Length of employment: Job Summary: About the job Do you have a passion for delivering exceptional customer service, helping positively change lives in your local community? Do you enjoy working full time on site, leading and coaching a team to deliver quality service in a face-to-face office environment? Are you looking for a public service leadership role at the centre of operations, leading the delivery of Universal Credit on the high street? If so, we would like to hear from you! This rewarding role in Universal Credit operations offers a range of benefits including competitive salary, pension, flexible working, employee discount schemes, and a range of development programmes including professional learning and accreditation. There is currently 1 vacancy available across both Kirkwall and Lerwick Jobcentres with regular travel between both sites. A reserve list will be held initially for 3 months, with a view to extending to a maximum of 12 months to fill potential future Work Coach Team Leader vacancies in Scotland. Job Description: Jobcentre Operational Leaders are accountable for creating an environment to support the flexible, effective, personalised delivery of customer service to those receiving support via Universal Credit. You will lead a team of 12 -15 Work Coaches to support a caseload of customers to move closer to, or into work, ensuring performance measures are achieved and quality standards are met. This is a fast-paced role, where you will be faced with challenging circumstances whilst supporting some of the most vulnerable in our society, requiring resilience and strong, adaptable leadership skills. Leadership behaviours that show a caring, inclusive, flexible, adaptable approach will be key to your success. Enabling your teams to explore options and identify solutions to achieve successful business outcomes is critical for this role. You will gain knowledge of the local labour market whilst fostering and sustaining various relationships across the organisation, other government departments and partner organisations to develop, market, promote and support the supply of vacancies and provision for our customers. You will be responsiblefor managing the workload of your team and undertaking first line manager tasks such as regular discussions with your team members relating to wellbeing, performance, development, and career aspirations. Your role also includes applying and making decisions in line with DWP People Policies. In this role we are looking for people who will: Inspire front-line teams to deliver the best for our customers. Encourage innovation and deliver high performance using data insights and coaching techniques. Be leaders who will communicate with clarity and purpose across remote teams. Make fair, sound decisions. Understand the strategic landscape and localism plans to deliver successful business outcomes through collaboration with external stakeholders, being the local face of our Jobcentres. Manage multiple tasks and prioritise effectively. Lead people through change, ensuring our teams are adaptable and flexible to support efficiency and improve service delivery. Leave and Working Arrangements Generous holiday allowance of 23 or 25 days for new starters dependent on grade based on full-time work pattern, which increases to 30 days over time, in addition to public/bank holidays Flexible working options, including full-time, part-time, job share and flexi-time working A range of family friendly policies such as generous maternity, adoption or shared parental leave Personal Development and Well-Being Excellent learning and development opportunities A culture encouraging inclusivity and diversity with a range of local and national employee networks A comprehensive wellbeing offer which includes support for mental and physical wellbeing Support for volunteering and charitable giving activities, including time off Sports and social activities More about what we offer is available on our careers site found here Key Criteria (to be covered in the Personal Statement) Candidates must be able to demonstrate the following: Strong leadership and coaching skills,with the ability to inspire, encourage and influence teams. (Lead criteria) Ability to create an engaging and inclusive environment, empowering others to deliver excellent customer service through coaching, listening, and acting on feedback. Ability to critically analyse data and insight, to identify areas for action and involve others in developing solutions. Ability to work flexibly and at pace to meet changing priorities. Confident decision making, with a firm and fair approach to line management responsibilities using people policy and procedures. A commitment to continued self-development and to recognising and supporting the development needs of others. Experience of building collaborative working relationships with colleagues and stakeholders to achieve business objectives We will ask you to provide your CV in an anonymised format. This will remove information that could identify you, such as your name, age or gender. Your CV allows you to summarise your education, work history, skills and experience which relate to the job you are applying for. Your work history can include: paid work volunteering work work experience through school or college. You can also mention experience you have from school, college, hobbies and clubs you've been involved in. For example, if you helped organise a school trip or arranged a charity event you can highlight the skills you used. Stage 1 - Written Application and Sift. 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. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form. In the event of a large number of applications we may use the Lead Criteria, \"Strong leadership and coaching skills,with the ability to inspire, encourage and influence teams\" 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. We recognise that AI may be helpful when applying for this role, but it is important to use it in the right way. Read our DWP AI Candidate Guide on how to make the best use of GenAI while ensuring your application remains authentic and effective. Sift and interview dates to be confirmed. Stage 2 - Interview If you pass the written application sift with the required score you will be invited to a blended interview and will receive an electronic notification to your Civil Service Jobs account. On line video interviews, via MS Teams, will take place week commencing 9th June 2025. If you require any reasonable adjustments to attend an interview, please ensure you state this on your application form when asked to do so. Preparing for Interview The interview will take approximately 40 minutes and will consist of behaviour and strength-based questions.A blended interview aims to be more of a conversation offering a more inclusive approach.The questioning explores what you, the candidate, can and have done, but also your potential. You will be assessed against your experience and the Civil Service Behaviours listed below at level 3. Leadership Managing a Quality Service Developing Self & Others Changing & Improving Further Information Find out more about Working for DWP A reserve list will be held initially for 3 months, with a view to extending to a maximum of 12 months to fill potential future Work Coach Team Leader vacancies in Scotland. Any move to DWPfrom 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. Determine your eligibility at 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 Scotland 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 emailingstating the job reference number in the subject heading. For further information on the Disclosure Scotland confidential checking service telephone: the Disclosure Scotland Helpline on 0870 609 6006 and ask to speak to the operations manager in confidence, or email 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. DWP takes development seriously. Our aim is for our colleagues in these roles to be appropriately skilled and qualified - as determined by the business. To support this aim you may be required to undertake a work based qualification, which may be in the form of an apprenticeship, which will support you in further developing your professional knowledge and skills for this role and your future career development. The qualification can be undertaken in work time, you agree to take this job on the basis that you may be required to undertake a work based qualification; a candidate's failure to participate fully in the professional programme, once appointed, may be a breach of their employment contract. Important 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. 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. Reasonable Adjustment At DWP we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, especially 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. 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