The Department for Education (DfE) has launched a recruitment drive as part of its covid response plan that aims to help schools and areas that have been severely affected by the coronavirus.
The DfE has already announced an initial 100 job offers that will run for 12 months as contracts. However, specifics about what the roles of these jobs will be has been scarce and the department has not provided information about what the new hires are expected to do. The only information currently available about the jobs is that they will involve priority roles and new hires will be required to move to areas where ‘business needs are greatest’.
Covid response recruitments
What is clear about these new positions is that the department is looking to poach existing civil servants from other departments. This may be due to their experience and the ability to adapt quickly to the environment that the DfE is planning to send the new hires. According to the DfE plan, civil servants from other departments will be able to transfer and work with the department on loan during the term of the contract.
This will not be the first time the department will be looking for loaned civil servants to assist during the pandemic. When the virus first struck the UK, the DfE sought help from other departments, especially OFSTED, to help them run the department.
The DfE’s covid response plan involves hiring 25 higher executive officers who will be earning a salary of £29,363. These hires will be responsible for contributing to decision making. A further 39 people will be employed as senior executives with a salary of £36,498 and their responsibility will be managing teams.
31 “grade 7” employees will also be hired under the covid response plan. They will be responsible for setting priorities, allocating responsibilities to teams and agreeing on targets that the DfE has made. They are expected to be earning a salary of £49,861.
Grade 6 will also get five people who are expected to make £61,014 and be responsible for several complex workstreams.\
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