Head Of Operational Policy & Performance

Housing and Land

The Housing and Land directorate is responsible for the Mayor’s plans to deliver new and improved homes and strong communities. Working closely with boroughs and partners, we manage the Mayor’s housing investment and grant programmes and land and property assets to support the building of affordable homes, job creation and regeneration.

The Operational Policy and Performance Team is part of the Investment and Operations Unit in the Housing and Land directorate, led by Rachael Hickman as Assistant Director Investment and Operations.

Operational Policy and Performance works across the full breadth of Housing and Land’s work. It is a truly collaborative, multi-disciplinary team working with our delivery teams, programmes teams and policy team to support and enable everyone in the directorate to deliver effectively, consistently and within our GLA governance procedures.

Key areas of responsibility for the team include:

• Directorate and corporate-level management and reporting of: budget (annual budget: circa £116m revenue and £1.5bn capital), strategic risk, and performance.
• Translating policy into delivery by creating and enabling the appropriate processes and contracting including overseeing the establishment of processes for assessing and tracking compliance against funding criteria and ensuring consistency of application of criteria across multiple funding streams and in contracts.
• Oversight of the directorate information and records management processes.
• Oversight and management of the business requirements for the GLA’s bespoke grant and project management system (OPS).
• Co-ordination of cross-directorate corporate activity such as tracking of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Action Plans, corporate apprentice programmes etc.

It is a really exciting time to join this team as we are growing in capacity and remit, picking up a large part of the directorate and corporate co-ordination and programme management. There is a significant amount of change happening in the GLA generally, and this team will be at the forefront of leading and embedding that change.

This is a newly created role to lead the Operational Policy and Performance Team and reports directly to the Assistant Director Investment and Operations. You will be responsible for senior leadership and management of the team of seven, covering the key areas of responsibility listed above.

We are looking for someone who can combine strategic thinking with operational and delivery ability and excellent programme management. You will be an experienced leader, with a demonstrable record of managing teams successfully through periods of change and taking steps to improve diversity and inclusion outcomes. Whilst knowledge of housing policy and legislation is not a requirement of the role, having experience in this area will be beneficial.

Housing and Land delivers a wide range of projects and programmes including: the £4bn Affordable Homes Programme, a c.£700m recoverable investment portfolio, a 635 hectare land and property portfolio and London’s cladding remediation funding programmes. We also oversee a number of specialist and supported housing funds, and rough sleeping funds and services.

Your role is to ensure coherent and consistent budget, risk and performance management of these at a directorate level. You will lead the team members who are responsible for leading the contracting on several of these programmes and who need to ensure our policies are consistently embedded and implemented across our programmes.

You will also be responsible for the co-ordination of corporate GLA activities that need to be embedded and delivered across the directorate. Examples of these include co-ordination and tracking of our Directorate EDI Action Plan, or tracking of our Learning and Development spend.

The GLA is currently reviewing our approach to grant making and programme management and it is anticipated that this role will lead Housing and Land’s input into that workstream to ensure the outcomes continue to work for the directorate to enable us to build on our exceptional grant delivery and programme management to date.

What your day will look like

No two days are the same, but will include:

• Providing senior leadership of accurate performance monitoring against Housing and Land budgets and programmes, including highlighting risks and issues and taking remedial actions. This will include working with other programme teams to provide high quality, accurate and consistent programme information to the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Corporate and Directorate senior management teams, the Assembly and other external stakeholders.
• Developing, implementing and maintaining good management practices in respect of the delivery of programmes including adherence to GLA governance arrangements, risk management and effective contract management and monitoring.
• Working closely with our policy and delivery teams to oversee the creation of contracts and processes (including in our OPS system) during the feasibility and development stages of new programmes, as well as providing technical operational input during the feasibility and development stages of new policies to ensure they are deliverable.
• Overseeing the creation and maintenance of effective processes to ensure the directorate delivers on our requirements on areas such as information and records management, subsidy control and compliance.
• Leading Housing and Land’s input into corporate grant and programme management workstreams to ensure the outcomes continue to work for the directorate to enable us to build on our exceptional grant delivery and programme management to date.
• Providing effective leadership and management of staff within the Operational Policy and performance team to ensure personal development, successful performance, and cost-effective resource allocation that enable the team to retain the highest levels of quality information provision and programme management expertise.

Staff at the GLA are working in our offices 2-3 days per week and GLA leaders need to be accessible and visible to their teams. A good balance of time spent working remotely, in the office together with colleagues and with partners across London is an important aspect of the role.

We promote flexible approaches to working and try to ensure an inclusive and supportive environment that enables our staff to be successful. This may include reasonable adjustments or other flexibilities around working hours and locations.

Skills, knowledge and experience

To be considered for the role you must meet the following essential criteria:

• Strong track record of successfully managing large capital budgets and programmes, including thorough knowledge of budgetary control, financial analysis, risk management, expenditure planning and significant responsibility for decision making.
• Relevant experience of complex data analysis and information management techniques.
• Effective leadership and management of staff to ensure personal development and successful performance of both individuals and the team.
• Strategic thinking (competency level 3)* - using an understanding of the bigger picture to uncover potential challenges and opportunities for the long term and turning these into a compelling vision for action.
• Building and managing relationships (competency level 3)* - developing rapport and working effectively with a diverse range of people, sharing knowledge and skills to deliver shared goals.
• Problem solving (competency level 3)* - analysing and interpreting situations from a variety of viewpoints and finding creative, workable and timely solutions

• Further information about the GLA’s competency framework can be found on this page: https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/gla_competency_framework_hr_28june2021.pdf

If you would like to apply for the role you will need to submit the following:

• Up to date CV
• Personal statement with a maximum of 1,500 words. Please ensure you address how you demonstrate the essential criteria outlined above in the advert.

Please note all applications for this vacancy must be submitted via our online recruitment system. We do not accept CVs alone for this role. Please upload a personal statement to the ‘Additional Documents’ section of the form. Word or PDF format preferred and do not include any photographs or images.

Please ensure your CV and Personal statement documents are saved with the job reference number as part of the naming convention (E.g. “CV – applicant name - 012345)

Please note, if you do not provide both a CV and a covering letter, you will not be considered for the role so please ensure the above has been submitted before the deadline.

If you wish to talk to someone about the role, the hiring manager Rachael Hickman would be happy to speak to you. Please contact them at: Rachael.hickman@london.gov.uk.

We will be holding an online session on Monday 18 March at 2pm, which will provide the opportunity for prospective applicants to hear from the Assistant Director Investment and Operations and the team about the team and the roles, as well as give you the opportunity to ask questions.

If you are interested in joining, please email Adrianna.charles@london.gov.uk who will send you the MS Teams invite.

If you have any questions about the recruitment process, contact the glaopdcrecruitment@tfl.gov.uk who support the GLA with recruitment.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

London's diversity is its biggest asset and we strive to ensure our workforce reflects London's diversity at all levels. We welcome applications from everyone regardless of age, gender, gender identity, gender expression, ethnicity, sexual orientation, faith or disability.

We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and Minority ethnic candidates and disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce.

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and we are happy to consider flexible working arrangements. We would welcome applications from candidates who are seeking part time work as this role is open to job share.

Please note we are a Disability Confident Employer so for candidates who wish to be considered under the scheme and meet the essential criteria, they will automatically be invited to interview. Please note, should you require any adjustments through the process, we will accommodate as much as possible. Please contact the recruitment team for further information if required.

In addition to a good salary package, you will be paid every four weeks, providing frequent salary payments. We also offer an attractive range of benefits including 30 days’ annual leave, interest free season ticket loan, interest free bicycle loan and a career average pension scheme.

Additional Information

Once you have submitted an application, your details will be reviewed by a panel.

If shortlisted you’ll be invited to an interview and assessment. The interview and assessment date are to be confirmed.

Please note, all candidates will need to confirm that the information provided in this application form is true and correct. Should a candidate deliberately give false information, including the use of AI software, they understand that this would disqualify them from consideration.

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record (DBS) check but some roles may require additional security screening.

Find out which DBS check is right for your employee - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)