Vacancy -- Commissioners - Design Commission for Wales

Vacancy details

Design Commission for Wales
Board meetings are likely to be held mainly in Cardiff, but also at locations across Wales and online via video conference. You may also wish to attend Commission events throughout the year at various locations across Wales.
Commissioners of DCFW are appointed via the Public Appointments process and serve in a voluntary, unpaid capacity as non-executive Directors. Commissioners are entitled to travel and other reasonable expenses within reasonable limits, agreed in advance with the DCFW and the Welsh Government.
2
month

Function of body

DCFW was set up in 2002 by the Welsh Government as a public body working throughout Wales to help make it a better place.

The role of the Commission is to promote good design for our places, buildings and public spaces and to communicate the benefits of good design for everybody.

DCFW also provide a Design Review Service for development schemes throughout Wales, available to all local authorities, clients, developers and members of the public. They provide early stage responses to development proposals along with bespoke training and development services for local authorities that focus on planning and project delivery mechanisms and wider design awareness.

As a team, DCFW works with colleagues in the fields of urban design, architecture and landscape design, civil engineering, building services and the wider environmental professions who are involved in shaping the countryside, cities, towns and villages of Wales. They actively engage with members of the public, stakeholders in professional bodies, local authorities, clients and commissioning bodies, in planning, regeneration, energy and infrastructure, to make our assistance available throughout Wales.

DCFW are a team with a broad knowledge base who value the relationship that they have with the board; all of whom help guide us as enthusiastic champions and advocates of good design in Wales.

Role description

As a Commissioner, you will sit on the Board of DCFW and be expected to act as an ambassador for DCFW and its work. You will be eager to play a part in good governance and advocate the importance of good design for a high quality built environment in Wales.

You will strive to promote DCFW, its activities and needs to as many individuals and bodies as possible so as to enhance the organisation’s profile and purpose.

All Commissioners are collectively responsible for agreeing the DCFW’s strategic direction and acting in the interests of the success of the organisation.

Welsh language skills

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.
Desirable
Can read some basic words and phrases with understanding
Can write basic messages on everyday topics
Can understand parts of a basic conversation
Can hold a basic conversation in Welsh

Person specification

We are seeking to appoint individuals who can demonstrate the following essential criteria:

— Awareness of and enthusiasm for good place-making, design and architecture in the built environment (but not necessarily as a practitioner) with the ability to operate in an inter-disciplinary arena;

— Interest and ability to undertake advocacy, management and governance;

— Good communication skills;

— A clear understanding and commitment to equality and inclusion and to challenging discriminatory practices; and

— An understanding of the importance of high standards in public life and ability to act in accordance with the Nolan Principles (https://www.gov.uk/government/ publications/the-7-principles-of-public-life), which include holding standards of integrity and honesty and being able to take leadership in public office.


We welcome applications from individuals who can demonstrate the following desirable criteria for appointment:

— A knowledge of corporate governance, finance, infrastructure delivery and property law; or

— A knowledge of key growth sectors such as transport and energy.


Even if you do not meet all of the desirable criteria, we are still interested to hear from you, whatever your background. We want to know how your interests and skills in being able to contribute to our work comes from experience in your working life, your own business, community or as a volunteer.

Interview dates

11 January 2021
15 January 2021

Closing date

09/11/2020, 16:00

Additional information

Contacts:

For further information regarding the selection process, please contact: Public Appointments Team on publicappointments@gov.wales .

For further information regarding the role of Commissioner to DCFW please contact: Carole-Anne Davies, Chief Executive Tel: 07779 802784 Email: connect@dcfw.org.

Stuart Ingram Welsh Government Tel: 03000 255040 Email: Stuart.Ingram@gov.wales.

If you need any further assistance in applying for this role, please contact publicappointments@gov.wales.

How to apply

To apply for this role, click on the ‘Apply’ button below. 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.

Commissioner for Public Appointments logo

This vacancy is closed to applications.