence of what you did, how you did it and the outcome achieved, as well as evidence of your personal impact and your ability to take forward different approaches depending on the 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.Candidates will have to meet the standard for all criteria to progress to interview.
Your statement must not exceed 1250 words, and you are advised to take advantage of the full word count.
You will also be asked to provide a CV. There is no requirement to upload your personal CV. You will be given the opportunity to add your CV details within the application process. Your CV will be used for reference when matching to available roles only and will not be formally assessed - so please put the main content of your evidence and skills in your Personal Statement.
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.
The evidence you provide must relate to your own experiences. If evidence of plagiarism, or sharing of questions, information or answers throughout any part of the selection process is found, your application will be withdrawn. Examples of plagiarism can include:
* Presenting the work, ideas and experience of others as your own
* Copying content from an online/published source
* Using forms of Artificial Intelligence to produce application content which you present as your own.
We recognise that AI may be helpful when applying for this role, but it is important to use it in the right way. Read the DWP AI Candidate Guide to understand how you can make the best use of GenAI while ensuring your application remains authentic and effective.
Stage 3 - Interview
If you are successful at sift then you will be progressed to the next stage of selection. The next stage will include a written exercise, a presentation and an interview. The exercises and interview will be based on the experience criteria detailed in the job advert. Exact details of the exercises and interview will be confirmed when you are invited to interview.
The guidance on Success Profiles explains these selection tools. To help you prepare and settle into the interview you will be sent the experience criteria questions in advance, 5 days prior to your interview. These questions should be treated as confidential. The interview panel may ask you other questions which will not be shared in advance such as probing questions about your experience examples.
Interviews will take place face to face. We aim to conduct interviews from our three Corporate Centre Hubs. More information about this and the presentation will be provided to candidates after the sift.
We aim to begin sifting from 6th June 2025. Interviews should commence from 17th July 2025. Note that this is an indicative timeline.
Further Information
Find out more about Working for DWP
A reserve list may be held for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made.
Any move to DWP from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare; for further information visit the Childcare Choices website .
If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.
In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.
However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing stating the job reference number in the subject heading.
New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.
Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant's details held on the IFD will be refused employment.
A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.
Before applying for this vacancy, current employees of DWP should check whether a successful application would result in changes to their terms & conditions of employment, e.g. mobility, pay, allowances. Civil Servants that would transfer into DWP from other government organisations, following successful application, will assume DWP's terms & conditions of employment current on the day they are posted, unless DWP has stated otherwise in writing.
Reasonable Adjustment
At DWP we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce.
We consider visible and non-visible disabilities, neurodiversity or learning differences, chronic medical conditions, or mental ill health. Examples include dyslexia, epilepsy, autism, chronic fatigue, or schizophrenia.
If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:
Contact Government Recruitment Service via DWPRecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
Complete the "Reasonable Adjustments" section in the "Additional requirements" page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you're deaf, a Language Service Professional.
If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.