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Location
About the job
Job summary
Do you like using a range of information to solve problems?
Do you like the idea of creating intelligence that has a direct positive impact on our environment?
Do you thrive when working in a fast-paced environment?
If you answer YES to the three questions above, then this could be the role for you!
As part of the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) wider ambitions, the Regulatory and Advice Service (RAS) is undergoing a transformational change. It’s moving from a historic model of specific inspection activity to one that offers an intelligence-driven approach.
This intelligence-led approach will identify and pre-emptively address risks to environmental outcomes, support farmers and land managers in meeting these and ensuring public money maximises the benefits to the environment and agricultural communities.
Specifically, working with colleagues in our Geospatial team, we are developing an Intelligence, Monitoring and Tasking Unit that will use a range of information sources to monitor risks to compliance with payment scheme rules and their environmental outcomes. We will use the intelligence you provide to target, deploy, and measure the efficacy of a range of interventions, including visit activity, to effectively mitigate these risks.
The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) is an executive agency of the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), delivering over £2 billion in payments to farmers, traders and landowners each year.
We are an Operational Delivery Profession organisation, with the majority of our people delivering day to day services to our customers and stakeholders.
We make excellent delivery happen, empowering agricultural and rural communities to create a better place to live.
We manage over 40 schemes, and also make payments on behalf of Natural England, to ensure we have a healthy rural economy, strong and sustainable rural communities, and to protect and enhance the natural environment.
Our vision is to create a great place for people living in this country. We have developed a set of four strategic objectives covering our policy outcomes and corporate objectives. These objectives help us to deliver our ambitious vision to build our green and healthy future and provide a framework for all of the important work that we carry out.
Further information can be found on the Rural Payments Agency website Rural Payments Agency - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Job description
The new Intelligence, Monitoring and Tasking Unit (IMTU) is being put together in order to create intelligence from information gathered by RPA and other Defra departments. This intelligence will be used by the team and by stakeholders to identify areas where there is a high risk of non-compliance with the RPA’s managed funding schemes. Once these higher risk areas have been identified the team will then contribute towards the targeting and testing of interventions that would reduce the potential error rate. Therefore, this team will have a key role in saving taxpayer money from being improperly distributed and having a positive impact on the environment through upholding RPA’s environmental schemes.
As an Intelligence Officer within the IMTU you will be responsible for analysing information regarding customer non-compliance, identifying relevant supplementary information from across Defra group to enhance your reporting and creating intelligence products identifying individuals or groups at risk of becoming non-compliant.
You will investigate non-compliance on both a single customer basis in response to public or internal referrals of wrong-doing, or, on a scheme basis where a scheme option or regulatory requirement has been identified to have a higher than standard non-compliance rate. In both cases your job will be to understand the cause of the issue, understand how widespread the issue is across the farming population, and, identify possible corrective interventions. Once an intervention has been decided on and actioned you will work with colleagues from across RPA to determine the effectiveness of the taken action to ensure value for money was achieved.
Key Responsibilities
- Collation, analysis, interpretation and reporting of intelligence relating to emerging risks to regulatory compliance and risk of fraud and error in the farming, food producer and agricultural sector.
- Identification, collation and analysis of information from across the RPA and Defra to understand scheme non-compliance on both the singular farm scale and for subsets of the entire farming population.
- Production of intelligence outlining key non-compliance risks and possible intervention solutions.
- Supporting the recommendation of targeted interventions by identifying root issues of non-compliance and analysing previous intervention effectiveness.
- Investigating and analysing referrals of non-compliance from the public and staff across Defra group to create intelligence. When appropriate extrapolating results out to a farming population scale.
- Creation of intelligence products in alignment with the National Intelligence Model (NIM).
- Creation and maintenance of appropriate evidence logs that meet the needs of the National Audit Office.
- Working within required timeframes to follow any legislative requirements and to meet agency goals.
- Ensure that all activities undertaken are in line with the Agency’s data protection and information security protocols, and handling of intelligence.
Person specification
Your personal qualities will be as important as your professional experience; and we welcome applications from all backgrounds. If you believe you have the skills and qualities we are looking for, then we would like to hear from you.
Essential Criteria
- Relevant experience of conducting analysis on qualitative information to produce actionable intelligence.
- Experience of evaluating the reliability of different sources of information and communicating this knowledge to relevant stakeholders, ensuring mutual understanding is achieved.
- Experience of working in alignment of team processes to ensure deadlines are met and audit trails are correctly created and managed.
- Proven ability to correctly discern relevant information for decision making and disregard unnecessary information. Providing justification for decisions made when required.
- Experience of quickly adapting to change to reflect the needs and priorities of the organisation.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Making Effective Decisions
- Working Together
- Delivering at Pace
Benefits
- Learning and development tailored to your role
- An environment with flexible working options
- A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
- A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%
Things you need to know
Selection process details
Application Process
As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV and a Personal Statement.
Your CV should include job history, full qualification details and your previous skills and experience.
Your Personal Statement should be no more than 500 words and detail evidence of how you meet the essential criteria as noted in the person specification section of the job advert.
Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.
Sift
A sift will be conducted looking at the evidence detailed in your Personal Statement and CV and one combined score will be given for these.
Candidates who pass the sift will be progressed to interview.
Interview
If successful at application stage, you will be invited to interview where you will be assessed on Behaviours and Strengths.
A presentation or additional exercise may also be assessed.
Interviews will take place via MS Teams
Reserve List
A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.
Candidate Pack
Please see the candidate pack attached to this advert.
Merit Lists
Where more than one location is advertised, candidates will be posted in merit order by location. You will be asked to state your location preference on your application.
Near Miss Candidates
Candidates who are judged to be a near miss at interview may be considered for other positions in RPA which may be at a lower grade but have a potential skills match.
Salary
New entrants are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band.
Location
As part of the pre-employment process for this post, 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.
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.
Defra includes the core department, APHA, RPA, Cefas and VMD.
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.
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 to discuss your needs. Please note that it may take up to 48hours for GRS to respond to your request, so please contact them more than 48 hours before the closing date.
- 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.
Criminal Record Check
If successful and transferring from another Government Department, a criminal record check maybe 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 circumstance 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-Employment.Checks@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.
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.
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
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
Working for the Civil Service
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).
Apply and further information
Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
Recruitment team
Further information
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 here to visit Civil Service Commission.
