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Appointment details

Member - Career Choices (CCDG) Trading as Careers Wales - Welsh Essential

Summary

• Organisation: Career Choices Dewis Gyrfa
• Sponsor department: Welsh Government
• Location: Wales
• Sectors: Education
• Skills: Business, Change Management
• Number of vacancies: 1
• Time commitment: 8 day(s) per annum
• Length of term: 3 years
• Application deadline: 4pm on 17 October 2022

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Timeline for this appointment

1. Opening date

   20 September 2022

2. Application deadline

   4pm on 17 October 2022

3. Sifting date

   2 November 2022

4. Interviews expected to end on

   8 December 2022

Timeline dates are only an estimate and can change

About the appointment

Appointment description

A CCDG Board Member will:

Play an active role in delivering the CCDG’s remit and ensuring CCDG will achieve maximum impact. This will include sharing their expertise and lived experience in what works, challenging the status quo and suggesting solutions;

Ensure compliance with relevant procurement rules, both in relation to the Welsh Government funding of CCDG (as wholly owned Welsh Government subsidiary and Teckal company) and CCDG expenditure as a contracting authority subject to the procurement rules.

Attend Board meetings regularly and prepare thoroughly for those meetings;

Be prepared to serve on sub committees;

To provide leadership to CCDG management and staff in producing and implementing a new five year Strategic Vision for Careers Wales;

Actively provide, and balance, both challenge and support to CCDG management and staff in their work;

Represent CCDG at public functions; (if formal interview or statement they would need to liaise with our marketing department first)

Promote the profile of CCDG; and Facilitate contact with CCDG’s stakeholders and actively promote equality and diversity with communities and respective stakeholders

Understand and subscribe to the commitments of a public role, as defined in Nolan’s Seven Principles of Public Life

Organisation description

Background

Career Choices Dewis Gyrfa Ltd (CCDG) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Welsh Government which was formed on 1 April 2013. Trading as Gyrfa Cymru Careers Wales, they deliver a ‘blended’ service that integrates the use of digital technologies alongside more traditional, face-to-face channels of delivery. They provide an all age, impartial, bilingual, careers information, advice and guidance service for Wales.

Careers Wales support customers to become more effective at planning and managing their careers, recognising that career management no longer consists of a one-off occupational choice, but rather a series of lifelong career transitions. Through improving career management skills and competencies, customers are able to make these transitions more smoothly, enjoy a higher level of career satisfaction and play a more active part in the economy.

April 2021 Careers Wales launched their five-year vision, ‘Brighter Futures’. Brighter Futures, has the ambition of creating a brighter future for all young people and adults in Wales. To achieve this ambition Careers Wales has developed four strategic goals:

To provide a bilingual, inclusive, impartial career guidance and coaching service for the people of Wales.

To develop its work with employers, training providers and entrepreneurs to understand their skills requirements and opportunities for young people and adults.

To support the delivery of Curriculum for Wales and contribute to the achievement of its four purposes for learners.

To develop a skilled, engaged and agile Careers Wales workforce and enable the delivery of high-performing, customer-centred services.

Their work supporting children and young people in education is funded through their core Careers Wales grant. Careers Wales currently receives a budget of £18.8m core grant funding from the Welsh Government. Their work supporting those no longer in education is delivered through their Working Wales Services, this work is funded separately.

Board’s Role

The role of the board is to:

provide effective leadership; defining and developing strategic direction and setting challenging objectives;

promote high standards of public finance, upholding the principles of regularity, propriety and value for money;

ensure that CCDG’s activities are conducted efficiently and effectively; and monitor performance to ensure that CCDG fully meets its aims, objectives and performance targets.

To do this the board must ensure that effective arrangements are in place to provide assurance on risk management, governance and internal control. The board is expected to assure itself of the effectiveness of the internal control and risk management systems.

In particular the board is responsible for:

establishing and taking forward the strategic aims and objectives of CCDG consistent with its overall purpose and within the CCDG Articles of Association and Framework document determined by the Minister for Economy and Transport;

ensuring that the Minister for Economy and Transport is kept informed fully of any changes that are likely to impact on the strategic direction of CCDG or on the attainability of its targets, and of steps needed to deal with such changes;

ensuring compliance with any statutory or administrative requirements in respect of the use of public funds;

ensuring that it receives and reviews regularly, financial information concerning the management of CCDG; and demonstrating high standards of corporate governance at all times, including by using the audit committee to help the board to address key financial and other risks.

Board composition

Panel Details

Chair - Sinead Gallagher

Chair job title / Grade - Deputy Director of Higher Education Division, Welsh Government

Chair of the Body - Erica Cassin

Chair of the Body - job title / Grade - Chair, CCDG Board

Independent member - Tom Wylie

Regulation of appointment

This post is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. For more information, please refer to the Commissioner’s website 

Person specification

Essential criteria

To be considered, you must be able to demonstrate that you have the qualities, skills and experience to meet all the essential criteria for appointment:

An ability to constructively challenge

A proven track record in building relationships with a range of stakeholders

Knowledge and understanding of learning and work issues at community, local and regional or national levels

A commitment to promoting equality and diversity

Excellent communication skills, with the ability to clearly and succinctly explain complex issues, while demonstrating respect for the views of others

Sound judgement, sensitivity and political awareness

Candidates shortlisted for interview will be required to expand on how they meet the criteria above using examples and evidence.

Welsh Language

The Welsh Government acknowledges the importance of developing and growing bilingual capabilities in public appointments in Wales, and welcomes applications from candidates who demonstrate their capability to work in both English and Welsh. The following list of language requirements represents an objective assessment by the recruiting body of the Welsh language skills required to undertake the duties of this particular post.

The ability to speak Welsh is essential for this post, as follows:

Understanding – Can understand routine work-related conversations

Speaking – Can converse in some work-related conversations

Writing – Can prepare routine work-related material with checking

Reading - Can read some routine work-related material with support e.g. dictionary

In addition, all candidates should demonstrate an awareness of the importance of the Welsh language in a bilingual Wales with an appreciation of the Welsh Government's policies and strategies for the language.

CCDG currently provides its services bilingually and will play a clear role in the promotion and integration of support and advice regarding the Welsh language and Welsh language skills in its operations and delivery of advisory services.

Application and selection process

How to apply

To apply for this role, click on the ‘Apply’ button on the Welsh Government online recruitment centre. The first time you apply for a post, you will need to complete a registration form for the Welsh Government’s online application system. You will only need to register once, and you will be able to keep yourself updated on the progress of your application, and any other applications you make, via your registered account.

Once you’ve registered, you’ll be able to access the application form. To apply you will need to submit two supporting documents. The first, a document outlining how your knowledge, skills and experiences meet the criteria for the role as outlined in the information for candidates. This document should be no more than 2 sides of A4. Your application may be rejected if you exceed this limit. The second document is a full, up to date CV. The two documents should be uploaded to the ‘Reasons for applying’ section of the online application form.

In your application, you will also be asked to provide details of any activities which have helped you to develop skills that would be useful in a public appointment role, and list the organisations for which you undertook these activities. We also need to know about any political activity that you’ve undertaken over the last 5 years.

It is recommended that you register for an account and access the application form as soon as possible so that you see how the application form is structured, before starting to prepare your evidence. You don’t have to complete the application form all in one go. You can save your responses, and log in and out as required, until you’re ready to submit – just follow the guidance in the application form.

If you’d like to apply for this opportunity in Welsh, please use the ‘Newid Iaith / Change Language’ link at the top of this page, to take you to the Welsh version of this advert, from which you can apply in Welsh.

If you need any further assistance in applying for this role, please contact the Welsh Government’s Public Appointments Team on: PublicAppointments@gov.wales.

For further information about Public Appointments in Wales, please visit www.gov.wales/publicappointments.

Advisory Assessment Panel (AAP)

Advisory Assessment Panels (AAP) are chosen by ministers to assist them in their decision-making. These include a departmental official and an independent member. For competitions recruiting non-executive members of a board (apart from the Chair), the panel will usually include a representative from the public body concerned.

AAP’s perform a number of functions, including agreeing an assessment strategy with ministers, undertaking sifting, carrying out interviews in line with the advertised criteria and deciding objectively who meets the published selection criteria for the role before recommending to ministers which candidates they find appointable. It is then for the minister to decide who to appoint to the role.

Eligibility criteria

In general, you should have the right to work in the UK to be eligible to apply for a public appointment.

There are a small number of specialist roles that are not open to non-British citizens. Any nationality requirements will be specified in the vacancy details.

The Government expects all holders of public office to work to the highest personal and professional standards. 

You cannot be considered for a public appointment if:

• you are disqualified from acting as a company director  (under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986);

• have an unspent conviction on your criminal record;

• your estate has been sequestrated in Scotland or you enter into a debt arrangement programme under Part 1 of the Debt Arrangement and Attachment (Scotland) Act 2002 (asp 17) as the debtor or have, under Scots law, granted a trust deed for creditors.

When you apply, you should declare if:

• you are, or have been, bankrupt or you have made an arrangement with a creditor at any point, including the dates of this. 

• you are subject to a current police investigation.

You must inform the sponsor department if, during the application process, your circumstances change in respect of any of the above points. 

When you apply you should also declare any relevant interests, highlighting any that you think may call into question your ability to properly discharge the responsibilities of the role you are applying for. You should also declare any other matters which may mean you may not be able to meet the requirements of the Code of Conduct of Board Members (see Outside interests and reputational issues section below)

Security clearance

The successful candidate will be required to undertake Baseline Personnel Security Standard checks in line with the Civil Service guidelines. Additional Security Clearance may also be required for certain roles. However, where this applies, candidates will be notified during the appointment process. Further information on National Security Vetting can be found on the Gov.uk website here.

Additional information for candidates

Equality and diversity

We encourage applications from talented individuals from all backgrounds and across the whole of the United Kingdom. Boards of public bodies are most effective when they reflect the diversity of views of the society they serve and this is an important part of the Government’s levelling up agenda.

We collect data about applicants’ characteristics and backgrounds, including information about people’s educational and professional backgrounds, so that we can make sure we are attracting a broad range of people to these roles and that our selection processes are fair for everyone. Without this information, it makes it difficult to see if our outreach is working, if the application process is having an unfair impact on certain groups and whether changes are making a positive difference.

When you submit your application, your responses are collected by the Cabinet Office and the government department(s) managing your application. The data is used to produce management information about the diversity of applicants. You can select “prefer not to say” to any question you do not wish to answer. The information you provide will not be seen by the Advisory Assessment Panel who review applications against the advertised criteria and conduct interviews.

Disability confident

We are a member of the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. We use the Disability Confident scheme symbol, along with other like-minded employers, to show our commitment to good practice in employing people with a disability. The scheme helps recruit and retain disabled people. 

As part of implementing the scheme, we guarantee an interview for anyone with a disability whose application meets the essential criteria for the role, set out in the advert, and who has asked that their application is considered under the scheme. Indicating that you wish your application to be considered under the scheme will in no way prejudice your application. By ‘minimum criteria,’ we mean that you must provide evidence which demonstrates that you meet the level of competence required under each of the essential criteria, as set out in the job-advert.

When you apply you will have the opportunity to select if you would like your application considered under this scheme.

Reasonable adjustments

We are committed to making reasonable adjustments to make sure applicants with disabilities, physical or mental health conditions, or other needs are not substantially disadvantaged when applying for public appointments. This can include changing the recruitment process to enable people who wish to apply to do so.

Some examples of common changes are:

• ensuring that application forms are available in different or accessible formats;
• making adaptations to interview locations;
• allowing candidates to present their skills and experience in a different way;
• giving additional detailed information on the selection / interview process in advance to allow candidates time to prepare themselves;
• allowing support workers, for example sign language interpreters;
• making provision for support animals to attend.

When you apply you will have the opportunity to request reasonable adjustments to the application process.

Principles of public life

Holders of public office are expected to adhere to and uphold the Seven Principles of Public Life https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-7-principles-of-public-life/the-7-principles-of-public-life--2. These are:

1. SELFLESSNESS - Holders of public office should act solely in terms of the public interest. They should not do so in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family or their friends;
2. INTEGRITY - Holders of public office should not place themselves under any financial or other obligation to outside individuals or organisations that might seek to influence them in the performance of their official duties;
3. OBJECTIVITY - In carrying out public business, including making public appointments, awarding contracts, or recommending individuals for rewards and benefits, holders of public office should make choices on merit;
4. ACCOUNTABILITY - Holders of public office are accountable for their decisions and actions to the public and must submit themselves to whatever scrutiny is appropriate to their office;
5. OPENNESS - Holders of public office should be as open as possible about all the decisions and actions that they take. They should give reasons for their decisions and restrict information only when the wider public interest clearly demands;
6. HONESTY - Holders of public office have a duty to declare any private interests relating to their public duties and to take steps to resolve any conflicts arising in a way that protects the public interest;
7. LEADERSHIP - Holders of public office should promote and support these principles by leadership and example.

Code of conduct for board members

The Government expects all holders of public office to work to the highest personal and professional standards. In support of this, all non-executive board members of UK public bodies must abide by the principles set out in the Code of Conduct for Board Members of Public Bodies. The Code sets out the standards expected from those who serve on the boards of UK public bodies and will form part of your terms and conditions of appointment.

Management of outside interests and consideration of reputational issues

Holders of public office are expected to adhere and uphold the Seven Principles of Public Life and the Code of Conduct for Board Members of Public Bodies. Before you apply you should consider carefully: 

• any outside interests that you may have, such as shares you may hold in a company providing services to government; 
• any possible reputational issues arising from your past actions or or public statements that you have made; 
• and/or - any political roles you hold or political campaigns you have supported; 

which may call into question your ability to do the role you are applying for.

You will need to answer relevant questions in relation to these points when making an application. Many conflicts of interest can be satisfactorily resolved and declaring a potential conflict does not prevent you from being interviewed. If you are shortlisted for an interview, the panel will discuss any potential conflicts with you during that interview, including any proposals you may have to mitigate them and record that in their advice to ministers. Alongside your own declaration, we will conduct appropriate checks, as part of which we will consider anything in the public domain related to your conduct or professional capacity. This may include searches of previous public statements and social media, blogs or any other publicly available information. The successful candidate(s) may be required to give up any conflicting interests and their other business and financial interests may be published in line with organisational policies. 

Details of declared political activity will be published when the appointment is announced, as required by the Governance Code (political activity is not a bar to appointment, but must be declared).

Status of appointment

As this is an office holder appointment, you will not become a member of the Civil Service. You will not be subject to the provisions of employment law.

Appointment and tenure of office

Appointments are for the term set out in this advert, with the possibility of re-appointment for a further term, at the discretion of Ministers.  Any re-appointment is subject to satisfactory annual appraisals of performance during the first term in the post. There is no automatic presumption of reappointment; each case should be considered on its own merits, taking into account a number of factors including, but not restricted to, the diversity of the current board and its balance of skills and experience. In most cases, the total time served in post will not exceed more than two terms or serve in any one post for more than ten years

Remuneration, allowances and abatement

Board Members of CCDG are not employees of the company or Welsh Government and currently serve in a voluntary, unpaid capacity. Travel and subsistence expenses you incur in attending CCDG meetings or on visits on behalf of CCDG will be reimbursed by CCDG itself at the rate currently applying to members of Government Committees. Claims for reimbursement should be made to the CCDG Secretariat. Childcare and other dependent expenses may be paid, on production of receipts, for additional costs incurred as a direct consequence of duties performed in the capacity of your work for CCDG. Chairs of the three committees also receive a daily payment.

Pension and redundancy

This is an office holder appointment and does not attract any benefits under any Civil Service Pension Scheme. You will not be eligible for redundancy pay as you are not an employee. No other arrangements have been made for compensation upon the end of your term of appointment because an office holder who is appointed for a limited duration would have no expectation of serving beyond that period.

Application feedback

We will notify you of the status of your application. We regret that we are only able to offer detailed feedback to candidates who have been unsuccessful at the interview stage.

How to complain

We aim to process all applications as quickly as possible and to treat all applicants with courtesy.

Please contact the public appointments team in the first instance if you would like to make a complaint regarding your application at publicappointments@gov.wales . They will acknowledge your complaint upon receipt and respond within 15 working days.

How to complain to Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments (OCPA)

If you are not content with the appointing department’s response you may wish to further complain to the Commissioner at publicappointments@csc.gov.uk.Further information on how the Commissioner handles complaints can be found on the Commissioner for Public Appointments’ website https://publicappointmentscommissioner.independent.gov.uk/regulating-appointments/investigating-complaints/

Data protection

The Cabinet Office will use your data in line with our [1] privacy policy.

References

Visible links

1. https://apply-for-public-appointment.service.gov.uk/privacy

Contact details

Contacts:

For further information regarding the selection process, please contact:

Public Appointments, Public Bodies Unit

Email: publicappointments@gov.wales

For further information regarding the role of the CCDG Board and the role of

Members please contact: Sam Evans, Head of Careers Policy:

Tel: 0300 062 5224

Email: sam.evans@gov.wales

If you need any further assistance in applying for this role, please contact the Public

Appointments Unit on publicappointments@gov.wales.

For further information about Public Appointments in Wales, please visit

www.gov.wales/publicappointments