SCS1 Deputy Director Data Protection Officer Deadline extended

What are my responsibilities?

• To provide the Department advice with its obligations under the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018.
• To independently monitor the Departments compliance with those obligations and raise issues, risks and concerns.
• To act as the first point of contact for DWPs customers (over 20 million) and employees (approximately 90,000) for Data Protection matters.
• To provide advice on Freedom of Information requests (approx. 3,000 pa), and oversee DWPs overall FOI performance.
• To be the point of contact between DWP and the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) in relation to Data Protection and FOI matters.
• To lead a team of some 40 Information Rights specialists (including the Departmental Information Management Team).
• As part of the Security and Resilience SLT to provide leadership and support to the Directorate and SLT colleagues and to ensure integration between our teams.

Person specification

Essential Criteria for the role which will be used to assess your application, alongside Success Profiles as mentioned on the next slide:

• Hold a recognised Data Protection qualification.
• Experience of operating within a data protection profession in an organisation which processes a significant amount of personal data, delivering a high quality, efficient and cost-effective service by considering a broad range of methods for delivery, ensuring adherence to legal, regulatory and security requirements in service delivery.
• A proven track record of delivering timely quality outcomes, through providing the right resources to do the job, reviewing and adjusting performance expectations and rewarding success. Experience of monitoring the effectiveness of own and team communications and take action to improve where necessary.
• Experience of being an excellent leader, with the ability to coordinate the activities of others and inspire and motivate teams to be fully engaged in their work and dedicated to their role.
• Be confident in encouraging, recognising and sharing innovative ideas from a diverse range of colleagues and stakeholders and create an environment where people feel safe to challenge and know their voice will be heard.
• Have excellent communicating and influencing skills, building and maintaining a network of colleagues and contacts to achieve progress on shared objectives, build strong interpersonal relationships and show genuine care for colleagues.
• Be confident in stakeholder management, communicating with others in a clear, honest and enthusiastic way in order to build trust, and explain complex issues in a way that is easy to understand.

Desirable Criteria:

• A recognised Freedom of Information (FOI) qualification.
• A law degree or professional legal qualification.
• A postgraduate qualification in Information Rights.
• Experience of leading an FOI function.
• Awareness of the legal and regulatory framework in which a large organisation operates.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Delivering at Pace
• Managing a Quality Service

Benefits

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.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window) , and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online application process outlined below:

• A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years;
• Three statements (maximum 500 words each) answering the 3 pre-defined questions (below), explaining why you want to work for DWP in this role and how you consider your skills and experience make you suitable for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria in the person specification.

How would you approach communicating the challenges a significant data protection risk brings to internal (including senior) stakeholders within a large organisation to ensure that organisation complies with its legal obligations? How would you handle this with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO)?How have you developed and sustained complex and influential relationships to support and drive change to achieve a delivery outcome or strategy, and how you have made a difference.High-performing organisations usually have senior leaders who are drivers of continuous improvement. Give us a specific example of how you have motivated employees to achieve excellence.
For more information about this role and the selection process, please see the candidate pack attached to the advert.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window) .

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window) .

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

Nationality requirements

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

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) .

Location: Sheffield, GB

Posted Date: 9/19/2024