About the job

Job summary

The Home Office is here to make our country safer, as well as working to reduce crime and enforce the law. We also work to protect the most vulnerable and have a proud history of providing refuge to those who have been displaced or are seeking asylum. Whether it is fighting crime, protecting our borders or combating slavery, the Home Office is at the cutting edge of public policy in this country and our work is some of the most challenging and rewarding in government.

As part of the New Plan for Immigration, the Nationality and Borders Act introduced a number of measures to strengthen and improve processes for assessing age. The National Age Assessment Board (NAAB) is a decision-making function within the Home Office, which consists of social workers who can conduct holistic Merton case law compliant age assessments. Under Sections 50 and 51 of the Act, the NAAB can conduct age assessments on behalf of local authorities in England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, and on behalf of the Home Office in some circumstances.

The NAAB is not aiming to complete every age assessment across the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland once the roll-out is complete – local authorities will still retain the ability to complete some age assessments themselves and can contact the NAAB for support when needed.

Job description

Alongside demonstrating excellent attention to detail, this role is predominantly about delivering a quality service at pace. You will have a passion for delivery. 

We are looking for an experienced Long Arm specialist.  The role must work closely with the management team, NAAB Operations and external stakeholders.

Due to business requirements, this role is only available full time.

Person specification

The purpose of this role is to:
•     Deliver in business priorities and reporting for a programme or projects within a programme. 
•     Accountable to the Senior Executive Officer for the quality of information and reporting services provided.
•     Continually improve the performance of services.
•     You will be a good communicator and will be able to balance the workload of your team with the expectations of stakeholders. 

Essential Criteria

•     You are a confident communicator and can deliver sophisticated analytical evidenced concepts to a varied audience, both verbally and in writing.

•     Building relationships comes naturally to you, helping you to craft and define new partnerships in new areas of the business.

•     Embracing and delivering change is one of your strengths and you enjoy supporting others by developing fit for purpose communications in line with the business requirements.

Desirable Criteria

•    A good knowledge of IT and Home Office systems including WI, CID (Case Information Database) and ATLAS
•    An awareness of Longarm program and a wiliness to be trained as a level 2 practitioner
•    Understanding of how to use the Captus Pro software
•    Analyse information and make effective decisions using sensitive information
•    Excellent drafting, presentation and communication skills and the ability to influence stakeholders at senior and junior levels
•    Experience of working in a changing environment and planning, collaborating, and delivering through others, to meet both short and longer-term deadlines
•    Experience of using tools such as Visio to generate reports

Benefits

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

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.

As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete:

•    Statement of Suitability (Personal Statement) (maximum 750 words)
•    Provide evidence of the Lead Behaviour "Seeing the Big Picture" (Max Word Limit: 250)

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

The Statement of Suitability (Personal Statement) should be aligned to demonstrate your skills and experience for the role and how you meet the Essential Criteria as detailed in the job description. 

The sift will be held on the behaviour Seeing the Big Picture and the Personal Statement.  

For guidance on how to construct your personal statement, you are encouraged to visit Civil Service Careers. Links – Statement

For guidance on how to construct your behaviour examples, you are encouraged to visit Civil Service Careers. Links –Behaviours

The sift will be completed initially on the Personal Statement.

The Personal Statement will be scored first for all candidates. Those candidates who achieve the minimum pass score for the Personal Statement will progress to a further sift where the Lead Behaviour "Seeing the Big Picture" will be scored. These candidates will receive a sift score for both elements.

Candidates who fail to meet the minimum pass score for the Personal Statement will not have their Lead Behaviour scored and will only receive a sift score for the Personal Statement. 

Candidates successful at sift stage will be invited to an interview which will be a blended approach of strength based questions (no preparation necessary) and some behaviour based questions based on those listed in the application (preparation recommended).

Strengths are the things that you do regularly, do well and that motivate you. To find out more about strength based questions click Success Profiles - Civil Service Strengths Dictionary (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Sift and Interview dates

Sift is expected to take place week commencing 22 January 2024. 
Interviews are expected to take place week commencing 12 February 2024. 
We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert, however these may change due to business needs.   You will be provided with sufficient notice of the confirmed dates.

Interviews will be carried out via MS Teams. Candidates will be required to have access to:
• A laptop (personal or work) with a working webcam
• Good internet connection
• Skype for Business/Microsoft Teams

It is advisable to access your interview from a windows operating system laptop, desktop, phone or tablet as there is no guarantee that Microsoft Teams will work without issue on an Apple laptop, tablet or desktop.

Further Information

For meaningful checks to be carried out, individuals need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time to enable appropriate checks to be carried out and produce a result which provides the required level of assurance. You should normally have been resident in the United Kingdom for the last 3 years if the role requires CTC clearance, 5 years for SC clearance and 10 years for DV.  A lack of UK residency in itself is not necessarily a bar to a security clearance and applicants should contact the Vacancy Holder/Recruiting Manager listed in the advert for further advice.

Please be aware the levels of national security clearance are changing which may impact on the level needed for this role by the time of appointment. All efforts will be made to keep candidates informed of any changes and what that will mean in terms of vetting criteria. For more information please See our vetting charter

Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. All applications are screened for plagiarism and copying and generating of examples/answers from internet sources including Artificial Intelligence. If any is detected the application may be withdrawn from the process. Further action, including disciplinary action, may be considered in such cases involving civil servants. Providing false or misleading information would be contrary to the core values of honesty and integrity expected of all Civil Servants.

Please note: If you are currently an agency member of staff working within the Home Office, a contractor or contingent worker you can only apply for roles that are advertised externally, i.e. outside the civil service. If you are eligible to apply for a role, you are required to select yourself as an external applicant and not internal when submitting your application on Civil Service jobs. This will prevent any delays in pre-employment checks should you become successful in being made an offer of employment after the Interview stage.

Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working.  Where this is the case, employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in the office.  Applicants can discuss any specific questions with the Vacancy Holder.

A reserve list may be created for other similar roles for a period of 12 months. Selection will be in Merit Order to fill the same role or similar roles with closely matching essential criteria and Success Profile elements without further assessment.

Please ensure your profile on the CS Jobs portal is up to date and reflects your current status as a Civil Servant Inaccurate or out of date details will impact the onboarding process and may delay your start date if you’re successful.

For more information about working for the Home Office, please visit Home Office Careers website.

Every day, Home Office civil servants do brilliant work to develop and deliver policies and services that affect the lives of people across the country and beyond. To do this effectively and fairly, the Home Office is committed to representing modern Britain in all its diversity, and creating a welcoming, inclusive workplace where all our people are able to bring their whole selves to work and perform at their best.

We are flexible, skilled, professional and diverse. We work to recruit and retain disabled staff and area Disability Confident Leader. We are proud to be one of the most ethnically diverse departments in the civil service. We are a Social Mobility Foundation top 75 employer.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant's details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

For further information please see the attached notes for candidates which must be read before making an application.

Existing Civil Servants should note that some of the Home Office terms and conditions of employment have changed. It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the Terms and Conditions they will adopt should they be successful in application and should refer to the notes for candidates for further details.

Transfer Terms: Voluntary.

If you are invited to an interview you will be required to  bring a range of documentation for the purposes of establishing identity and to aid any pre-employment checks.

Please see the attached list of Home Office acceptable ID documents.

Any move to the Home Office from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

Reasonable Adjustments

If a person with disabilities is at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes. 

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

• Contact Government Recruitment Service via HOrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs
• Complete the “Assistance Required” section in the “Additional Requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you're deaf, a language service professional

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the ‘Contact point for applicants’ section.

Feedback

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

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist 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.