HM Treasury Hiring for Assistant Economist – Balance Sheet Analysis Job at London, England Full Time

159614

£29,320 – £38,000

National: £29,320 – £35,000 / London £32,320 – £38,000. If the successful candidate is a current Civil Servant joining on level transfer, HM Treasury will honour their current substantive salary if higher

Permanent

HMT – Fiscal

Economist
Policy

Flexible working, Full-time, Part-time

1

The post will be based in London (1 Horse Guards Road) or Darlington, United Kingdom (our interim office is Bishopsgate House until the temporary office in central Darlington is established in 2022). All staff follow government guidance about working from home during the pandemic. Once Covid-19 restrictions ease, most Treasury employees will be working a hybrid pattern, spending 2-3 days a week (pro rata) in an office, on average.

About HM Treasury:

If you’re interested in making a difference to people’s lives across the country, the Treasury is the department for you! We sit at the centre of everything that the Government does and have provided advice on economic policy and decisions that affect the public finances throughout the country’s history. A Treasury career continues to offer an exciting opportunity to be part of the decision making that affects the whole of the UK.

Working at the heart of government, we collaborate with other departments to ensure public money is spent well and to drive strong and sustainable economic growth. Our work ranges from protecting customers through to the regulation of the financial sector, helping to reduce carbon emissions and creating a greener economy, supporting people across the country through the COVID 19 furlough scheme and Plan for Jobs as well as helping first time buyers buy their first home.

HM Treasury is proud of a diverse and inclusive work environment, committed to fairness and the promotion of equality of opportunity for all. We know that having a range of experiences, ways of working and thinking makes us a stronger organisation, better at developing policy that is reflective of the communities we serve. We embrace different views and experiences and value the fresh perspective that people from a variety of circumstances bring to the work we do. We welcome applications from candidates who have not previously worked for the Civil Service, mid- and late-career changers with transferrable skills, people from all backgrounds and circumstances regardless of disability, gender, age ethnicity, LGBT+ identity and socio-economic status.

The Darlington Economic Campus is a pioneering new cross-government hub which will bring people together across departments and public organisations to play an active role in the most important issues of the day.

HM Treasury in Darlington will be joined by the Department for International Trade, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Office for National Statistics, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Department for Education.

About the Group

Fiscal Group works on a wide-ranging and exciting set of issues which are at the heart of the Treasury’s objectives. We are responsible for ensuring the sustainability of the government’s finances – over both the medium and long term – to support economic stability and growth. This means making sure that the government has enough revenue to meet its spending commitments. Work in this area includes advising the Chancellor on the appropriate levels of borrowing and debt, overseeing financing raised for the government by the Debt Management Office and National Savings & Investments, and managing the daily flow of cash across the public sector.

About the Team

The post is in the Balance Sheet Analysis team, which is leading the group’s work to improve analysis, policy and risk management across trillions of pounds of assets and liabilities owned by government. We also lead on fiscal policy advice for new balance sheet interventions such as guarantees, loans and equity transactions. This is an innovative area for fiscal policy, but also central to the Treasury’s role as a finance and economics ministry and it’s an exciting time to join the team. We draw on a diverse network, including international institutions, colleagues across Treasury and departments and utilise expertise from the Government Actuary’s Department, UK Government Investments and Cabinet Office.

The team (currently composed of 10 people) is split into three branches:

• Frameworks, analysis and metrics
• Contingent liability management
• Balance sheet management

The team recently completed a Balance Sheet Review, publishing a concluding report (available here) at Spending Review 2020. The review identified opportunities to dispose of assets that no longer serve a policy purpose, improve returns on assets retained and reduce the cost and risk of liabilities. The team’s work has been recognised for its innovation internationally. We are regularly invited to participate in IMF, OECD and professional accounting body discussions and our advice has been sought out by officials in governments around the world!

The importance of our work has been underlined by the increasing use of balance sheet interventions to support businesses during the Covid-19 crisis. The pandemic has added new, complex assets, liabilities and risks onto the government’s balance sheet. Future balance sheet interventions could play a role in addressing some of the UK’s biggest policy challenges and supporting the government’s economic priorities, but they also expose government to fiscal risks. Joining the team offers scope to influence how government balances these issues while promoting fiscal sustainability.

Key Accountabilities

This is an exciting role in the Frameworks, Analysis and Metrics branch covering economic, environmental and credit risk analysis, public sector asset policy development and coordination of a senior official steering group. The role is ideal for a candidate who wants to cover multiple work areas, working on both diverse policy issues and analysis, and collaborate with a wide range of teams both in the Treasury and across government. It will be a good fit if you enjoy working on new and innovative concepts and are looking to develop a number of different skills.

Key accountabilities – assistant economist

1. Develop analysis of the impact of climate change and green policies on the public sector balance sheet. The Treasury’s Balance Sheet Review report proposed further work to assess balance sheet impacts and risk exposures in the context of climate change and the shift to a greener economy. This work is in its early stages, considering what the potential impact could be in different scenarios, and there is considerable scope to expand this workstream. This will be an excellent opportunity for an economist/analyst keen to build and improve a model independently and drive forward innovative analysis, collaborating with other Treasury teams, the Office for Budget Responsibility and international organisations.

2. Collaborate with colleagues across government to develop policies on maintenance and promote good asset management across the public sector. Public sector infrastructure includes everything from government property (e.g. hospitals, schools), transport and utilities (e.g. broadband, train stations) to technological assets (e.g. HMRC IT systems). Considering maintenance of these assets is an important part of good balance sheet management to ensure long-term value for money and risk management. You will work with other teams and departments, including the Office of Government Property, to embed the importance of maintenance in departmental spending decisions and progress understanding around the issue of maintenance, in particular regarding technological assets. This will include reviewing the lessons learned from the 2021 Spending Review and working closely with colleagues across government to develop policies to improve maintenance and integrate this into central guidance.

3. Lead secretariat for the Balance Sheet Transactions Group. The Balance Sheet Transactions Group is a steering board chaired by the Treasury’s Second Permanent Secretary and is well attended by seniors across the department. The purpose of the board is to discuss a range of balance sheet issues and improve the quality of decisions around significant balance sheet transactions. You will be responsible for organising the meetings, strategically planning the agenda by collaborating closely with colleagues across the Treasury and considering the balance sheet team’s perspective of the topics covered.

4. Responsibility for liaising with the Contingent Liabilities Central Capability (CLCC) on a stress-test model for contingent liabilities. The CLCC, set up in early 2021, are developing a cross-Government contingent liabilities stress-test model to look at the impact of different shocks on the government’s contingent liabilities (i.e. commitments to future spending if a particular event happens or certain conditions are met). You will work closely with the CLCC to monitor progress at the development stage and, once delivered, ensure outputs feed into relevant economic and fiscal scenario analysis and are shared across the Treasury and other departments.

You do not need to have any specific knowledge or experience in these areas to apply – we encourage candidates with the relevant skills who are willing to develop their understanding.

Responsibilities

Candidates – Please note, you will be asked to give evidence in your application of how you meet these criteria.

Required Skills, Experience and Behaviours:

The below criteria will be assessed in your application form.

The lead criterion is: ability to analyse a range of information from different sources and evaluate evidence to make decisions (making effective decisions).

If we receive large volumes of applications, we will conduct an initial sift on the first criterion only, which will usually be a behaviour. This may be an experience or technical skill, but only where critical to the position.

We will assess the below further criteria in your application form:

1. Understanding of economic tools and techniques, and ability to apply this knowledge to innovative analysis (technical skills)

2. Ability to establish and manage relationships with, and influence, people who have different roles and perspectives (working together)

3. Ability to understand how changes in the wider economic and political environment affect a policy or analysis (seeing the big picture)

Required Qualifications:

BSc degree or above in economics or equivalent (relevant degrees such as PPE and development economics are also accepted)

Candidate Guidance on Completing your Application Form

Where we will assess criteria across your application form:

• Behaviours – these will be assessed individually with a 250-word statement per behaviour. The application form will indicate which behaviour is being assessed each time you provide a statement, and we are ideally looking for an example using the below STAR method to demonstrate this behaviour
• Technical Skills – this will be assessed individually with a 250-word statement per technical skill. You will give the answer in a separate technical skills section, and be given direct guidance on the technical skill we are looking for you to demonstrate

In your statements, it is best to focus on one example in each section to allow you to provide enough detail in your answer and use all the words you have been allocated. Examples from a range of roles across your application will demonstrate that you have the skills, experience and behaviours we are looking for. We would also advise you to use examples that best meet the criteria, even if it is a few years old.

How to Structure your Answer

Please use the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) approach when writing your application answers.

• Situation – Describe the situation you found yourself in and what happened.
• Task – The Hiring Manager will want to understand what you tried to achieve from the situation that you found yourself in.
• Action – What actions did you take and how did you do it. Make sure to use “I”, not “we” to explain how your actions lead to a result.
• Result – Use facts and statistics to demonstrate the results that your actions produced. Explain whether it was a successful outcome, and if not, what you learned from the experience.

NOTES TO CANDIDATES

• Please refer to the candidate FAQ document which is a link on the job advert – this will provide you with guidance on completing the application form. Please contact [email protected] if you have any issue accessing this document
• At HM Treasury, to maximise diversity and inclusion within our workforce, we operate a fair, open and anonymous recruitment process. This means that the sift panel will only be able to assess you on the written evidence supplied in your application answers. They will not have access to personal information.
• You will be asked to provide some CV details during your application; however these will NOT be assessed during the process, but will be used to support discussions at interview – please ensure you put all information you would like to be scored against in your behaviour, experience and technical skill statements
• You will be assessed on your skills, experience and behaviours through the online application form When completing your application form, please outline how you meet the requirements as detailed in the ‘candidate assessment of skills and experience ‘section of this job description. This will give you the best chance to provide the evidence that the panel wants to assess. More guidance can be found here – completing you application
• If we receive a large number of applications, applications will be assessed initially against the lead criterion alone. You will then be assessed against the other criteria if you have met the minimum score on the first criterion.
• Find out more about how the Civil Service assesses candidates and uses Success Profiles (opens in a new window) to test skills, experience and behaviours in applications and interviews.
• Applications are not reviewed until the closing date has passed. You will be notified of the outcome of your application as soon as the recruitment panel has reviewed all the applications.

Recruitment Timeline:

Closing: 7th November 2021

Sifting: W/C 8th November 2021

Interviewing: W/C 15th and 22nd November 2021

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

• Making Effective Decisions
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

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

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Understanding of economic tools and techniques, and ability to apply this knowledge to innovative analysis

Flexible working arrangements:

HM Treasury views flexible working as essential in enabling us to recruit and retain talented people, ensuring that they are able to enjoy a long-lasting career with us. All employees have the right to apply for flexible working and there are a range of options available including; working from home, compressed hours and job sharing. Additionally, we operate flexitime systems, allowing employees to take up to an additional 2 days off each month, providing you work enough hours to meet business need.

We also offer a generous maternity/ paternity and adoption leave package.

At HM Treasury we have an incredibly broad remit; our work touches every citizen of the country. So, it’s important our employees come from the widest possible range of backgrounds, bringing us the widest possible range of perspectives and ways of thinking. We are committed to ensuring that all staff are able to realise their potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance.

Benefits:

• 25 days’ annual leave (rising to 30 after 5 years), plus 8 public holidays and the Queen’s birthday (unless you have a legacy arrangement as an existing Civil Servant)
• Flexible working patterns (part-time, job-share, condensed hours)
• Access to a generous Defined Benefit pension scheme with employer contributions.
• Onsite restaurant and coffee bar. The London office also offers a gym, showers and prayer room
• Access to a cycle-to-work salary sacrifice scheme, season ticket advances and payroll giving
• Access to a retail discounts and cashback site
• A Rental Deposit Advance Scheme to help meet the total costs of deposits for privately rented homes
• A range of active staff networks, based around interests (e.g. analysts, music society, sports and social club) and diversity (e.g. women in the Treasury, ethnic minority network, LGBT* network, faith and belief network)