About the job

Job summary

The Asylum Support, Resettlement, and non-detained Accommodation (ASRA) is one of the key business areas of the Home Office. 

ASRA brings together the Home Office’s work on the support of asylum seekers, refugee resettlement, and delivery of asylum accommodation which reduces hotel use as fast as possible, which is part of the Prime Minister’s ten-point plan to tackle illegal migration. The command carries out a number of other important functions which protect and safeguard vulnerable people.

The ASRA Accommodation Program (Non-Detained) within ASRA has been established to expand the asylum estate by accommodating asylum seekers in accommodation centres, during which their asylum claims will be processed. These accommodation centres, such as RAF Scampton, MDP Wethersfield and the Portland barge, will play a key part in improving and accelerating the asylum process by accommodation cohorts with similar cases in the same location.

The programme is responsible for delivery of both interim and longer-term accommodation centres.

This is an exciting opportunity to help shape and deliver a wide ranging and high-profile programme of work that seeks to develop essential stakeholder engagement, both across ASRA and wider with external partners and organisations.

The role provides and exciting opportunity, where you will play a key role in supporting the Government’s priority to provide accommodation centres to house and support destitute individuals who have arrived in the UK via unauthorised routes and claimed asylum.

For more information about working for the Home Office, please visit the Home Office careers Website.

Job description

The successful candidate will be an expert communicator, with strong experience of leading teams to develop and deliver excellent communications and engagement strategies.  
   
We are looking for a candidate who has the confidence and interpersonal skills to proactively influence senior stakeholders to get the buy-in necessary to advance programme objectives.  The engagement is often tailored for local audiences who have an interest in accommodation proposals in their area.  
   
You will need to be comfortable working in a fast-paced team, showing strong leadership skills and delivering to high standards.

Person specification

Roles and responsibilities include: 

• Act as a team leader and line manager with responsibility for delivery of high-quality engagement strategies which can include the planning and delivery of engagement events and production of communications products, such as community newsletters.   
• The creation, design, project planning, implementation, and evaluation of compelling engagement strategies using the Government Communication Service’s best practice frameworks.    
• Provide expert handling and strategic advice to senior leaders and to project teams, delivering high-quality engagement in a timely, appropriate, and consistent manner.   
• To deliver said strategies often at pace, alongside other priorities and to changing deadlines.   
• Understanding of the wider political landscape in which the role operates, utilising insight to manage risks.   
• Chairing forums with senior stakeholders at local, regional, and national levels, working with diverse partner organisations inside and outside of government.    
• Lead on stakeholder analysis, insight gathering, audience segmentation and evaluation to ensure the delivery of targeted engagement alongside technical teams in the programme 
• Be proactive in understanding and mapping the changing needs of the programme, working with project leads to ensure timely delivery.   
• Managing your team’s resources, ensure you can meet deadlines and juggle projects.

Essential Criteria

• Strong experience of leading motivated communication or engagement teams using excellent interpersonal, consultative and negotiation skills.  
• Stakeholder management experience related to sensitive or high-profile issues.
• Highly skilled at working with, and communicating with diverse senior stakeholders in complex, challenging and fast-paced environments.   
• A self-starter who operates independently and proactively to changing deadlines whilst juggling multiple high-profile projects.   
• Provides intelligent engagement advice and recommendations to senior leaders and ministers.   
• Successful experience at team management in setting and meeting ambitious objectives.  
• Excellent at responding well to change and supporting their team through uncertainty. 
• Someone who prioritises the learning and development of the team as part of their line management to ensure high standards and that staff are highly motivated.   
• Strong understanding of the wider political landscape in which the role operates, utilising insight to manage risks and adapting accordingly.   
• Excellent at identifying and acting upon reputational issues, including those of interest to stakeholders and media. 
  

Desirable Criteria

• Public sector experience, either in local or central government.
  

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 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 behaviour Leadership (250 words maximum)
• A CV with Career History is being requested

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

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 behaviour Leadership and the Personal Statement.  The CV will not be scored.

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 marked first for all candidates. Candidates who meet the minimum pass score for the Personal Statement, will then go on to have their lead behaviour Leadership 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 lead behaviour 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 on behaviour-based questions. The behaviours assessed at interview will be Changing & Improving, Communicating & Influencing, Seeing the Big Picture and Working Together.

Sift and Interview dates

Sift is expected to take place from 8th February 2024.

Interviews are expected to take place week commencing 26th 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 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.

If you are an external candidate and not a Civil Servant, please note that you will start on the minimum pay that is being advertised.

If you are already a Civil Servant and your current salary is higher than advertised, please contact Government Recruitment Services on horecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk who will assist you in undertaking a pay calculation in advance, so you can make an informed decision before accepting the post.

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.