National Science Centre for Animal Health (NSCAH) Business Manager (ID2787)

Details

Reference number

374628

Salary

£37,480

Pro-rata salary for job share

A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Job grade

Higher Executive Officer

Contract type

Permanent

Business area

APHA – Science – National Science Centre for Animal Health (NSCAH), Science Directorate

Type of role

Science

Working pattern

Full-time, Job share

Number of jobs available

1

Contents

Location
About the job
Benefits
Things you need to know
Apply and further information

Location

New Haw, South East England, KT15 3NB

About the job

Job summary

The National Science Centre for Animal Health (NSCAH) Department represents APHA on estates projects at its Weybridge headquarters, and across the APHA national estate. NSCAH has business obligations to ensure its smooth running, and strong integration into corporate workstreams and initiatives. This role is the engine that drives those business operations, with responsibility for autonomously refining and running the function with oversight and support from the NSCAH Business Lead and Office Manager.

Job description

Key areas of work will include:
Recruitment

Manage NSCAH’s end-to-end recruitment process.
Maintain understanding of APHA recruitment processes, and be NSCAH point-of-contact for recruitment enquiries.
Forecast the NSCAH recruitment profile and report progress to central APHA and SCAH.

Finance and Procurement

Lead engagement with Finance to be the conduit of information and co-ordinator of queries/requests-for-information between NSCAH, APHA Finance, and delivery programme finance teams.
Work closely with Finance to ensure that Defra/corporate policies are understood and implemented efficiently to avoid duplication.
Ensure preparedness of the Department, and the HoD, for regular APHA Finance meetings, such as Star Chamber.
Establish an annual Departmental budget (including rental budget) and then monitor spend and update forecasts as necessary.
Manage the governance process around procurement requests of the NSCAH budget.
Manage and communicate the correct use of work-recording codes for estates projects to ensure accurate time recording by NSCAH colleagues.
Lead on NSCAH procurement, including developing an end-to-end process for, and managing, procurement activities of the Department, and providing support and advice on procurement processes.

Relationship Building

Build and maintain strong working relationships with the:
NSCAH Head of Department (HoD), to assist them in their HoD obligations to APHA.
NSCAH Business Lead and Office Manager, to develop and follow a strong vision, and ways-of-working, for the NSCAH Business area.
NSCAH Places Team, to ensure firm management of the NSCAH estate al business obligations to APHA.
Science Business & Admin Team Lead.
Science Business Manager network.
APHA Quality Network.

Governance and Reporting

Administer the required NSCAH business Departmental meetings, such as the monthly Senior Management Team meeting, the monthly Team Brief, and weekly team touch-point meetings. This includes developing agendas with the chair, preparing slides where necessary in conjunction with the chair and wider team, taking minutes, actions, and decisions, and managing actions and decisions logs.
Report progress against the 2024/25 Departmental Scorecard, and work with SSP to develop the 25/26 NSCAH Scorecard.
Assist and prepare the HoD for corporate Directorate-level meetings, such as Science Directorate Ops.
Manage the NSCAH risk register.
Complete and return when required all obligatory documentation such as fraud and error returns, gift declarations etc.

Information Management

Manage the flow of information within NSCAH, including controlling information storage in repositories i.e., SharePoint Online, Content Cloud, Personal OneDrives etc.
Engage stakeholders to ensure seamless flow of information to and from NSCAH.
Rejuvenate the current NSCAH SharePoint Online site to provide a more effective repository, and provide guidance on its use.
Develop the process for storage of corporate documents on Content Cloud, and provide guidance on its use.

Quality and Audit

Represent NSCAH as the Local Quality Manager, and ensure that the Department fulfils all quality obligations, for example, completing the ICQA, or leading the Department though all quality audits, including preparing the team through holding mock-audits.
Contribute towards the APHA Quality network, and through it engaging other Quality Managers to manage quality requirements on estates projects.

Estates Management

Manage the ten staff houses at Weybridge, including billing and utilities.
Manage the rental income.
Liaise with council where required.

Corporate Duties and other responsibilities

Line or functional management of one EO post for Business Support. This includes management through setting goals and reviewing performance, mentoring, and supporting development and learning.
Lead the end-to-end annual NSCAH People Survey process, from ensuring team population of survey, to analysis of results, communication of key points, generation of action plan for improvements, and follow-through of actions.
Lead the socialisation within NSCAH of the APHA Business Plan, and the APHA Science Directorate Business Plan.
Develop and maintain the NSCAH Business Continuity Plan.
Ensure that NSCAH fulfil all APHA Business Continuity exercises, such as test cascades.
Develop and maintain the NSCAH Succession Plan.
Work with colleagues to identify learning and development opportunities to feed into overarching Training Plans.
Monitor training across NSCAH to ensure that mandatory training is being completed.
Work within NSCAH HEO cohort to complete ad hoc tasks and lead areas of responsibility when required.

Person specification

You will need to demonstrate the following:

Proactive and self-motivated, with ability to own and drive areas of responsibility autonomously
Strong relationship builder, with ability to use those relationships to advance work and overcome issues
Ability to create novel end-to-end processes, as well as improve existing processes
Effective planning and organisational skills, with ability to switch between and manage multiple workstreams concurrently
Excellent written and oral skills to be able to communicate plainly and succinctly
Basic understanding of Civil Service administrative processes and procedures around people management and recruitment
Basic understanding of fundamental financial practises, such as budgeting, forecasting, and resource-allocation
Knowledge of good working practise for information management
Knowledge of quality systems such as ISO9001, and audit processes assessing against those systems
Management of budgets and preparation of reports, forecasting etc.
Organisation of workshops and minute-taking

Security clearance
The Weybridge site is a strategically important national asset due to its role as a reference laboratory supporting the Governments response to national emergencies including disease outbreaks. For this reason, all post holders based on the APHA Weybridge site must hold a valid Security Check (SC) security clearance or above. It is up to each person applying for a post at APHA Weybridge to ensure they meet the residency criteria. UK residency is required from 5 to 10 years depending on the level of Security. However, residency qualification may be reduced for certain roles and will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Qualifications
A-levels or higher, or several years relevant experience from the above experience section.

Behaviours

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

Managing a Quality Service
Communicating and Influencing
Working Together
Changing and Improving

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

Managing a Quality Service
Communicating and Influencing

Technical skills

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

IT literate – particularly Microsoft Office (particularly Excel and PowerPoint) and SharePoint Online

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £37,480, Animal and Plant Health Agency contributes £10,857 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

In return for your dedication and hard work, we will support your ongoing personal development through appropriate training as inclusion, support and the development of our people matter to us. We aim to support the career and personal wellbeing of everyone in APHA. Our benefits include generous annual leave, a generous employer contributory pension, staff bonuses and recognition, salary sacrifice benefit options, and an employee discount scheme, reward vouchers and in-year bonuses. We also offer additional days off if accrued extra hours (flexi-time –if accumulated), three paid volunteering day per year. We also have a social committee who run team building and fun events at the Weybridge site. Further details can be found in the Candidate Information Pack.
Everyone in APHA is supported to develop their skills and capabilities. When you join the Directorate, you will be welcomed into your new team through an induction programme that will provide you with helpful information on the civil service, our work and our policies. Your line manager will also work with you to establish your priorities for the year, developing a performance, learning and development plan tailored to you and your role.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

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

Application Process
As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV-style template and a 500-word personal statement. These should align to the details in the Person Specification in the advert and the job description.
You will also be required to give examples of the listed Behaviours in the Situation, Task, Action, Result (STAR) format.
Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.
Sift
Should a significant number of applications be received, an initial sift may be conducted using the lead Behaviour, Managing a Quality Service.
Sift and interview dates as well as the interview location to be confirmed.
Interview
If successful at application stage, you will be invited to interview where you will be asked to give examples of Behaviours using Situation, Task, Action, Result (STAR) and will be assessed against the technical skills and experience requirements detailed in the Job description.
A presentation or additional exercise may also be assessed.
Location
Please be aware that this role will be contractually based in a Defra/APHA group workplace/office. The successful candidate is required to carry out all their duties from a UK location and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time.
As part of the pre-employment process, successful candidate(s) will be able to agree a contractual workplace from those locations listed in this advert. The agreed contractual workplace is then the substantive and permanent place of work for the successful candidate(s).
Where the location is ‘National’ the successful appointee should discuss and agree an appropriate contractual location in line with both Defra’s location policy and site capacity, prior to proceeding with pre-employment processes.
Successful applicants currently employed by the hiring Defra organisation for this post may choose to remain in their current contractual location or may choose to change contractual location to one of those listed above. This should be discussed and agreed prior to proceeding with pre-employment processes.
The agreed amount of time spent at a workplace for this post will reflect the requirement for Civil Servants to spend at least 60% of their working time in an organisation workplace with the option to work the remaining time flexibly from home. Working time spent at a workplace may include time spent at other organisational locations including field-based operational locations, together with supplier, customer or partner locations. This is a non-contractual agreement which is consistent with common Civil Service expectations.
Travel costs to non-contractual workplaces will be subject to departmental travel and subsistence policies. Travel costs to contractual workplaces are the responsibility of the employee.
Defra includes the core department, APHA, RPA, Cefas and VMD.
The role will be based at the Weybridge office.
Reserve List
A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.
Salary
New entrants are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band.
Visa Sponsorship Statement
Please take note that Defra does not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker License sponsor and are unable to sponsor any individuals for Skilled Worker Sponsorship.
Criminal Record Check
If successful and transferring from another Government Department, a criminal record check may be carried out.
In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.
Reasonable Adjustment
If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.
If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

Contact Government Recruitment Service via defrarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Accessibility
If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the ‘Contact point for applicants’ section.
Internal Fraud Database Check
Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.
A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.
Full Time Only
This role is full time only. Applicants who wish to work an alternative pattern are welcome to apply however your preferred working pattern may not be available and you should discuss this with the vacancy holder before applying. The post is full-time, we may consider two part-time staff on a job share basis if continuity can be arranged. Salary will be pro-rata for job share.
NSV
For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the following page https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/demystifying-vetting
Higher Security Clearance
Please be aware the levels of national security clearance are changing which may impact on the level needed for this role by the time of appointment. All efforts will be made to keep candidates informed of any changes and what that will mean in terms of vetting criteria. For more information please See our vetting charter.
The Weybridge site is a strategically important national asset due to its role as a reference laboratory supporting the Governments response to national emergencies including disease outbreaks. For this reason, all post holders based on the APHA Weybridge site must hold a valid Security Check (SC) security clearance or above. It is up to each person applying for a post at APHA Weybridge to ensure they meet the residency criteria. Applicants must be currently resident in the UK and have at least five years continuous UK residency as this is a requirement to work at the Weybridge site where the team and work is situated.
Childcare Vouchers
Any move to Defra from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

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.

Medical

Successful candidates will be expected to have a medical.

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).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

Name :

Science Directorate HR

Email :

Science.DirectorateHR@apha.gov.uk

Recruitment team

Email :

defrarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact: Government Recruitment Services via email: defrarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: Click https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/contact-us/ to visit Civil Service Commission.