DWP Private Office: Parliamentary Relations Unit Team Member

at  Department for Work and Pensions

JOB SUMMARY

The Department for Work and Pensions is recruiting for the role of Parliamentary Relations Unit Team Member, dealing principally with Parliamentary Questions.
DWP is the UK’s biggest public service department, and administers the state pension, a range of working age, disability, and ill health benefits to around 22 million claimants and customers. What we do matters to millions of people every day.

JOB DESCRIPTION

DWP Private Office is the link between Ministers and the wider Department, and plays a key role in the development of policy and the delivery of Ministerial priorities. The Private Office team is high-performing, friendly, supportive and inclusive, and this is a demanding but rewarding and exciting role for someone interested in working closely with Ministers, Special Advisers and senior officials.
Parliamentary Relations Unit (PRU) provides support to Departmental Ministers within DWP Private Office, and has a crucial role to play in delivering the Department’s Parliamentary business. Following the promotion of a team member we are looking to fill a post within our busy and friendly team.
Successful applicants will work both independently and within a small team, providing flexible support to PRU management. This post reports to the Deputy Parliamentary Clerk.
The job holder will be expected to develop expertise across a range of Parliamentary work areas, and in doing so will gain knowledge of a variety of Parliamentary practices and procedures, as well as an overview of DWP business.

You will be responsible for:

• Proactively undertaking all activities of Parliamentary Business to ensure that House of Commons and House of Lords Parliamentary Questions (PQs) are processed effectively, maintaining complete accuracy and conformity to Parliamentary protocols;
• Managing and monitoring the allocation, drafting, submission to Ministers and dispatch to Parliament of all PQs. Accurately recording and maintaining a database, and ensuring a full audit trail is maintained;
• Working with colleagues in other Government Departments, offices within Parliament and Departmental colleagues on the transfer – both in and out – of PQs and other items of Parliamentary business;
• Enabling the team to provide excellent customer service by strengthening working relationships, engaging daily with Ministerial teams, drafting officials, policy teams, other Government Departments and UK Parliamentary officials, and maintaining a network of policy contacts in order to allocate PQs appropriately;
• Taking ownership for driving and improving end-to-end performance of PQs, monitoring PQ performance using UK Parliament’s Q&A System, eCase & Excel. (Training will be provided as necessary);
• Ensuring documents for deposit in House libraries are processed efficiently and timeously, while ensuring quality is monitored and maintained;
• Providing advice and guidance to colleagues across the Department, and raising the profile of the PQ process;
• Assisting the Parliamentary Clerk and Deputy Parliamentary Clerk as required with other items of Parliamentary Business, such as, but not limited to; debates, statements, formal laying of papers before UK Parliament and monitoring Parliamentary activity.

We offer successful candidates:

• The opportunity to work closely with Ministers, Special Advisers and senior
• An exciting, fast-paced and challenging work environment that involves dealing with complex policy and operational
• The chance to be part of a supportive team with plenty of opportunities to learn and develop new
• The opportunity to broaden understanding of DWP policy, Parliamentary business and cross-Government

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Applicants should be able to demonstrate excellent communication and influencing skills, both in writing and orally. They should exhibit the ability to professionally engage with internal and external stakeholders at a senior level, backing up their arguments with strong evidence, particularly when dealing with push-back.
There will be a requirement to manage multiple tasks concurrently; therefore the ability to identify potential obstacles, proactively analyse and identify solutions will be key in ensuring all areas of work are delivered to the very high standard required. Attention to detail, catching things others have missed, and the capacity to work to fixed deadlines will be crucial.
We are looking for a proactive, organised and professional person with excellent communication skills to work effectively with Ministerial teams, Special Advisers, policy and operational colleagues. You will need to manage a heavy workload and be able to prioritise effectively and enjoy working in a fast-moving environment.
Knowledge and experience of Parliamentary work is desirable, though not essential.

SECURITY REQUIREMENTS

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.
You must meet the security requirements before you can be appointed. The level of security needed is Security Check.
For meaningful checks to be carried out individuals you will need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time, to enable appropriate checks to be carried out and produce a result which provides the required level of assurance. Whilst a lack of UK residency in itself is not necessarily a bar to a security clearance, and expectation of UK residency may range from 3 to 5 years.
Failure to meet the residency requirements needed for the role may result in the withdrawal of provisional jobs offers.

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)

You will be responsible for:

• Proactively undertaking all activities of Parliamentary Business to ensure that House of Commons and House of Lords Parliamentary Questions (PQs) are processed effectively, maintaining complete accuracy and conformity to Parliamentary protocols;
• Managing and monitoring the allocation, drafting, submission to Ministers and dispatch to Parliament of all PQs. Accurately recording and maintaining a database, and ensuring a full audit trail is maintained;
• Working with colleagues in other Government Departments, offices within Parliament and Departmental colleagues on the transfer – both in and out – of PQs and other items of Parliamentary business;
• Enabling the team to provide excellent customer service by strengthening working relationships, engaging daily with Ministerial teams, drafting officials, policy teams, other Government Departments and UK Parliamentary officials, and maintaining a network of policy contacts in order to allocate PQs appropriately;
• Taking ownership for driving and improving end-to-end performance of PQs, monitoring PQ performance using UK Parliament’s Q&A System, eCase & Excel. (Training will be provided as necessary);
• Ensuring documents for deposit in House libraries are processed efficiently and timeously, while ensuring quality is monitored and maintained;
• Providing advice and guidance to colleagues across the Department, and raising the profile of the PQ process;
• Assisting the Parliamentary Clerk and Deputy Parliamentary Clerk as required with other items of Parliamentary Business, such as, but not limited to; debates, statements, formal laying of papers before UK Parliament and monitoring Parliamentary activity