About the job

Job summary

The Home Office has a broad-reaching role at the heart of the Government's agenda, leading on counter-extremism and counter-terrorism, UK policing, immigration and passports, drugs and crime policy among many other responsibilities.

The Physical Security Team is part of the Home Office Security and Estates Directorate and works within the Security Policy Framework to keep Home Office buildings, staff, and information assets secure and safe. 

This interesting and important job entails enabling secure access for Home Office building-users, authorising the issuing of building passes and responding to a wide range of security enquiries coming direct from very senior stakeholders such as private offices, directors and other government departments. You’ll be part of the small team that delivers all this and come into daily contact with people at the very centre of the nationally important work the Home Office does; it’s a rare opportunity to forge great working relationships with people right across the Home Office.  

Job description

There are many aspects to the job. Working with other departments and directorates means that no two questions and no two days are alike - so flexibility and prioritising are key requirements. 

Main aspects of the role are:

• Administer and manage the building pass process, resolving complex application issues as they arise to minimise the time taken during the approval process.

• Deal with personal and telephone callers at our offices and liaise with customers, partners, and stakeholders across departments. 

• Manage ad-hoc/miscellaneous security related requests and enquiries from staff and stakeholders. 

• Ensure access is granted to various restricted areas in accordance with agreed protocols. 

• Work collaboratively with Physical Security Adviser colleagues in different locations to support the work of the national team. 

• Ad-hoc tasks as and when required.

Person specification

Important information 

Due to the nature of this role hybrid working (working partly in a workplace and partly at home) is not available. This is an office-based role; successful candidates will need to work in an office 5 days a week.

The successful applicant would be based at Croydon but must be prepared to travel occasionally to 2MS (during working hours) so as to maintain familiarity with the security systems there and cover absence when required.  

Full-Time working patterns
Due to the nature of the role, this post is available on a full-time basis only.

Essential Criteria:

• Highly motivated, dynamic, and proactive; able to work in a fast-paced environment, managing time and priorities effectively.
• Good written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to confidently deal with staff of all grades of all levels.
• Strategic thinker, problem solver and able to provide clear, accurate direction to stakeholders.
• Knowledge of Microsoft Office 365, Word, Excel, SharePoint, Outlook etc.
• Must hold or be willing to apply for SC clearance.

Desirable Criteria:

• Previous experience of using Home Office access control systems, however full training will be provided to the successful candidate.

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.

This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, drives up performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.

As part of the application process, you will first be asked to confirm your eligibility by providing some basic personal information.

• A CV detailing job history/skills
• A statement of suitability (personal statement) (maximum 500 words)
• Provide evidence of the behaviour Making Effective Decisions (250 words maximum)

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

The statement of suitability 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. 

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 held on the behaviour Making Effective Decisions and the statement of suitability (personal statement). The CV will not be scored.

The statement of suitability will be scored first for all candidates. Those candidates who achieve the minimum pass score for the statement of suitability, will progress to a further sift where the lead behaviour Making Effective Decisions will be scored. 

These candidates will therefore receive a sift score for both elements. Candidates who fail to meet the minimum pass score for the statement of suitability will not have their lead behaviour scored and will therefore only receive a sift score for the statement of suitability.

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

Sift and Interview dates

Sift is expected to take place week commencing 20th May 2024.

Interviews are expected to take place week commencing 10th June 2024.

We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert, however on occasions these dates may change.

Interviews will be carried out via video. 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

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.

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the following page https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/demystifying-vetting

A reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for 12 months. Should another role or similar role become available within that period you may be offered this position.

Please note: If you are currently an agency member of staff working within the Home Office, 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.

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.

Visa sponsorship    

We are unable to sponsor any individuals via Skilled Worker Sponsorship / Tier 2 (General) work visas as we do not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker License.  

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.