Head of Heritage Grants Policy

About the job

Job summary

Our preserved heritage tells our national story - from monuments such as Stonehenge, to our industrial landscapes to local pubs. The Heritage Team does everything from listing buildings to overseeing nearly £50 million grant funding a year.

The Heritage Policy Team helps places and communities to preserve and maintain the buildings and landscapes that matter to them. We take the lead on policy within the Department including securing funding streams, and across government, interacting in particular with MHCLG (planning), DEFRA (historic environment) and DfE (skills).

We are a flexible team and work to ensure the best outcomes for our sector and deliver on our Secretary of State’s priorities:

• Growth and good jobs in every place
• A more socially cohesive country with an inclusive national story
• Richer lives with choices and opportunities for all

The team sits within the wider Heritage Team, with other G7-led teams covering Heritage Protection and Sponsorship.

Job description

As Head of Heritage Grants Policy you will be responsible for leading the ongoing delivery and monitoring/oversight of nearly £50 million per year secured during last year’s Spending Review and policy work relating to the design and delivery of the Department’s heritage funding.

Our grant schemes are delivered by trusted partner organisations including Historic England and the Architectural Heritage Fund and you will need to work effectively through your team, across the department and with stakeholders to build consensus, ensure that ministerial objectives are met and the principles of Managing Public Money are adhered to.

In addition to ensuring the smooth delivery and running of new grant programmes, you will lead on preparing for future spending reviews, building a strong evidence base and considering how we can further align our funds with ministerial priorities and ambitions. You will also lead on ad hoc requests relating to grant funding, anything from designing a new scheme from scratch to considering how best to support new priorities.

The role is currently responsible for four funding programmes:

• Places of Worship Renewal Fund (delivered by Historic England)
• Heritage at Risk Capital Funding (delivered by Historic England)
• Heritage Revival Fund (delivered by the Architectural Heritage Fund)
• The War Memorials Grant Scheme (delivered by NHMF)

The role would suit an experienced leader who is looking to further develop their leadership and delivery skills across a range of areas and programmes. You will also be expected to make a strong corporate contribution to the wider team and directorate. The role will manage 1 x HEO.

Person specification

The ideal candidate would have the following key skills and experience:

Essential requirements:

• Leadership: An experienced leader and manager who can motivate and inspire teams, with a strong sense of personal responsibility and drive for excellence in delivery. Ability to set clear vision and galvanise support across organisations.
• Seeing the Bigger Picture: strong analytical skills, with the ability to shape policy thinking from first principles through to operational implementation with a curious and innovative mindset, identify and fill evidence gaps, multitask and manage competing priorities, and provide excellent advice to ministers.
• Working Together: outstanding stakeholder management skills, with strong evidence of working in partnership with other individuals and organisations and using those relationships to deliver progress.
• Making Effective Decisions: flexibility to work in uncertain, changing and fast-paced environments and proven ability to make appropriate judgments under pressure, whilst demonstrating the initiative and motivation to seek out and take on new challenges.

Desirable skills:

• Understanding of grant delivery.
• Understanding of the ways of working with government and parliament.

We are running an information session where prospective applicants can find out more about the role. This will be hosted by Vicky Smith and will take place on: Friday 24th April at 3pm

The session will be an opportunity to hear more about the role, the team and wider directorate and the department. It will also be an opportunity for you to ask any questions.

Please register your interest through this Registration form and you will be sent an invitation. Invites will only be sent after this deadline has passed.

Please note that the session will not focus on the DCMS recruitment process - please direct any queries that you have on this topic (timelines, reasonable adjustments, onboarding etc) to recruitment.team@dcms.gov.uk

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Leadership
• Working Together