About the job

Job summary

Immigration Enforcement is responsible for enforcing the government’s immigration laws, tackling illegal migration, removing foreign national offenders and immigration offenders from the UK. It also aims to disrupt the organised criminal groups that exploit the vulnerable for their personal gain. Learn more on the Immigration Enforcement careers page.

Job description

The National Command and Control Unit (NCCU) is the Immigration Enforcement (IE) 24/7 first point of contact for our main customers, which are all UK Police Forces. We support the IE wider priorities by identifying immigration offenders encountered by the Police either roadside or in custody and referring them to Immigration Compliance and Criminal and Financial Investigations teams for further action. We act as the first point of contact for all Clandestine events as well as being the IE Communications Hub. NCCU identifies incidents of a serious and high-profile nature and provides expert coordination and support to the management of these incidents.

• You will work as part of a team in a fast-paced contact centre environment, efficiently answering telephone and email enquiries from Police Forces Nationally and other Law Enforcement Agencies on a 24/7, 365 day a year basis.
• You will provide accurate Immigration advice to Police and other Law Enforcement Agencies regarding an Individuals Immigration Status and authorise any further action.
• You will collate information on Individual’s Immigration Status, make detailed comprehensive referrals to the Chief Immigration Officer and refer Immigration offenders for Enforcement Action to Local Immigration Teams.
• You will liaise with other departments within the Home Office such as Criminal Financial Investigations (CFI), Foreign National Offenders Returns Command (FNORC), and Intel.
• You will champion a person first approach, identifying safeguarding concerns and referring / signposting to the relevant departments to protect vulnerable people. 

We are looking for someone with strong team ethics & personal resilience and discipline, who can work in a fast-paced, demand driven call centre environment. This is essential to support your colleagues and achieve NCCU’s overall aim of providing an excellent quality service. All staff are required to work the full length and range of shifts, and you must be flexible to undertake shift changes at short notice. 

NCCU is a 24/7 unit and occasionally short notice travel to the office is required. There may also be a requirement to undertake some travel across the UK.

Applicants applying for this vacancy may wish to note that only limited car parking is available and is prioritised for staff working particularly early or late shifts and those working nights and weekends. No permanent car parking is available, and it will be individuals’ responsibility to make the necessary arrangements, to use public transport or other forms of travel.

Person specification

Responsibilities

• Performing in a demanding, fast-paced and pressurised working environment.
• Prioritising demands and effectively dealing with several enquiries concurrently.
• Demonstrating strong personal resilience. This is a key element in being able to undertake the role; some of the enquiries you handle may be traumatic and upsetting.
• Demonstrating a strong sense of integrity and ethics; some of the enquiries you handle will be high profile and of a sensitive nature.
• Utilising excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to work quickly, building rapport and establishing good working relationships with colleagues and partners.
• Supporting the ‘person first’ culture, with a focus on individual cases, ensuring our processes enable careful assessment of any sensitivities and an individual’s vulnerability.
• Ensuring that vulnerable individuals are safeguarded and considering the proportionality, type and timing of any Immigration Enforcement action.
• Committing to continuous improvement and the delivery of best practice. Strong candidates will demonstrate an ability to review current practices and suggest innovative ideas for improvement.
• Showing adaptivity and creativity in solving problems and dealing with change.
• Undertaking shift changes at short notice.
• Being prepared to work a range of shifts covering 24/7 which include nights, weekends and public holidays.

Essential Criteria

Candidates must be able to demonstrate:

• Be passionate about providing outstanding customer service to stakeholders.
• Must be able to prioritise work and adapt approach to meet tight deadlines and complete enquiries.
• Think in an objective and analytical manner to make accurate, well-judged decisions using all information available.
• Have strong written and verbal communication skills. Must be able to present  findings to a high standard to key stakeholders and all levels of seniority.
• Work well individually and as part of a team. Have responsibility for effective personal and team delivery.

Desirable Criteria

• Previous experience of performing in a fast-paced, busy call centre environment.

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 be asked to complete:  

• a Statement of Suitability (personal statement) (maximum 750 words)

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

The sift will be held on the statement of suitability (personal statement). 

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.

Strengths are the things that you do regularly, do well and that motivate you. To find out more about strength based questions click here 

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

Problems during the application process

If you experience accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, or you think you’ve made a mistake on an initial application (e.g. you have ticked the incorrect eligibility box), please contact hocandidates.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk at least two working days before the vacancy closes. After this, we may not be able to reopen your application.

Please note, we cannot make amendments to any part of the application.

Please use the following in the subject line in your email if you need to get in contact with us about your initial application “Please re-open my application – Vacancy Ref 360538 CLOSING DATE 31/07/2024.

For reasonable adjustments queries or requests, please see details with reasonable adjustments section.

Tie break decisions

The strengths and/or behaviours being assessed will be ranked in order of importance to enable us to differentiate between candidates with tied interview scores. Please note that the order in which behaviours are listed in the advert does not necessarily reflect the order of importance.

 Sift and Interview dates 

Sift is expected to take place week commencing 5th August 2024.

Interviews are expected to take place week commencing 26th August 2024. 

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

Interviews will be face to face in Soapworks, Manchester.

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

Reserve List

Where a competition identifies more appointable candidates than there are available vacancies, a reserve list may be held for up to 12 months. 

Whilst on a reserve list we may offer you an alternative similar role in the Home Office. Should you reject an alternative role, you will remain on the reserve list for the role you applied for. If you accept an alternative role, you will be withdrawn from the reserve list. Please note there are no guarantees that further vacancies will arise in the locations you originally applied for before your time on the reserve list expires.

Candidates Please Note:

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 of examples/answers from internet sources. If any is detected the application will be withdrawn from the process. Further action, including disciplinary action, may be considered in such cases involving internal candidates. Providing false or misleading information would be contrary to the core values of honesty and integrity expected of all Civil Servants.

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.

Are these Reserved Posts for UK Nationals only?

UK nationals who hold dual nationality are able to apply for this reserved post. If a UK passport is not being presented, then candidates will need to provide alternative evidence of UK nationality in line with the Civil Service Nationality Rules.

Annual Hours Working Allowance

We operate 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. This role currently attracts Annualised Hours Allowance of 34% of salary. This is to compensate for working shift patterns including night shifts, early morning starts, late night finishes, weekends, and public holidays.  Shifts can vary in length and can be up to 12 hours. Shifts can be changed or extended according to business need. The rate payable is dependent on location and role and is indicative of the shift pattern you will be required to work. The higher the AHA, the more flexible you will be required to be. Please note that the allowance is subject to regular review and can go down as well as up.  

Age: These are shift working roles and so you must be at least 18 years or over to apply for this role. You will be required to work between 22.00 and 06.00, so this is a legal requirement. For more information visit: https://www.gov.uk/night-working-hours and Child employment: Restrictions on child employment - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk

Part-time work

The minimum requirement for this role would be 24 hours per week. We encourage applications from candidates who wish to work part-time however, unless specified in the advert, part-time opportunities cannot be guaranteed in frontline roles due to the 24/7 operational nature of the business. Those wishing to work part-time should notify the vacancy holder as soon as a provisional offer of employment is made to explore whether this can be accommodated. Please note that full shifts (of up to 12 hours) will be required even if a part time contract is sought.  Please note that not all work patterns can be supported within this role, successful candidates should discuss work patterns with the vacancy holder ahead of accepting any offer.

Appearance

As part of this role you will be required to wear a uniform (which will be provided). Staff must ensure that their uniform is worn correctly, in line with these uniform standards, is kept clean and is well presented. To support this requirement, adequate uniform supplies will be available and issued. Uniformed staff represent their organisation at all times and should ensure that their dress and personal appearance reflects this responsibility.

Flexible working

Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working.  This is a non-contractual arrangement where all employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in an office, subject to local estates capacity, by Spring 2024.  Applicants can request further information regarding how this may work in their team from the Vacancy Holder (see advert for contact details).

If you are successful in this position and choose to accept the provisional offer for this role, you will be removed from all other Home Office reserve lists at the same grade.

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

Open to UK nationals only.

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.