Senior Audit Manager: Value for Money Performance Audit - Quality and Improvement Team

Salary: Newcastle range; £63,691 - £75,641, London Range; £71,000 - £84,000
Civil Service Employer Pension Contribution of 27.1%

Thank you for your interest in joining the National Audit Office (NAO) as a Value for Money (performance audit) Senior Audit Manager within our Quality and Improvement team.

Who we are

Our position is unique, and our work is influential. We are independent of government and the civil service. We scrutinise public spending for Parliament and on behalf of citizens and taxpayers. This means we work for, and for the good of, everyone in the country.

We help society work better – supporting improvements in the way services are delivered right across the public sector. The recommendations from our work can result in financial savings and positive changes in government to improve public services and achieve value for money for the taxpayer.

Each year we publish around 60 major value for money (VFM) reports looking at various government programmes and projects. Our VFM reports use a variety of methods to scrutinise public spending and ultimately help improve public services.
Our recent work led to:

• 91% of our recommendations from April 2019 to March 2022 being accepted or partially accepted by government departments and agencies; and,
• Financial impacts of £572 million in 2022-23 – £7 for every pound we spent.

More about the NAO, including our recent VFM reports, is available on our website.

Responsibilities

You will have a leading role in the VFM Quality and Improvement Team, reporting to the Director for VFM Quality and Improvement.

The role of the Quality and Improvement team is to promote, support and improve how the NAO conducts its VFM work. Members of the Quality and Improvement team do not produce VFM reports, however you will need to be able to work across the wider organisation to support or deliver VFM reports, as required.

The responsibilities of the Quality and Improvement team include:

• Working with the NAO Executive Team, the VFM service line and other NAO teams to promote, improve and support quality of our VFM work.
• Managing the NAO’s overall approach to VFM quality management, including developing VFM guidance and overseeing our quality review processes.
• Streamlining existing processes to support innovation and continuous improvement in how we deliver VFM work.
• Developing innovative methods and change management approaches to embed new ways of working to address risks to VFM quality.
• Creating and delivering VFM training (working with our Learning and Development specialists) to address risks to quality.

More about the NAO’s approach to VFM Quality can be found within our Transparency Report 2022-23.

Skills required

Abilities

It will be essential that you can demonstrate the ability to:

• Lead, develop and motivate diverse teams and support all colleagues to deliver great work and achieve their potential.
• Support and manage teams ensure the delivery of high-quality work which supports our strategic aims and enables longer term value for money.
• Work collaboratively and flexibly to ensure the office achieves its objectives and to support the wellbeing and development of colleagues.
• Show creativity and innovation in how we do our work and build insights and support teams to do so.
• Work closely with colleagues in Hubs (our specialist knowledge teams) and other client teams to ensure we get the most value from our work and expand our knowledge and expertise.
• Develop strong and influential relationships with colleagues, external clients and stakeholders to support effective change.
• Oversee the production of a range of well-produced written outputs which support our findings and recommendations and are designed to engage a wide audience.

Attributes

In addition, we are looking for the candidates with the following attributes:

• Show a strong commitment to your own self development, to delivering the NAO's strategic objectives, and keeping yourself up to date on office initiatives and information relevant to your work and specialism.
• Compliance with corporate responsibilities and interest in supporting others to do so.
• Working in accordance with the NAO's values and champion our diversity and inclusion strategy.
• Intellectual curiosity, especially about using data and evidence to answer questions.
• Flexibility to make a significant contribution across a range of topics and outputs.
• Drive and determination to overcome obstacles, resistance or challenges to achieve goals.
• Passion for improving government and the ability to defend and promote your point of view in the face of challenge. Educational requirements The people we are looking for

We welcome applications from candidates who work part-time and are keen to support colleagues to work flexibly. The role can be delivered from either our London or Newcastle offices.

Education/work experience

You should have a minimum of a 2:1 degree or a relevant postgraduate qualification or relevant experience in quality improvement. This may include but is not limited to experience in management or other consultancy experience, internal audit or performance audit.

You should have experience in managing multiple projects, innovation and improvement, supporting change activity and strong stakeholder engagement skills. Experience in producing, supporting or assuring high quality, accessible written outputs is also required.

Nationality Requirement:

• UK Nationals
• Nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• Nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with (or eligible for) status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)

Please note, we are not able to sponsor work visas or accept temporary visas as we are looking to hire on a permanent basis. Please contact?us should you have any questions on your nationality eligibility.

Disability and Reasonable adjustments

Applicants with a disability who wish their application to be considered under the Disability Confident scheme should confirm this when submitting their application. Under this scheme we guarantee an interview to an applicant with a disability who meets the minimum requirements for the role. You should also let our HR team know if you wish us to consider any Reasonable Adjustments at any stage of the process.