About the job

Job summary

The challenge

The Home Office is central to UK life. Our work extends from devising drugs policies and ensuring the immigration system is not being abused, to delivering an accountable policing service. Join us in this important senior role and you’ll head the Immigration Enforcement Competent Authority (IECA) team, leading around 350 colleagues across 9 geographical locations in England, Scotland and Wales. The team runs the operational National Referral Mechanism system, which is designed to identify and support victims of modern slavery and human trafficking, an area with a high degree of scrutiny from Ministers, the media and a wide range of stakeholders.

Job description

The role

The IECA was set up in 2021 to make modern slavery decisions on those with an immigration footprint, and is first and foremost a safeguarding team. Established because many of the people referred have ongoing immigration claims, the streamlined approach we take to our work ensures that the system cannot be easily misused by anyone who is not a genuine victim.​

When you join us, you’ll use all your management and leadership skills as you collaborate across policy, operational and legal teams to identify and deliver change. Since its creation the IECA has been one of Immigration Enforcement’s most high-profile and innovative units, driving operational improvements and reforms to ensure victims are identified and recognised more quickly​.

Last year we recognised nearly 600 individuals as confirmed victims of modern slavery – this helped them to receive the support and guidance they needed to recover in the UK, and it will be your task to continue and enhance the important work we do.

About you

With the skills to inspire, engage and lead a large, diverse and geographically dispersed team, and the ability to build, empower and motivate colleague engagement, you’ll have a successful track record of delivering results in a complex, politically sensitive environment, and experience of working with Ministers and other senior stakeholders.​

Skilled at planning, implementing and monitoring the delivery of stretching goals, you’ll be capable of identifying innovative ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the resources we use. We’ll also expect you to be ready to build strong relationships and work collaboratively with a range of partners across our organisation, influencing effectively while facing competing priorities.​

In turn, we can offer you a truly great career within one of the Government’s most interesting and inclusive departments. With ongoing training and development opportunities and a competitive benefits package, there is no saying where your career will take you in the Home Office.

 

For further information about this opportunity please refer to the candidate pack attached at the bottom of this page.

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: 

 

• Inspirational and engaging leadership of large, diverse and geographically dispersed teams, and an ability to build, empower and motivate a high performing, resilient and inclusive team, raising employee engagement at all levels.
• A successful track record of delivering results in a complex, politically sensitive environment with previous experience of working with Ministers/senior stakeholders.
• The ability to plan, implement and monitor the delivery of stretching goals, identifying innovative ways to improve efficiency and effectiveness in the use of resources.
• The ability to build strong relationships and work collaboratively with a range of partners across the organisation, influencing effectively in the light of competing priorities.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £75,000, Home Office contributes £20,250 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

Online Application     

Please follow the Job Advert instructions on the Civil Service Jobs website to apply online, no later than 23:55hrs on Wednesday 8th May 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.

For further information on SCS careers and the application process, please see below:

Home Office SCS Further Information 

Home Office Senior Leaders - Home Office Careers 

Home Office SCS Application Process 

Applying for Senior Civil Service vacancies - Home Office Careers

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.