About the job

Job summary

Are you a dedicated person who is passionate about making a difference?

Would you like to work for the Ministry of Defence?

Defence Business Services (DBS) is one of the largest shared service organisations in Europe that provides a wide range of corporate services, to over 1.2 million end users, including serving and past military and families, as well as MoD civil servants and industry. DBS delivers large scale administration and smaller specialist services to enable the wider MOD to focus on its core aims, maintaining the UK’s Defence and Security. Services include Human Resources, Pay, Veterans, Finance and Procurement.

• Our Vision - To support UK defence customers with outstanding service every time.
• Our Mission - Together we will proudly support Defence, continuously improving and delivering flexible, timely, sustainable and value for money services that underpin the whole force and enhance operational capability. 

DBS is committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues. We are building an inclusive culture and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society. 

We want to maximise the potential of everyone who chooses to work for us through opportunities to develop your skills and experience. We also offer a range of flexible working patterns and support to make a fulfilling career accessible to you and offer a Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%. Where your role permits, we support a blended working approach alternatively known as hybrid working.

Come and join the DBS community today!

Job description

Do you want to join the MOD War Detectives? Do you have excellent admin skills, an eye for detail and a passion for military history? An exciting opportunity has arisen to join the Commemorations team as an Administrative Officer. Due to the investigative work carried out, this high-profile team has become affectionately known as the MOD War Detectives and has featured twice on ITV’s Long Lost Family.

•    The work the team does makes a real difference to the families of historic casualties and our administrative officers support our caseworkers to see each case through from start to finish. This role is busy, interesting and extremely rewarding, no two days are ever the same.
•    You will travel overseas approximately 4 to 6 times a year and you will work with a variety of stakeholders and family members.

- This role is office based however, DBS are working hard to improve our access to, and use of, digital technology, empowering our people to work remotely.

Main responsibilities

To contribute to the JCCC by dealing efficiently with all aspect of administration and commemoration for the Armed Forces and Veterans community through dealings with next of kin, single services, MOD, other Government Departments and with the general public.

•    General administrative support in the processing of historic casualty casework. 
o    All aspects of arranging, booking and coordinating travel for JCCC, Service Personnel and sponsored family members.
o    Casework and file management of all paper and electronic records
o    When required, undertake research on historic casework.
o    Facilitating identification of recovered remains of service personnel by review of a variety of sources relating to excavation/discovery and artefacts found with the deceased.
•    The administration of the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 (POMRA), including maintenance of the database, responding to applications for licences, liaising with other government departments, civil authorities and landowners.
•    Travelling overseas for commemorative services approximately 4 to 6 times a year and assisting with driving, administrative and hosting duties.

Person specification

Essential:

•    Someone who is comfortable engaging with a wide range of stakeholders and can analyse and manage information accurately.
•    Highly motivated and resilient.
•    The ability to work as part of a team and, at times, being able to work independently with minimal supervision.
•    Good attention to detail.
•    Proven ability to communicate – both written and verbal.
•    Knowledge of all Microsoft Office applications.
•    UK full driving licence and the ability to drive overseas in a variety of vehicles.

Desirable:

•    An interest in military history.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £24,040, Ministry of Defence contributes £6,490 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

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.

For AO specific details please see page 1-2 of the Success Profile: Civil Service Behaviours (green) following the above link.

Please ensure that at the application and interview stages of the campaign you review the Success Profiles Framework to assist you in the demonstration of your skills and experience.

Your suitability for the role will be assessed using the Success Profile elements that have been chosen for this campaign. Each element will be scored accordingly, and the successful candidate will be appointed on merit.

Applications will be sifted on all Success Profile elements, but in the event of a high number of applications, an initial sift will be conducted on the following success profile elements:

Primary: Experience - Personal statement

Secondary: Behaviour - Managing a Quality Service

In this instance the remaining elements will be tested at interview.

At the application stage you will be assessed against the following:

• Experience - CV
• Experience - Personal statement - 750 words - 1. Proven ability to communicate – both written and verbal. 2. Someone who is comfortable engaging with a wide range of stakeholders and can analyse and manage information accurately. 3. The ability to work as part of a team and, at times, being able to work independently with minimal supervision 4.The ability to drive in both the UK and abroad.
• Behaviour - Managing a Quality Service

Completing your application

Behaviour examples requires more than just information about what you did, it requires you to explain. There are many different approaches you could take to writing behaviours, such as the STAR, or the CAR method. As to which one you chose to use, it’s all down to your personal style of writing. Within the Civil Service, the most common approach is: The STAR method

Using the STAR method, allows you to set the scene, show what and how you did and the overall outcome. The job holder (and later the interviewer) will use this method to gather all the relevant information about a specific capability that the job requires.

Situation - Describe the situation you found yourself in. You must describe a specific event or situation. Be sure to give enough detail for the job holder to understand.

• Where are you?
• Who was there with you?
• What had happened?

Task - The job holder will want to understand what you tried to achieve from the situation you found yourself in.

• What was the task that you had to complete and why?
• What did you have to achieve?

Actions - What did you do? The job holder will be looking for information of what you did, how you did it and why. Keep the focus on you. What specific steps did you take and what was your contribution? Remember to include how you did it, and the behaviours you used. Try to use “I” rather than “we” to explain your actions that lead to the result. Be careful not to take credit of something that you did not do.

Results - Don’t be shy about taking credit for your behaviour. Quote specific facts and figures easily understandable.

• What results did the actions produce?
• What did you achieve through your actions and did you meet your goals?
• Was it a successful outcome? If not what did you learn from the experience?

Keep the situation and task parts brief. Concentrate on the action and the result. If the result was not entirely successful describe what you learned from this and what you would do differently next time. Make sure you focus on your strengths.

Remember- if you are a school leaver or out of employment, and feel that you don’t have the experience to apply for this role then do this-
Make a list of your skills, strength and experience

Focus on your education/day-to-day life/extra-curricular activities such as team sports

Highlight anything that would help you perform in the job that you are applying for

For more information on applying for Civil Service jobs and completing your application please visit-

The STAR method , National Careers Service

Success Profiles - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Working for the Civil Service - Civil Service - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

At the interview stage you will be assessed against the following:

• Experience - CV
• Behaviour - Leadership

We want to offer opportunities to all who are successful at interview for our roles, but this isn’t always possible, so we do hold candidates on an active reserve list for 12 months. 

In the rare case where individuals have exact matching scores, the order of merit will be determined based on the behaviour scores at interview in the following order:

• 1 - Experience - CV
• 2 - Behaviour - Leadership

If candidate scores are still exact, the merit order will then be determined on the sift score in the following order:

• 1 - Experience - Personal statement
• 2 - Experience - CV
• 3 - Behaviour - Managing a Quality Service

Application sifting to take place mid January.

Interviews are currently taking place via the following method: Face to face

Interviews will be conducted late January.

To assist with your application please find attached -  

DBS Candidate Information Guide - Working for Defence Business Services - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) 

A minimum of 2 full working days’ notice will be provided for interviews. We endeavour to stick to these dates, but these are subject to change around business needs.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.  

If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact: DBS-EnhancedRecruitmentTeam@mod.gov.uk  

MOD Recruitment Satisfaction Survey – we may contact you regarding your experience to help us improve our customer satisfaction. The survey is voluntary and anonymous. You may however be given the opportunity to provide additional information to help us improve our service which includes the collection of some personal data as defined by the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The MOD Privacy Notice sets out how we will use your personal data and your rights.

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points-based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical.

The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected, and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. 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.