About the job

Job summary

Customer Services Group (CSG) brings together Asylum & Protection (A&P), Passports, Citizenship and Civil Registration (PCCR) which includes His Majesty’s Passport Office (HMPO) and General Registry Office (GRO), Visas Status & Information (VSI) and Customer Operations Service Support (COSS).

As a major operational part of the Home Office, we play a vital role in supporting the economy and cultural life of the United Kingdom. 

The Customer Services Group comprises of two Directorates: The Asylum & Protection (A&P) Group and Visa’s, Information & Passports (VIP) Group.  

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

Asylum Support, Resettlement and Accommodation (ASRA) vision is to be a world-leading immigration service, working for a safe and prosperous UK. We will carry out our vision through the delivery of four strategic missions: to control migration, deliver world-class customer service, safeguard the vulnerable and their host communities and make Asylum & Protection Group a great place to work.    

Asylum is complex, political, and challenging, yet highly fascinating and an incredibly important area of operational delivery.  Cases often involve very vulnerable people with complex backgrounds, and the decisions made on people’s claims are life-changing for claimants and their families.  At the same time, scrutiny from Ministers, No.10, Parliament, the media, and stakeholder groups are immense.   

Job description

The ASRA Estates & Property team supports the implementation and delivery of the Non-Detained accommodation to enable the Home Office to meet its statutory obligations.  

The ASRA Estates team manages one of the most diverse and complex estates in Government.  The ASRA estates team provides specialist services to Asylum Accommodation including facilities management, health & safety and fire safety.  

The ASRA Estates team is committed to building the professionalism of our people, providing clear and defined career pathways enabling focused learning and development across several specialist areas in a culture of continual improvement. 

This role will be a key role within the ASRA Estates & Property team managing the delivery of both Hard & Soft Facilities Management (FM) Services across the region’s buildings providing assurance on our key suppliers.  

The successful candidate will have the ability to build strong working relationships both internally and externally.  

The post holder will need to lead, motivate and empower our people to deliver optimum performance, bringing creativity to the role and prioritising the demands and workload associated with this complex but key area. 

The postholder champions delivery of the risk management framework through the core tasks. This role develops organisational insight by maintaining strategic oversight of the organisational risk profile, and providing strategic direction to the risk team. Regular contact and consultancy services are provided to senior leaders across the organisation to support organisational improvement. 

*Whilst people can be based at any location. The posts will require regular travel to the Northeast and Southeast of England.  Expenses will be provided to cover the cost of all travel.

Person specification

The Senior FM Delivery Lead will have a range of responsibilities including;  

• Oversight, monitoring and reporting of supplier management of reactive and planned maintenance and projects to ensure health and safety, business resilience and fit-for-purpose accommodation to meet individual business and customer requirements. 
• Robust management of performance on contracts across the estate. 
• Review and report on supplier performance to the Head of FM and Estates Team, acting to drive continuous improvement. 
• Provide leadership and direction to your team, whilst ensuring a collaborative and joined up approach with the rest of the onsite Operations Teams and the wider Estates business operation. 
• Ensure provision of high quality and consistent communications with key stakeholders.  
• Oversee day to day performance to ensure the successful delivery of services to a changing portfolio of properties across the region providing a visible presence with a proactive local interface with Hard and Soft FM Suppliers.  
• Assure hard and soft FM supplier performance. 
• Apply contract incentives and sanctions within delegation and make recommendations to the Head of Facilities Management. 
• Ensure seamless close out of day-to-day issues and provide emergency call-out to coordinate problem resolution. 
• With ASRA project managers, carry out testing and commissioning of new facilities. 
• Support the mobilisation of new service providers and de-mobilisation of existing suppliers. 
• Collate and inform appropriate management information to enable the effective management of the estate and suppliers. 
• Identify risks and manage mitigating actions, providing appropriate and timely escalations to resolve issues effectively, minimising business and operational risks. 
• Contribute to the planning and delivery of targets and objectives in order to meet HO Estates targets and priorities. 
• Lead and develop the team. 
• Regular travel across England and Wales to visit sites along with client engagement meetings, compliance management and project management. 
• Active attendance and participation in supplier contract performance meetings as required. 
• Regular liaison with the Integrator to understand performance of FM contractors and customer requirements. 
• Working with the Contracts Management team to leverage knowledge from the transactional data into any improvement in processes, specifications or services. 
• Close working with Finance and Commercial colleagues to escalate any performance or contractual issues and propose contractual changes or remediation. 
• Audit, assurance and validation of service delivery taking account of reports from the Contracts Management team and physical checks. 
• Collaborative working with other Regional Facilities Managers to resolve escalated issues and actively participate in internal and external industry networks to share best practice and overcome specific and generic blockers to effective FM performance.

Essential Criteria

• An experienced property and facilities management professional with knowledge of asset management, maintenance, customer service and supplier management. 
• Able to demonstrate personal development through continued professional development in property and FM related field. 
• Proven experience of managing facilities management suppliers (hard and soft) and maintenance or capital investments. 
• Good inter-personal, communication and presentational skills. 
• Persuasive influencer who is able to confidently and articulately make an argument in support of a position. 
• Analytical mindset with the ability to assimilate a wide range of data sources to inform decision making. 
• Strong leadership and people skills to inspire and motivate and develop teams to deliver high quality results. 

Desirable Criteria

• Have IWFM level 5 or achieve within 24 months of appointment. 
• Member of a relevant professional organisation (eg RICS, IET, BIFM, CIBSE etc) 
• Experience of working in cross-functional teams and in a matrix management structure. 
• A strategic thinker who can see the big picture and local detail and switch between both views to obtain a holistic view. 
• Innovative mindset with the ability to see opportunities and how to exploit them to deliver best value. 
• Strong commercial awareness and value judgment skills. 
• You facilitate constructive discussions and enjoy getting all parties to reach an agreement. You have strong negotiating skills. 
• Membership of Government Property Profession. 

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, Experience and Technical skills.

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

• A CV detailing job history and skills.  
• A Statement of Suitability (personal statement) (Max Word Limit:750).

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

Please note the 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 CV & Statement of suitability. 

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

The sift will be completed initially on the Personal Statement.

The Personal Statement will be marked first for all candidates. Candidates who meet the minimum pass score for the Personal Statement will then go on to have their CV scored and will receive sift scores for both elements. Candidates who fail to meet the minimum pass score for the Personal Statement will not have their CV scored and will only receive a sift score for their Personal Statement.

If you are successful at sift stage you will be invited to an interview which will be a blended approach of behaviour based questions and technical skills. 

Government Property Profession (GPP) Technical Skills 

The GPP Framework is aimed at staff working in property or property-related roles and consider property to be their career anchor profession. This usually encompasses posts where professional qualifications and experience are directly relevant to the work being undertaken. However, it is also applicable to those who are currently not qualified property practitioners but wish to make this their profession of choice. Those with a property background at any level are encouraged to register with the GPP, which exists to support property practitioners at all levels. Details of the GPP Career Framework can be found at:  

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-government-property-profession-career-framework--2  

This role falls under Facilities Management and some or all of the following Technical Skills will be tested during the selection process: 

Customer Focus – Level 3 

Application of Knowledge and Expertise – Level 3 
 
Sift and Interview dates

Sift is expected to take place week commencing 15th January 2024. 

Interviews are expected to take place week commencing 5th 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 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 held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointment may be made.

When completing your application you will have the opportunity to select your preferred location(s). Please ensure you select all locations you are interested in. Candidates who are successful at interview will be placed in order of merit per location and provisional job offers will be made in strict merit order per location preference.

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.

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 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.