About the job

Job summary

The Ministry of Defence employs over 50,000 Civil Servants. Within that, the Army Top Level Budget (TLB) employs around 8,000 MOD Civil Servants located at over 300 locations. Ours is a diverse workforce, with roles ranging from trainers, human resources, teachers, and psychologists to storekeepers, financiers, project and programme managers, and policy secretariat staff. There are many different functions and professions delivering key outputs for the Army.  To find out more about what we do visit the Army website  www.army.mod.uk or find us on Facebook, Instagram,  X(Twitter), Linkedin and YouTube This post will be within the Joint Services Administration Unit (London) (JSAU(L) but working in Head Office in the Ministry of Defence in London in a joint service environment (Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force). We offer the chance to initiate a career within a critical area of the Human Resources profession and work in a small welfare team in the Joint Services Administration Unit (London) (JSAU(L). This position is advertised at 37 hours per week

Job description

The Assistant Unit Welfare Officer role works to the Unit Welfare Officer. The JSAU(L) Welfare Team is responsible for handling and providing welfare support to approximately 1,950 military personnel and their families, based both in MOD London and overseas. The post can be conducted remotely but does require the incumbent to be in London 3 days per week. There is also a requirement to be on call outside of normal working hours for 1 week every 3 weeks. This post comes with Line Management responsibility. There are opportunities for overseas travel to a wide variety of countries!

As the Assistant Unit Welfare Officer, you will have responsibility for issuing policy and ensuring the provision of various outputs to Service Personnel and their eligible family members. Accountable to the Unit Welfare Officer for matters concerning specialist welfare policy, training, professional practice and standards, your main responsibilities will be to:

• Deliver effective personal and community welfare support.
• Have oversight and management on Social Work policy and practice.
• Control Safeguarding policy and practice including facilitating training.
• Provide administrative and active support to the Welfare Co-ordinator for community events.
• Manage Tri-Service Wounded Injured Sick procedures for the business unit.Complete
• Post Operational Stress Management procedures.

• Have oversight and management of Joint Casualty and Compassionate policy and procedures.
• Brief the Unit Welfare Officer, on individual welfare cases, as required, whilst maintaining the Code of Confidentiality.
• Be available to travel at short notice to locations outside of duty station, including overseas.
• Attend meetings and liaise with external agencies.
• Handle welfare casework, investigations, and complaints.
• Manage suicide and vulnerable at-risk Service Personnel in accordance with policy and through the dedicated management system.

Person specification

As the Assistant Unit Welfare Officer, you will be able to demonstrate a high level of emotional intelligence, interpersonal skills and a compassionate approach. The ability to work independently and effectively in a highly reactive and constantly evolving environment is essential for this role. A history or understanding of working in mental health support delivery particularly in a military environment would be advantageous but not essential. No qualifications are required for this post as role-specific courses will be made available to the successful applicant.

Essential:

A valid passport is essential as is the completion of enhanced disclosure barring service checks.

Desirable:

A full UK Driving Licence is highly desirable but not essential.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £28,300, Ministry of Defence contributes £7,641 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

Applications will be sifted on all Behaviours, but in the event of a significant number of applications, an initial sift will be conducted on Communicating and Influencing and Delivering at Pace.  In this instance the remaining element will be tested at interview.

At application you will be assessed against the following:

Candidates will be required to provide CV details to include: job history; qualification details and previous skills and experience.

• Behaviours: Leadership, Communicating and Influencing and Delivering at Pace.

At interview you may be asked questions to understand whether you have behaviours and strengths relevant to the job role, you will be assessed against the following:

• Behaviours: Leadership, Communication and Influencing and Delivering at Pace
• Strengths: Emotionally Intelligent, Inclusive, Focussed and Resilient

Application sifting is scheduled to take place on week commencing 24 June 2024

Interviews will take place at Horse Guards, London on W/C 08 July 2024. A minimum of 2 full working days’ notice will be provided for interviews.  We endeavour to stick to these dates, but these are subject to change around business needs.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact: DBSCivPers-Resourcingteam3@mod.gov.uk 

 

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points-based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical.

The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected, and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.