About the job

Job summary

The Role

The UK receives over 80,000 Asylum claims every year and a further 83,000 applications for status on the basis of Human Rights grounds.  Behind each of these claims is a human story that deserves professional consideration.  As leader of this critical function, you will lead, develop and inspire a team of 6000 staff to deliver the best service possible. This is, however, not a role without its challenges. For many reasons, delays have grown into our system and processes have not modernised fast enough.  It is our ambition to get the whole system running in a way that is responsive and yet adaptive to each individual claim.

To achieve in this role, you will need to be a systems thinker, able to lead through influence of other's, not just through the leadership of your own function.  You will need to be able to motivate a workforce on a large scale and inspire people to achieve the best they can for those who need it most. 

The role is accountable to Ministers and Parliament, so expect regular scrutiny and have a strong eye for performance detail.

Job description

The responsibilities of the role

As the Director for the Asylum and Human Rights Operation you will be responsible for c. 6,500 staff spread across multiple sites within the UK who provide a service to some of the most vulnerable members of society.  You will lead the end-to-end case working for asylum, family and human rights applications, advocating a constant focus on delivering robust and quality decisions whilst ensuring resources are effectively managed to meet demand.

You will need to be an inspirational leader, able to support, motivate and engage colleagues across dispersed teams. We are going through a period of large-scale change where building a strong team culture will be crucial. You will be comfortable driving performance that balances colleague well-being with improving productivity, efficiency and cost.  And you will need to work with our transformation team to modernise and digitise the asylum and human rights system, which still has a long journey to travel.

We are looking for a skilled communicator, who can build relations with a wide range of stakeholders, both internally across the migration and borders system, and externally with third sector organisations and other partners.  The ability to quickly gain the confidence and credibility of Ministers and senior officials within the Home Office and across Whitehall will be essential. 

Person specification

Essential Criteria  

The successful candidate will need to demonstrate their knowledge, experience, capability and behavioural approach to a high standard against the following key criteria:

• Senior leadership experience with evidence of building an empowered and collaborative workforce including over multiple locations, and at scale, in a way that creates empowerment to make decisions. 
• The ability to set an inspiring vision and a credible strategy and business plan to bring that vision to fruition. 
• A track record of having delivered end to end service transformation as part of a wider system.
• A proven track record of running large scale and complex operations delivering results in a complex and/or politically sensitive environment, aligning functions and resources, and deploying people and skills optimally to achieve strategic priorities, with a continual focus on driving high performance and productivity.  
• A highly effective and motivational communicator with a strategic mindset and an ability to comfortably interact with detail.  You should have experience of working and negotiating with both internal and external stakeholders within the public and/or private sector e.g. government departments, representative bodies, regulators, local authorities.
• The ability to operate effectively in a complex, multi-stakeholder environment, with a proven record of working with very senior decision-makers e.g. ministers or executive and non-executive board members, being able to influence at these senior levels and effect delivery.
• The flexibility and personal resilience to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances in an environment of regular scrutiny by the media, public and others.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £97,000, Home Office contributes £26,190 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

The Recruitment Process

Online Application ​

Please follow the Job Advert instructions on the Civil Service Jobs website to apply online, no later than 23:55hrs on Sunday 28th July 2024.

Provide some basic personal information;​

1. A CV - setting out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role, including details where budgets and numbers of people managed, relevant achievements in recent posts, together with reasons for any gaps within the last two years;​
2. A Statement of Suitability –(limited to 1250 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience, provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria in the person specification. ​
3. Diversity Monitoring -as part of the online application process, you will be asked a number of diversity-related questions. If you do not wish to provide a declaration on any of the characteristics, you will have the option to select 'prefer not to say'. See the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy: 2022 to 2025 (HTML) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) for more information.

It is essential that in your written application you give evidence, using examples, of proven experience. These responses will be developed and discussed with candidates invited for interview.​

Failure to submit both a CV and Supporting Statement will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification.​

Security clearance: The successful candidate must be cleared to Security Clearance (SC) level before they are able to start and may be asked to complete the Developed Vetting (DV) level clearance process on appointment if required. 

For further information, please follow the link:

United Kingdom Security Vetting - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Civil Service Code: The Civil Service Code sets out the constitutional framework within which all civil servants work and the values they are expected to uphold.  A copy of the Code can be found at:

http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/about/values.

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.