Senior Digital Practice Support Manager

Practice Support Managers in DWP Digital are responsible for supporting and building capability within their Practice communities. They work closely with the Head of Practice, Executive Sponsor and Heads of Role to co-ordinate recruitment, deploy members to assignments, identify suitable learning & development opportunities, support the organisation of practice events and in developing their Practice frameworks and plans, including measurable outcomes.

Practice Support Managers work in partnership with the central Digital Capability Team to shape, understand & communicate the strategic objectives and frameworks, then apply these to accelerate Digital performance and quality by championing common standards, common ways of working, common resources and creating communities of practice and role identity, factoring in any specific needs or requirements of the disciplines and roles within the Practice.

We currently have one vacancy within the User Centred Design (UCD) Practice Support Team. This role focuses on increasing the capability of our members by being people-focused, proactive, and collaborative.

User Centred Design (UCD) Practice Recruitment & Capacity Focused Role

This role will primarily be focused on shaping the demand profile for UCD and widening the support network within the Practice to support on demand recruitment activities. Including, enhancing the recruitment journey, optimising use of collaboration to improve the recruitment pathway to raise the Practices capability.

The UCD Practice enables and supports design and research activities wherever there are opportunities for DWP to be more user centred in how it works. This Practice is made up of around 300 members across DWP including: Content Designers, Interaction Designers, Service Designers and User Researchers. All of whom champion a truly user-centred approach to design.

UCD provides a problem-solving framework, and our practitioners apply a suite of tools and techniques to solve problems and supporting the delivery of products and services which meet a user need.

Person specification

When giving details in your employment history and personal statement you should highlight your experience in line with essential criteria below:

• Using employee recruitment data to understand the context for capability building, identifying challenges and barriers, establishing requirements, and suggesting actions.


• Evidence of designing and delivering plans to raise Capability through: Recruitment and capacity coordination.


• Leading on evaluation and impact work to review capability processes and improve the quality of a service through: Pre, During and Post recruitment exercise evaluation, including reporting and evidence-based recommendations.


• Being an advocate in the workplace community for capability building. Creating an inclusive culture of development for all where staff prioritise engaging with recruitment efforts.


• Building and sustaining long-term, strategic relationships with relevant stakeholders (within own team and wider) in order to deliver successful business outcomes.
  
  Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.


People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Digital Group is organised into Communities of Practice, which are groups of people with similar or closely related skills, experience and job responsibilities, so they can easily collaborate, share ideas and skills, in order to build their own capabilities and achieve better outcomes.

Alongside your salary, the Department for Work and Pensions contributes 28.97% towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

We also 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 (prorata 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 years 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 Womens Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more.


Salary Information

Pay for this role is from 40,201 to 43,347.

Our offer to successful candidates will be based on an assessment of your skills and experience as demonstrated at interview.

Existing Civil Servants who secure a new role on lateral transfer should maintain their current salary.

Existing Civil Servants who gain promotion may move to the bottom of the next grade pay scale or 10% increase in salary whichever would be the greater.,
• 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


Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window) .

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 also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

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 (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window) .