ID 1874

The Welsh Government operates name-free recruitment. The recruiting panel will not see personal information such as a candidate’s name and address during the sifting process. This policy is in line with our commitment to end bias and promote equality and diversity.

Vacancy details

Vacancy title

Senior School Information Programme Designer

Closing date

29/11/2024, 16:00

Advertising basis

Secondment

Actual starting salary

Secondment – match salary from seconding organisation

Salary range or pay band

SEO £43,785 to £51,839

Allowances

Work pattern

Full time (applications are welcome from people who work part time, as part of a job share or who work full time)

Duration

2 Years

Group

Education, Culture and Welsh Language

Directorate

Education

Branch

School and Learner Information Policy

Location (s)

Pan Wales

Purpose of post

As a vital member of our team, you’ll be at the forefront of shaping the educational landscape in Wales. In this role, you’ll drive initiatives that enhance the quality of information about our school system, ensuring transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement. Your work will directly impact policy decisions and contribute to the success of the new Curriculum for Wales and to improving education standards.

Your area of work oversees policy development related to the use of school system information. You’ll lead activities supporting better outcomes for Welsh learners. As the system evolves, your focus will shift to maintaining our reformed information ecosystem, ensuring it benefits all stakeholders.

Aspects of this work are high-profile and may involve Ministerial engagement.

What the organisation will expect

You will be responsible for managing defined areas of work using your specialist knowledge or experience to exercise sound judgement when interpreting complex or conflicting information weighing up all evidence to produce innovative solutions to problems.
You will be adaptable, flexible, open to, and accepting of change affecting you and your area of work and deal with that change efficiently and professionally.
You will show political awareness and an understanding of the political landscape when considering the impact of your decision and work on the wider business area and when formulating proposals for Senior Managers and Ministers.

What your team will expect

You may be required to manage a team setting clear direction on achieving their objectives. You will support team members in their work such as complex areas of work; work allocation and prioritisation; performance management; training and development; mentoring and coaching.
You will value diversity and inclusion, creating an environment where individuals feel safe to challenge, share ideas and express concerns adopting an inclusive leadership style.
You will be responsible for developing, implementing and maintaining systems or processes ensuring excellence or value for money.

What key stakeholders will expect

You will take the lead in creating, building and maintaining constructive relationships at all levels.
You will be able to tailor and adapt your communication style (written and oral) to advise, guide, influence and persuade internal and external stakeholders as appropriate.

Key tasks

Lead the development of a reformed suite of information integral to school improvement arrangements: design a programme of work to review, revise and supplement a balanced suite of information requirements, comprising a range of datasources for different uses. This involves promoting consistency in approach, minimising the burden on schools, and ensuring coherent information sharing across organisations that support schools.
As part of ongoing information ecosystem development, this role will take forward the design and refinement of a revised set of qualifications-based learning indicators that are reflective of individual learning journeys, alongside a wider set of 14-16 learning data requirements that considers learners’ wider skills, experiences and destinations - all while considering the diverse needs of stakeholders and different purposes for using the data.

This role will steer other areas of key focus including:

the development of learner and workforce wellbeing information requirements and tools to facilitate stakeholders in the collation of related data.
the research on deprivation data, collaborating with KAS Research leads, Equity leads, and School Business Planning and Governance leads (the eFSM and Beyond study is evaluating whether free school meals eligibility (eFSM) data remains a suitable proxy for socio-economic disadvantage for use in calculating funding and assess the impact of poverty on learner outcomes. It is also exploring other options that might supplement or replace the identifier in future).

This role will develop and manage our gatekeeping processes crucial to ensuring a maintained focus and balance in the information ecosystem, acting as business analyst to consider suitability and assess impact of policy and corporate data needs, working closely with the data collections team and School Statistics team on the development of routine and ad hoc data reporting requests.
This role will also work closely with the Senior School Information Reporting Manager on the development of reporting systems for a range of stakeholders, to facilitate data use.
As an integral part of the overarching school improvement policy, this role will work closely in all aspects of ensuring the information ecosystem align with policy aspirations and related programmes of work, including Self-evaluation Wales and the schools system National Resources for Evaluation and Improvement (NR:EI).
Maintain relationships with key stakeholders including managing regular catch-ups with schools' data and information leads in Estyn and leading in discussions with Qualifications Wales.
To lead, manage and develop a small team of 1*HEO and a Team Support.

Development opportunities

This role combines policy development and delivery, making it ideal for candidates looking to utilise or enhance their skills in these areas. It’s a position that entails engagement with Ministerial and senior leadership levels, both within the Welsh Government and partner organisations

Other vacancy related information

A reserve list may be held for this opportunity. Any candidate who is successful in being offered a reserve status, will remain on the reserve list for 12 months.
This is a 2 year temporary post
In the case of more than one candidate scoring the same, the panel has agreed the following criteria will determine merit order: Changing and Improving and then Experience of working with stakeholders to produce and implement policy
For this recruitment a minimum score of 4 across all behaviours and experiences at application and interview. One singular score of “3” will be allowed. At interview the minimum score, per criteria, must be at least “4” with no exceptions.
For this recruitment, the top 4 individuals who meet the minimum criteria will progress to interview.

Vetting level

Basic

Number of posts

Contact point for further information regarding the post

ims@gov.wales

Benefits

All Welsh Government staff are members of the Civil Service, and as a result are eligible for:

Civil Service Pension Scheme
31 days annual leave (pro-rated for part time)
training and development opportunities
Cycle2Work Scheme
Smart Working flexible working arrangement
Green Car Scheme (subject to availability)

If you are an active Civil Service Pension member you can continue your membership throughout your employment with us.

Recruitment principles and complaints

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition. Please see the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles on the Commission's website.

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with these principles and wish to make a complaint please email complaints@gov.wales. Please ensure that you refer to the vacancy reference number.

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Welsh Government, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: info@csc.gov.uk.

How to Apply

All applications for this vacancy must be made using our online application system.

Applications are welcomed from people with a diverse range of lived and professional experiences. We are actively committed to becoming an increasingly diverse organisation which represents the diverse communities we serve. There are a number of Diversity networks that staff can participate in, which include the Disability Awareness and Support Staff Network; Minority Ethnic Staff Network; Mind Matters (Mental health and well-being); PRISM (LGBTI+), Women Together and the Neurodivergence Network.

If you have an impairment which prevents you from applying online, please email our recruitment team.You can:

request an application pack in an alternative format
request a recruitment adjustment to help you submit your application

Use the 'Apply' button to submit your application. You will be asked to register if you don't have an account or sign in if you do. Registration takes a few minutes and you will need an email address.

You should check your Application Centre regularly for updates to your application. Please also check your spam/junk folder in case any communication regarding your application and/or assessment details finds its way there.

Once you've registered for an account and logged in, you'll be taken to the online application form. You must complete this and submit it before the deadline on the closing date. We will not consider an incomplete application form.

If you would like to apply for this vacancy in Welsh, please use the Change Language link on this page. We welcome applications in Welsh, and applications submitted in Welsh will not be treated less favourably than applications submitted in English.

Please see the candidate guidance for more information on the recruitment process.

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Senior School Information Programme Designer