Department for Transport

English Devolution Senior Policy Advisors
Department for Transport
Apply before 11:55 pm on Monday 10th July 2023

Reference number: 295487
Salary: £39,428
Contract type: Permanent
Working pattern: Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time

Location: Birmingham, Leeds

About the job
We recognise the challenges that people with protected characteristics may experience on the job market and in their career progression. We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups, including ethnic minorities, people with a disability, and people with gender diverse identities.

Do you have strong communication skills and the ability to build effective working relationships?

Have you got a passion for innovation and working flexibly to deliver great results?

Are you an experienced policy professional seeking a new and exciting challenge?

If so, we would love to hear from you!

About you
To thrive in this role, you will have experience of working successfully within a policy environment, ideally across departments and disciplines. You can work at pace across teams to develop sound policies in the face of differing views and sometimes conflicting or incomplete information.

You will have excellent communication skills and can quickly build effective working relationships with internal and external stakeholders to deliver high quality outcomes.

You have a passion for innovation and can work flexibly to apply new ideas and ways of working.

You are able to demonstrate compassion and empathy as you will be working with sensitive, high profile issues.

Job description
Regions, Cities and Devolution Directorate is the cross-cutting team leading the Department’s relationships with places – local authorities, Combined Authorities and Sub National Transport Bodies – right across England. Stakeholder engagement is a vital part of what we do, but our work is so much broader and deeper than that: our mission is to support DfT in taking a place-based approach to better transport, local and regional economic growth and productivity, and wider Government objectives including Levelling Up, as well as improving transport for the user and reducing carbon emissions. The directorate provides local insight on a whole range of transport issues related to specific localities, unblocks issues affecting scheme development or delivery, ensures policies impacting a particular place are aligned and works with teams across DfT and Government to support the best outcomes for places and government. Our work makes a huge difference to the daily lives of millions across England, whether they drive, walk, cycle or hop on the bus or tram.

We are looking for two motivated and effective policy advisors to join our newly established division. This is an opportunity to be help shape the future of English devolution at a time of increased political and ministerial interest. Successful candidates are likely to be involved in negotiating and delivering on specific devolution deals as well as one or more of the following: developing cross-cutting policy on devolution, supporting the smooth running of the substantial programme of deal work within DfT or preparing Statutory Instruments to transfer transport powers and functions to Combined Authorities.

We are a small, friendly team, with an emphasis on inclusion and diversity. Our work involves the nexus of policy, legislation and funding, and cuts across all main areas of DfT. Successful candidates will need to work across the Department to deliver on our commitments, quickly understanding and working with a range of complex policy issues across the modes; deploy negotiating and influencing skills within government and with local places; and be flexible to support new and emerging priorities. In return, you will be responsible for delivering key Government commitments and gain or further your experience of working across Departmental and Whitehall boundaries and with local authorities in England.

Whilst we welcome applications from those looking to work with us on a part time basis, there is a business requirement, for the successful candidate to be able to work at least 30 hours per week.

Responsibilities may include, but are not limited to:
• Leading on specific deals, carrying out new policy development on devolution proposals from DfT or elsewhere in Government, working with other DfT policy teams as needed to ensure we have a good understanding of their likely impact.
• Advising Ministers on devolution proposals, ensuring as far as possible a coherent and strategic approach to devolution deals across the board.
• Upon agreement of devolution deals, working with DLUHC and places to implement transport elements of the new deals including taking forward secondary legislation.