As a member of Operational Delivery Profession (ODP), you are often the public face of public service. If you don’t have a role delivering direct to the public, you support those that do. In both cases, you make a real difference to people’s lives and make government policies, strategies and plans a reality.

People are our thing. Whether you call them customers, claimants, citizens or colleagues. Whether you deal with them directly or indirectly and whether they are individual or business. We deliver for people. We understand them, help them and support them.

Find out more about your profession by watching our short film, Proud To Be ODP

About the ODP

You are part of the largest profession in government and our people make our profession. Together, we create and deliver exceptional services to citizens. We develop effective leaders who are inspiring, confident and empowering and who live our values. Our profession is inclusive, flexible, modern and connected, sitting at the heart of public service delivery.

Working in ODP you can do a huge range of jobs. Below are just a selection of the many hundreds of roles we have in ODP:

• Employer Adviser
• Consular Assistance caseworker
• Insolvency clerk
• Compliance Officer
• Data Analyst
• Jobcentre Manager
• Service Design Manager
• Communications Designer
• Passport Officer
• Call Centre Agent
• Customer Service Officer
• Debt Manager

Skills families

There are hundreds of different roles within the profession so to make it easier to identify your role and choose the most relevant learning resources available, we have broken the profession down into six skills families. A skills family is a term we use to group certain job roles together.

By doing this, we can then offer the right learning and development to the right person, so it’s easier for you to find what you need.

Our skills families are:

• Help and Advice
• Case Ownership
• Safety and Enforcement
• Validation and Compliance
• Design and Support
• Leadership and Management

You may be able to identify your skills family really easily, or you might feel like your job role covers more than one family. There’s no right or wrong answer, but we recommend you start by looking at the skills family you relate to the most, and work through the recommended resources from there.

The dedication, hard-work and enthusiasm of staff and volunteers responsible for keeping Britain’s railways running are at the heart of Stations Day celebrations today (15 October 2019).

As the government invests a record £48 billion to modernise the UK rail network, upgrading and building new stations across the country, Stations Day helps recognise the 240,000 people who, in stations of all sizes, are integral to keeping the country moving.

Last year alone, 1.8 billion passenger journeys were made in Great Britain, averaging 4.8 million passenger journeys each day. Station environments, passenger information and accessibility are being improved across the country, with major upgrades at the country’s biggest stations.

Rail Minister, Chris Heaton-Harris, said:

Today we are celebrating the brilliant people at the heart of our railways, whose dedication and enthusiasm makes the journeys of millions of passengers every day that bit better.

More than 2,500 stations on our network have played a central role in our villages, towns and cities for over a century. Together with industry, we are working to provide passengers with more modern and accessible stations, ensuring our railways continue to connect people across the country.

Some of the staff being celebrated today include young apprentices who have entered the industry as part of the Prince’s Trust’s ‘Get into Railway’ series. As part of a scheme delivered with South Western Railway, the series helps young people gain experience and skills in the rail industry.

Ashley is a gateline assistant at Havant Station:

I’ve been working for South Western Rail (SWR) for 4 months at Havant Station in Southampton. Ever since I was young, I’ve wanted a career in rail, so when I did the course with the Prince’s Trust, it was a chance for me to get experience and to get my foot in the door. It was absolutely brilliant when I was offered the job at SWR. I love the trains, the stations and the customers.

I like working at Havant because it’s a gateway to the south and it’s a really busy station, especially in the morning peak. The passengers are great – especially the peak commuters – and the staff are so brilliant. Starting a career in rail can lead to so many good opportunities in the future and I would recommend it to anyone thinking about pursuing this as an option.

Shernell works at Clapham Junction Station:

I’ve been working at Clapham Junction Station for 6 months, following my placement with the Prince’s Trust. The course was a chance for me to learn more about working in the railways and to hopefully get a job at the end of it, which I have been successful at.

The customers that you meet every day and the opportunities to progress your career are the things I love the most about working here. I’d like to be a train driver in the future, and that’s my main goal now.

Director of Partnerships at The Prince’s Trust, Ben Marson, said:

The Prince’s Trust is proud to work within train operating companies like SWR. By working together, we are helping provide young people with life changing opportunities to gain work experience on the railways and secure jobs in the sector.

Volunteers, such as those at the Strawberry Line Café in Somerset, also play an important role in improving journeys for passengers. Situated on platform 1 at Yatton Railway Station, the café was set up in 2008 and quickly established itself as an integral part of the station. As a not-for-profit social enterprise, it was set up to employ and train adults with learning disabilities, enabling them to gain the skills to work in the catering and hospitality industry.

Jon Godden, train service delivery manager, said:

The café was born out of a local initiative to try to help people with learning difficulties find employment. At the time, I was the station manager for Yatton, so I knew there was a derelict room that needed refurbishment – it seemed like the perfect place to start the project, and so the café was opened, specifically to employ people with learning difficulties.

The best thing about the café is that it provides a real purpose for the community – both the staff it employs and the passengers it serves. It’s a great use of station space and the passengers love it – especially the homemade carrot cake!

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The use of a drone means Highways England can view progress in 3D quality across a much larger area. This approach reduces the amount of lane closures that teams carrying out upgrade work usually require, in turn reducing disruption to motorists.

Once footage is downloaded, specialists can use the imagery to see detailed progress on gantries, foundations and other structures. This information can then be used to inform decisions around planned closures and to help plan future work and equipment required.

The technology is currently in use on the multi-million pound upgrade of the M6 between junctions 2 and 4 near Coventry and has also been used on the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon upgrade taking place in the East of England.

Highways England Drone Footage

Highways England Smart Motorway sponsor Peter Smith said:

Safety is our top priority and we constantly pioneer ways of using new technology to keep people safe while we do this work.

The drone is a fantastic piece of kit that provides us with detailed insight into scheme progress across a large area of the works in a much quicker and efficient way.

It surveys up to 10km in a single day and then creates an accurate 3D model of the works in just one hour. Ordinarily, inspections by road workers require lane closures for safety reasons and can take up to several days. By using the drone we are able to reduce lane closures because we can scan a much larger area in a quicker period of time.

Teams working on the M6 upgrade are making good progress and have so far notched up more than 1.1 million hours.

A new concrete central reservation barrier is currently being installed that prevents traffic from crossing to the opposite side of the carriageway.

Once complete, the new-look stretch of the M6 will feature:

• three controlled motorway lanes, retaining the hard shoulder from junctions 3a to 4 where the motorway will tie into the existing controlled motorway 
• a four-lane smart motorway between junctions 2 to 3a with a hard shoulder next to the current ‘climbing lane’ travelling eastbound 
• installation of new electronic information signs and signals, radar detection and CCTV cameras – these will be used to vary speed limits which allow management of traffic flow and incidents 
• nine emergency areas to use in place of the hard shoulder 
• improved central reserve barrier made of concrete to improve safety 
• two new noise barriers at Potter’s Green and Goodyers End and low noise surfacing on the road

Elsewhere, Highways England has recently completed a £265 million project to add extra lanes and new technology to a 19-mile stretch of the motorway between Crewe and Knutsford – the most significant change since the M6 first opened in Cheshire in 1963.

A fourth lane has been introduced in each direction and a total of 258 electronic signs, 104 traffic sensors and 70 CCTV cameras will help tackle congestion and improve journey times for around 120,000 drivers every day.

The upgrade is the first of four smart motorway schemes to be finished that will increase the M6’s capacity by a third on 60 miles of the motorway between Coventry and Wigan.

And there’s also good news for motorists in North Tyneside with more than 80,000 drivers a day are experiencing safer and smoother journeys thanks to the opening of the North East’s first ever triple decker junction.

The £75 million Highways England Coast Road scheme has been opened on time and traffic is now able to use the new section of road. This means that drivers will no longer have to negotiate the roundabout and can continue straight on along the A19.

All pilots are CAA approved and operate with legal guidelines.

General enquiries

Members of the public should contact the Highways England customer contact centre on 0300 123 5000.

Media enquiries

Journalists should contact the Highways England press office on 0844 693 1448 and use the menu to speak to the most appropriate press officer.

The Regulator of Social Housing’s Sector risk profile 2019 published today (15 October 2019) highlights that strategic and operational risks facing the social housing sector are on the rise.

This is the seventh year of the annual publication, which is designed to help registered providers, board members and others to understand the operating environment and to think strategically about how their organisation can manage its risks.

The most significant risks that boards must manage and mitigate include:

• health and safety compliance – all providers have an obligation to act to ensure the homes they provide are safe for tenants and they must also fulfil their legal duty of care to their staff

• stock condition and asset management – investment should be based on a good, evidenced understanding of the overall condition of stock underpinned by up-to-date data

• market sales exposure – the implications of the market cycle and a slowdown in some geographical areas on providers’ cash flow and development plans should be considered

• reputational risk – business decisions, performance and probity across all areas of operation and board and executive members’ conduct should have regard to the expectations of all stakeholders

• rents – strategies and business plans need to cope with changes in housing policy and related areas including welfare reform.

Fiona MacGregor, Chief Executive of RSH said:

Alongside some weakness in demand in the housing market and the need to respond to evolving building safety requirements, this year’s Sector risk profile highlights the importance of adequately investing in existing stock, as well as ensuring necessary scrutiny of the build quality of new stock. This includes satisfying statutory health and safety requirements and effectively managing all outsourcing arrangements, and demands high-quality data on the condition of properties. Failure in these areas not only puts tenants’ health and lives at risk but also has major reputational risks to both the provider and the sector as a whole.

The Sector risk profile outlines key risks for boards to consider when stress testing their organisations. It also emphasises the importance of robust, data-based stress testing to underpin effective risk and mitigation strategies.

The regulator’s annual Sector risk profiles are available on the SRP collections page.

Further information

For press office contact details, see our Media enquiries page. For general queries, please email enquiries@rsh.gov.uk or call 0300 124 5225.

Notes to editors

1. For more information, please see the regulatory standards and Quarterly survey webpages.
2. RSH promotes a viable, efficient and well-governed social housing sector able to deliver homes that meet a range of needs. It does this by undertaking robust economic regulation focusing on governance, financial viability and value for money that maintains lender confidence and protects the taxpayer. It also sets consumer standards and may take action if these standards are breached and there is a significant risk of serious detriment to tenants or potential tenants. For more information about RSH, visit the RSH website.