About the Group
The Public Services Group is at the heart of Treasury’s work to secure sustainable public finances and drive economic growth. We manage public spending of more than £250bn. across key public services and departments, including health, education, the criminal justice system, local government, housing, defence and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
We do this by working with other government departments, ministers, and other Treasury teams to ensure that spending plans support high quality public services, help the economy to grow and provide value for money for the taxpayer.
Our roles offer a range of opportunities to work with senior leaders in other government departments and on the frontline of public services and ensure the effective delivery of public services.
The Group is committed to being an excellent place to work, with a relentless focus on good management, learning and development and continuous improvement in everything we do
About the Team
The Education and Skills team is a high performing spending team, responsible for spending control of one of the largest and most high-profile budgets in government. We lead HMT’s relationship with DfE at a time when the department is delivering several radical reform programmes. We are also at the forefront of the Treasury’s work to boost productivity, by ensuring that we have an education system which meets the needs of the future economy.
We are a friendly and supportive team with a strong emphasis on an inclusive and open culture, making use of everyone’s talents! We are especially proud of our track record in helping our team members to develop and make the most of the opportunities available whilst being in the team.
Our core role is to help the Department for Education (DfE) to live within their budget and deliver reforms to boost productivity in order to grow the economy.
About the Job
We are recruiting for a policy adviser on apprenticeships and adult skills to join the team. This is an exciting and stretching HEO role which requires good policy judgement, a keen eye for detail and an ability to see and shape the bigger picture.
This is a particularly interesting time to work on Apprenticeships and Adult Skills at the Treasury. The government has committed to ambitious reforms through the Growth and Skills Levy and there is significant ministerial interest across the portfolio, including on tackling the rise in people not in Education, Employment or Training (NEETs). The successful candidate will need to quickly build expert knowledge of the policy areas and funding system, and develop strong working relationships across HMT, DfE and DWP. The post would suit someone with experience of - or an interest in - education policy and funding.
Working to the head of apprenticeships, key responsibilities include:
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Developing the Treasury’s position on a range of adult skills and apprenticeships spending and policy issues, balancing fiscal considerations with the need to boost productivity and growth, and preparing high quality advice and briefing to ministers.
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Leading on spending control functions for the branch, scrutinising spending proposals, assessing evidence, analysing information and offering constructive challenge on plans.
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Working to deliver the priorities and outcomes funded at the Spending Review. This will include monitoring delivery, briefing Ministers and senior officials, analysing DfE proposals aimed at improving delivery and outcomes.
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Building collaborative working relationships with key policy officials in DfE, DWP and HMT, as well as a variety of cross-government and external stakeholders to scrutinise and influence policy development.
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Planning and preparation for the next spending review. This will include analytical work to inform strategic decisions on priorities, understanding key risks and advising Ministers and senior officials on negotiation strategy.
We strongly encourage candidates from a diverse set of backgrounds to apply. You don’t need to be a policy professional or have any specific qualifications to apply for this role. We are looking for people who have the right set of skills, who demonstrate the values of our organisation, and who are motivated to come and work with us on a range of issues that are at the heart of how we spend money and deliver public services.
If you would like to speak to the hiring manager informally prior to the closing date for applications to find out more about the job, please contact Katherine.Ford@hmtreasury.gov.uk.
