Head of Government Banking Service

Candidate Information Pack Head of Government Banking Service

(SCS Payband 1)

Reference: HOGB15

Closing Date – Midnight 31st January 2016

Contents

Welcome Message from Justin Holliday, Chief Finance Officer for HM Revenue and Customs 1

Background Information 2

Background to Government Banking Service 2

Background to HM Revenue and Customs 3

About the Role 4

Person Specifications 6

How to Apply 7

Indicative Timeline 8

Terms, Conditions and Reunifications 8

Welcome message from Justin Holliday, Chief Finance Officer, HM Revenue and Customs

This role provides you with the unique opportunity to make a substantial impact on the operation of government and on the UK payments sector as a whole.

You will be responsible for leading the Government Banking Service as a commercially viable shared service, sustaining strong working relationships with the banks which deliver the underlying money transmissions and maintaining a reputation for timely and accurate reporting

This is an important role and we are looking for someone with the skills to deliver successful change management and to both establish and lead operational teams as we develop the business at this exciting time.

As a senior leader within HMRC, you will also play a large role in the Department’s transformation journey over the next five years.

I look forward to receiving your application.

Justin Holliday

Background Information

Background to Government Banking Service

The Government Banking Service is both a new and an old organisation. Although it was only formed in 2008 and came into full service in 2010, its roots are in the Office of HM Paymaster General that has been operating since 1836 as a banking shared service provider for government and the wider public sector. The move to the new operating model came about from Ministers deciding that government should play a more active role in the payments industry and that the future clearing banking needs of the Chancellor’s departments, including HM Revenue & Customs, Office of the Paymaster General and National Savings Investments, should be delivered through a single shared service provider. As a result, Government Banking Service came into being and has also taken on the role of representing the government’s banking (money transmission) needs in the wider payments industry.

The Government Banking Service has around 800 customers (government departments, agencies and other public sector bodies) and approximately 1,500 accounts. It holds public sector balances and supports HM Treasury’s cash management activities, helping to minimise the overall cost of government borrowing. Last year it had oversight of around £2 trillion of transactions and was responsible for managing an average of £40 billion of overnight balances held within the Exchequer.

The Government Banking Service is an associate member of the British Banker’s Association and sits on the Government Co-ordination Committee (sub to the Payments Council). They have regular meetings with all the UK payments schemes to discuss capacity and future developments.

Background to HM Revenue & Customs

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is a non-ministerial government department which was formed in 2005 from the merger of the Inland Revenue and HM Customs & Excise.

We play a vital role in government, collecting taxes and administering certain benefits. This ensures that the UK has the money available to fund the UK’s public services, as well as helping families and individuals with targeted financial support. We also play a key role in enforcing UK border controls and the national minimum wage levels, administering environmental taxes and recovering student loans.

Almost every individual and business in the UK is a direct customer of HMRC. This means our customer base comprises of 45 million individuals and 4.8 million businesses. In 2014/2015, we raised £26.6 billion in compliance revenues.

Our 2015-16 Business Plan update sets out our plans for achieving our strategic objectives and delivering our vision.

HMRC is also a customer of Government Banking Service with a number of direct accounts. The Head of Government Banking Service will sit at the crossroads of this relationship, marshalling the business of key stakeholders both outside and inside government.

‘Building our Future’

HMRC must continually adapt to the times we’re in, reflecting the changing needs and expectations of our customers, the government and other stakeholders. Building our Future is the ambitious programme of work we’re undertaking to help transform the way we do business, making life simpler for our customers and our people.

We’ve already made changes to the way we work, helping us to bring in more revenue than ever before. We’ve worked hard to reduce our costs, largely through continuing to reduce the size of our estate and our workforce and by securing better IT at lower cost.

Over the next 10 years HMRC will be reducing the number of its offices and will be located in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Belfast, Newcastle, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Croydon and Stratford. There will also be a small number of offices where we will retain some specialist roles in Dover, Worthing, Gartcosh (near Glasgow) and Telford, as well as our headquarters in central London. If you are recruited into an office that is not one of these locations, you will be expected to move to one in the future.

Find out more about Building our Future online: Building our Future - Gov.UK

About The Role

Overview

An outstanding individual is sought to lead the Government Banking Service as a commercially viable shared service. The Head of Government Banking Service is one of the most important operational roles in the payments sector in the United Kingdom. This is a demanding and stimulating post, with both a national profile and a substantial impact on the operation of government and on the UK payments sector as a whole.

The responsibilities of the role are at a scale not found in any other area of the payments industry. Through commercial banking partners, the Government Banking Service is itself responsible for approximately 60% of all UK direct credits in the UK.

The role entails immense responsibility. The government requires an accurate and smooth running banking service to ensure it can deliver against its substantial expenses. The consequences of failure are enormous. When payment challenges occur, the Head of Government Banking Service has to step in to ensure resolution either directly or through commercial banking partners.

The role regularly interacts with some of the most senior stakeholders both within government and in the commercial banking and payments sector. As the government’s leading expert on payments you will also have the opportunity to input into broader policy areas which have a payments dimension.

Finally, outside of government, as a major figure in UK payments you will be able to play a part in the on-going debate on changing payments systems and environments.

Role description

The day-to-day requirements of the role are to oversee and lead the service to ensure it delivers a smooth and timely service to its customers. The size of these customer organisations (government departments) can be huge with the timely delivery of all transactions critical to the smooth running of the Civil Service. You will therefore need to lead a team of around 30 in delivering the service requirements, reacting and responding to situations that develop in a calm and timely manner as and when they arise.

The successful applicant will be responsible for consolidating the relationship with the banks involved in the service during the first twelve months of their tenure, as well as final migration of all relationships. This will involve taking on an already well managed business in terms of

4 quality of service, risk management and operational process and developing it further in the life of the seven year contracts being awarded. The intention is that the new head will lead the team through to (and beyond) the next contract renewal process.

Key responsibilities of this role include:

 Managing a trading business with a turnover of around £40m per year and 30 staff  Overseeing regular business, including delivery of business targets and service development to ensure no compromise of existing services while new contracts are introduced  Maintaining and developing excellent relationships with key stakeholders across government to promote the service and ensure the continued success of the shared service model  Making substantial contributions to cross-government groups and thinking with regards to money transmission  Acting as the focal point on behalf of HMRC, working with key suppliers to develop long term partnerships at senior levels, steering their performance to meet key performance indicators and enabling contract flexibility, including commercial banks and Bank of England  Staying abreast of developments in the payments industry

Key relationships include:  Chief Finance Officer, HMRC  Cabinet Office Crown Commercial Representative for Banking  3rd Party suppliers – commercial banks, Bank of England  Senior managers in HMRC, in particular Corporate Finance, Internal Audit, Commercial and Debt Management & Banking  Senior managers in HM Treasury  Stakeholders (customers) across Whitehall, at the Bank of England and the wider public sector  The payments industry in general

All of our Senior Civil Servants are expected to play an active role in the on-going corporate management and development of the directorate and wider organisation and act as a positive advocate for Civil Service reform. We expect all our senior leaders to be:

 Inspiring – about our work and its future  Confident – in our engagement with others

 Empowering - to allow our teams to deliver https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-leadership-statement/civil- service-leadership-statement

Person Specification Essential Criteria:

Proven experience of establishing and leading operational teams in a commercial Business- to-Business banking environment), as well as delivering successful change management.

Specifically this will include:

 Large-scale cash / money transmissions knowledge, with evidence of being comfortable in dealing with large sums of money

 Demonstrable credibility within the industry

 Evidence of managing suppliers and contracts at the highest level

 Evidence of being able to show strong leadership when situations go wrong

 Evidence of being able to fix situations in a calm and timely manner

 Evidence of being able to lead in an inspiring, confident and empowering manner as laid out in the Civil Service Leadership Statement

 Strong stakeholder relationship management experience with stakeholders at the highest level

How to Apply

HMRC have engaged the services of Hays Executive to help identify the widest possible field of qualified candidates for this role and will assist in the assessment of candidates against the requirements of the role.

 Applications should consist of a curriculum vitae along with a statement of suitability (max 2 pages), addressing how you meet the ‘Person Specifications’, as set out in the section above. It will also need to include the Civil Service Diversity form, which will be supplied to you.  Please also state your remuneration package and provide names, positions, organisation and telephone numbers of two referees. (Referees will not be contacted without permission.)

Applications should be e-mailed to [email protected], or for a conversation about the role you can contact Andrew on 0207259874.

Application and selection process

Applications will be sifted to select those demonstrating the best fit with the post based on the criteria set out in the person specification. The final short list of candidates will undergo a series of tests before sitting a final panel interview. The selection process may also involve other forms of assessment, including a requirement for candidates to meet with key stakeholders, to support the panel’s decision making. Full details of the selection and assessment process will be made available to short-listed candidates once the sift has been completed.

The final selection panel will be held at 100 Parliament Street, London and will be chaired by Justin Holliday, Chief Finance Officer and will include an independent panellist. You will be advised of the format in advance.

We rely on diversity of culture and thought to deliver on our goals.

To ensure we can do that, we seek talented, qualified employees in all our roles regardless of race, colour, sex/gender, gender identity and expression, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status or any other protected classification. We will not tolerate harassment or other unfair discrimination on grounds of sex, marital status, race, colour, nationality, ethnic origin, disability, age, religion or sexual orientation. We will promote and support the use of a range of flexible working patterns to enable staff to balance home and work responsibilities; and we will treat people fairly irrespective of their working arrangements.

We also ask you complete the Diversity Monitoring form. The information on the form will be treated as confidential and used for statistical purposes only. The form will not be treated as part of your application.

Guaranteed Interview Scheme

The Department uses the ‘two ticks’ Disability Symbol, showing it is an employer which has a positive attitude towards applications from disabled people. The Department also offers a Guaranteed Interview Scheme (GIS) for all disabled applicants. We are committed to interviewing all applicants with a disability who provide evidence of meeting the minimum essential requirements necessary for the post, as set out in this applicant pack. If you consider yourself eligible to apply for this post, please complete and return the Guaranteed Interview Scheme form.

Indicative Timeline

Please note that these dates are only indicative at this stage and could be subject to change. If you are unable to meet these timeframes, please let us know in your application letter.

The anticipated timetable is as follows:

Closing Date Midnight 31st January 2016

Preliminary interviews w/c 8th February 2016 with Hays Short List w/c 15th February 2016 Psychometric Leadership w/c 22nd February or w/c 29th February 2016 Assessments

Interviews 11th March

HMRC Terms of Employment

This appointment will be to the Senior Civil Service on a permanent contract under normal Civil Service Terms and Conditions. This post is graded at Senior Civil Service Pay Band 1. The role is offered either as a permanent role or for the right candidate a secondment of up to three years may be considered subject to our terms and conditions and appropriate security clearance.

For the full terms of appointment for this role please refer to the separately attached ‘Terms of Appointment’ document.

Remuneration

The salary will be up to £115,000 p.a. The salary will be reviewed annually. Salary and terms of appointment for a serving Civil Servant would be within normal rules for appointment on level transfer or promotion. Future base pay awards will be dependent on public sector pay policy. Non-consolidated performance pay is normally available within the SCS performance-related pay system and is not determined until after the year end, so it is not possible to quote amounts in advance of the annual pay award each April. It is paid in addition to any base pay increases and paid as a lump sum. They do not count towards pension entitlements. Non-consolidated performance pay is awarded on the recommendation of line managers based on the level of success with which an SCS member has met their specific in-year business and corporate objectives, and relative to all others in their Pay Band.

Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles

Selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit, on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles.

The Civil Service Commission has two primary functions:

 Providing assurance that selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit on the basis of fair and open competition. For the most senior posts in the Civil Service, the Commission discharges its responsibilities directly by overseeing the recruitment process and by a Commissioner chairing the selection panel.

 Hearing and determining appeals made by Civil Servants under the Civil Service Code which sets out the Civil Service values – Honesty, Integrity, Impartiality and Objectivity – and forms part of the relationship between civil servants and their employer.

More detailed information can be found at the Civil Service Commission website http://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should contact Jonathan Sutton, Senior Account Manager, Specialist Recruitment Team, Email: [email protected] T: 03000569826.

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive for the Department, you can contact the Office of the Civil Service Commissioners.