Job vacancy: Senior Business Manager, UK Health Security Agency, Homebased (with travel)

Job summary

Main area: Science
Grade: Grade 7
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Job ref: UKHSA01495

Employer: UK Health Security Agency
Employer type: Public (Non NHS)
Site: Homebased (with travel)
Town: Homebased (with travel)
Salary: £51,824 - £65,089 per annum
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 03/05/2024 23:59

Senior Business Manager

Grade 7

The United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is a system leader for health security; taking action internationally to strengthen global health security, providing trusted advice to government and the public and reducing inequalities in the way different communities experience and are impacted by infectious disease, environmental hazards, and other threats to health.

UKHSA’s remit, as an agency with a global-to-local reach, is to protect the health of the nation from infectious diseases and other external threats to health. As the nation’s expert national health security agency UKHSA will:

Prevent: anticipate threats to health and help build the nation’s readiness, defences and health security
Detect: use cutting edge environmental and biological surveillance to proactively detect and monitor infectious diseases and threats to health
Analyse: use world-class science and data analytics to assess and continually monitor threats to health, identifying how best to control and mitigate the risks
Respond: take rapid, collaborative and effective actions nationally and locally to mitigate threats to health when they materialise
Lead: lead strong and sustainable global, national, regional and local partnerships designed to save lives, protect the nation from public health threats and reduce inequalities.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

As the Senior Business Manager, your main responsibilities will include:

Engaging with UKHSA staff, consultants and contractors working on a variety of PHM topics.
Working effectively with colleague strategic partners working on other UKHSA PHM related projects and programmes within Government, with Local Authorities, local partners and the NHS.
Providing and receiving highly complex, sensitive and contentious information, presenting information, to a wide range of stakeholders in a formal setting.
Working and engaging constructively with internal and external stakeholders on a range of business sensitive issues for UKHSA PHMs.
Nurturing key relationships and maintain networks internally and externally, including national networks
Ensuring close liaison with Communications and Marketing teams on public relations and marketing activities
Linking with managers and members of other functions, to address inter-dependencies and ensure alignment
Applying a structured change management approach and methodology for the impact of any chang
Deputising for senior colleagues as required, expanding on knowledge, skills and experience within their own personal professional development.
Identifying business risks and make recommendations to the Head of Operations and Deputy Director to manage those risks, regionally and nationally.
Produce business cases to support decision making at the divisional level, which are rigorous, prudent and fully exploit opportunities available.
The Senior Business Manager will provide general management functions to support the PHM laboratories. The post holder will support PHM laboratories to ensure the effective business and financial management of PHM laboratories in the Southeast and South West

The duties/responsibilities listed above describe the post as it is at present and is not intended to be exhaustive. The Job holder is expected to accept reasonable alterations and additional tasks of a similar level that may be necessary.

Please see the attached job description for a full list of duties and responsibilities.

Working for the UKHSA

For more information on the UKHSA please visit: UK Health Security Agency - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

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%
Range of health and wellbeing support

Any move to UKHSA 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. Determine your eligibility at Childcare Choices | 30 Hours Free Childcare, Tax-Free Childcare and More | Help with Costs | GOV.UK

Selection process details

STAGE 1 - APPLICATION & SIFT:

You will be required to complete an application form and a statement of suitability of 1250 words. This will be assessed in line with the advertised essential criteria – please do provide evidence of how you meet this.

If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to an interview.

STAGE 2 – INTERVIEW

This competition will involve an interview either by video or face to face.

As part of the process, candidates will be invited to interview which will involve an in-depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence in relation to the criteria set out in the Person Specification.

Please note that as part of the interview process, you may be required to undertake a test of presentation.

Your Statement of Suitability should outline your skills, experience, and achievements, providing evidence of your suitability for the role, with reference to the essential criteria (outlined in the person specification section).

You will also be asked to provide information within the ‘Employer/ Activity history’ section of the application form. This is equivalent to the information you would provide on a CV, setting out your career history.

The Success Profiles framework will be used to assess and recruit the most suitable candidate. The following behaviours and strengths will be used at the interview:

Seeing the Big Picture
Making Effective Decisions
Leadership
Communicating and influencing

Expected Timeline:

Advert close: 23:55hrs on 3rd May 2024 – unfortunately, late applications will not be considered. Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Please note these dates could be subject to change.

Eligibility Criteria

Open to all external applicants (anyone) from outside the Civil Service (including by definition internal applicants)

Nationality requirements

Appointments to roles within UKHSA will be made in accordance with the Civil Service nationality rules. These can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-rules This job is broadly open to the following groups:

UK nationals
Nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
Nationals of the Republic of Ireland
Nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with settled or pre-settled status or who apply for either status by the deadline of the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
Relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service
Relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the Civil Service
Certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment.

Security clearance level requirement

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is Basic Personnel Security Standard. People working with government assets must complete Basic Personnel Security Standard checks.

For posts on UKHSA Civil Service terms and conditions, new entrants to the Civil Service are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band. For existing Civil Servants and roles advertised across government, the rules of transfer apply, i.e., level transfers move on current salary or the pay range minimum, transfers on promotion move to new pay range minimum or receive a 10% increase. Either case is determined by whichever is the highest.

Please Note

This role is to be appointed under Civil Service Terms & Conditions. Full details on the T&C’s are found https://www.ukhsa.reed.com/

Are you already a civil servant, or employed by a Civil Service Commission accredited public body? Please state home department on your application form.

Do you meet the nationality requirements for this post? https://www.ukhsa.reed.com/

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

Educated to degree level in relevant subject or equivalent level qualification or significant experience of working at a similar level in a specialist area
Post-graduate degree in Management Studies or equivalent

Experience

Essential criteria

Post-graduate degree in Management Studies or equivalent
Extensive knowledge of specialist areas, acquired through post graduate diploma or equivalent experience or training plus further specialist knowledge or experience to master’s level equivalent
Evidence of post qualifying and continuing professional development
Must understand the background to and aims of current healthcare policy and appreciate the implications of this on engagement
An appreciation of the relationship between the Department of Health and individual provider and commissioning organisations
Member of relevant professional body
Must be able to provide and receive highly complex, sensitive or contentious information, negotiate with senior stakeholders on difficult and controversial issues, and present complex and sensitive information to large and influential groups
Ability to negotiate on difficult and controversial issues including performance and change.
Problem solving skills and ability to respond to sudden unexpected demands
Ability to analyse complex facts and situations and develop a range of options
Takes decisions on difficult and contentious issues where there may be a number of courses of action
Strategic thinking – ability to anticipate and resolve problems before they arise
Demonstrated capability to plan over short, medium and long-term timeframes and adjust plans and resource requirements accordingly

Desirable criteria

• Comprehensive experience of project principles techniques and tools such as Prince 2 and Managing Successful Projects

IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ

This is a Non-Reserved post under the Civil Service Nationality Rules. To be eligible for employment in the UK Civil Service applicants must meet the Civil Service Nationality Rules (CSNRs) which operate independently of and additionally to the Immigration Rules. Applicants must also meet necessary security and vetting requirements, along with any other relevant pre-employment checks.

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

UK nationals
nationals of the Republic of Ireland
nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

For more information on job nationality requirements and the right to work in the UK, see the Civil Service Nationality rules (opens in a new window) and the UK Visas and Immigration rules (opens in a new window)

For posts on UKHSA Civil Service terms and conditions, new entrants to the Civil Service are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band. For existing Civil Servants and roles advertised across government, the rules of transfer apply, i.e., level transfers move on current salary or the pay range minimum, transfers on promotion move to new pay range minimum or receive a 10% increase. Either case is determined by whichever is the highest.

The Civil Service pay structure and progression is different from NHS Agenda for Change (AfC), most local authority pay grades and other systems that have annual pay increments. For further details, please refer to the Information Sheet- Starting Salaries & Benefits attachment.

For AfC or Medical/Dental posts, you must have the correct professional registration to be appointed. The pay will follow the AfC or Medical & Dental terms & conditions. You may be asked to provide evidence of previous service whilst we are conducting pre-employment checks to determine your starting salary.

For Temporary Appointments, if you are not currently a civil servant, you will take up the post on a Fixed Term appointment.  If you are an existing Civil Servant, based outside of the UKHSA, you will take up the post as a loan.  If you are an existing UKHSA member of staff, you will take up the post as either a level transfer or a temporary promotion as per the UKHSA’s Pay policy. 

Given the nature of the work of the UKHSA, as a Category 1 responder under the Civil Contingencies Act, you may be required in an emergency, if deemed a necessity, to redeploy to another role at short notice. You may also be required to work at any other location, within reasonable travelling distance of your permanent home address, in line with the provisions set out in your contract of employment.

Late Applications will unfortunately not be considered.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. The law requires that selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles (attached as a supporting document).

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact UKHSA Public Accountability Unit via  email:  [email protected] If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: Visit the Civil Service Commission website here.

Reserve List - If more than the required number of suitable candidates pass the interview criteria, you may be kept on a reserve list for 12 months subject to your agreement. You may be contacted, in merit-order, if similar roles with closely matching essential criteria become available and the department choose to appoint from a reserve list.

Interview expenses will not be reimbursed.

UKHSA is required to check employment and/or education history covering three consecutive years. Please ensure you give details of at least two different referees, even if you were employed in one company for three years or more.

If you are offered a job, information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system. Please note, all communication regarding your application will be made via email, please ensure you check your junk/spam folders as emails are sometimes filtered there.

Any move to UKHSA 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. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/.

 Benefits of working at UKHSA include:

Generous annual leave:
-26 days for the first 5 years of continuous service
-28 days after 5 years of continuous service
-32 days after 10 years of continuous service
-Plus public holidays and one privilege day for the King’s birthday
Access to a generous Defined Benefit pension scheme with employer contributions.
Access to a cycle-to-work salary sacrifice scheme, season ticket advances and payroll giving.
Access to a retail discounts and cashback site.
We also promote flexible working patterns (part-time, job-share, condensed hours). UKHSA views flexible working as essential in enabling us to recruit and retain talented people, ensuring that they are able to enjoy a long-lasting career with us. All employees have the right to apply for flexible working and there are a range of options available including working from home, compressed hours and job sharing.
We also offer a generous maternity/ paternity and adoption leave package.

Hybrid Working

UKHSA operates a hybrid working model where business needs allow. This provides us with greater flexibility about how and where we work, to get the best from our workforce.

As a hybrid worker, you will usually spend a minimum of 60% of your contracted hours (averaged over a month) working at one of UKHSA's locations (approximately 3 days a week pro rata) and the rest of your time working from home.

Disability Confident Scheme

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria at sift to ensure these candidates are invited to interview.   If you wish to be included in this scheme please tick the box on your application form.

Reasonable Adjustments

The Civil Service is committed to making sure that our selection methods are fair to everyone.

To help you during the recruitment process, we will take into account any reasonable adjustments that could help you.

An adjustment is a change to the recruitment process or an adjustment at work.

This is separate to the Disability Confident Scheme.

If you need an adjustment to be made at any point during the recruitment process you should:

Contact the recruitment team in confidence as soon as possible to discuss your needs.

You can find out more information about reasonable adjustments across the Civil Service here: https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/reasonable-adjustments/