About the job

Job summary

Home Office Intelligence brings together a number of existing teams involved in the collection and analysis of border and immigration related intelligence. It delivers Intelligence Collection, Development, Analysis, Targeting (Data Analytics) and Watchlisting capabilities within the Home Office and to its partners across Government and Law Enforcement. Learn more on the HO Intelligence careers page.

Job description

The Operational Intelligence Units (OIUs) are part of Home Office Intelligence. OIUs include operational and non-operational staff who develop intelligence products to protect vulnerable people and communities while reducing the illegal population and the harm that it causes. 

The role of the HEO Intelligence Manager within the OIU is to manage work on a variety of case types. This includes enhancing received intelligence enabling the most suitable response, such as a frontline intervention or sharing intelligence with partners. They also spot emerging trends and intelligence gaps to contribute to the national intelligence picture.

The post offers you the opportunity to develop your intelligence skills and is an excellent, challenging opportunity for the right candidate to interact with a variety of internal and external partners across a large geographical area.

The role will be to manage and direct non-operational Intelligence Officers/researchers to receive, record and develop intelligence in line with Home Office priorities to identify breaches of UK immigration Laws, utilising both open and closed sources. You will also manage the utilisation of internal intelligence systems and other databases as well as sharing responsibility for managing an updated national workflow system. Other management recording, collation and reporting of intelligence activity will also be required.

Responsibilities

Duties include but are not limited to:

•    Line management responsibility of two Intelligence Officers, including the oversight of day to day activities.

•    Analysing and reporting on performance to support local and regional business planning.

•    Effectively managing intelligence databases to ensure that all intelligence is handled in line with Home Office guidance.

•    Contributing to the development of effective working relationships with corporate partners, both internal and external and ensuring that the relationships are maintained and remain beneficial for the business.

•    Representing Home Office Intelligence at Tasking and Co-ordination Meetings, effectively communicating Intelligence updates, priorities and workflows.

•    Managing the development and use of open and closed data sets including Open Source and financial intelligence.

Training

The role of intelligence is continuing to develop within the Home Office as we aim to professionalise roles through staff training and qualifications. You will work towards an Intelligence Professionalisation Programme (IPP) accreditation within the first year in post. The Home Office is also developing an IPP career pathway framework to set out how intelligence practitioners can proactively move between IPP organisations to improve their intelligence knowledge and skills sets.

Person specification

This is an excellent opportunity for the right candidate to work across busy offices, shaping processes and delivering intelligence to front line operational staff and responding to potentially high-profile hot tasking. This is a challenging and unique opportunity to work in an area which is integral to the success of intelligence-led working in the Home Office.

Essential criteria

You must be able to demonstrate:

•    Previous experience of working in an intelligence and/or law enforcement environment. 

•    A proven track record of leading a team in a fast paced environment.

•    The ability to prioritise against competing deadlines.

•    Effective verbal and written communication skills with an ability to effectively engage with a wide range of stakeholders at all levels.

•    Experience of building and maintaining stakeholder relationships. 

•    The ability to support the development of the team and take responsibility for own individual development.

Desirable criteria

•    A high degree of computer literacy including advanced knowledge of the MS Office Suite and a willingness and skill to learn new programs quickly.

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)
• provide evidence of the behaviour 'Leadership' (250 words maximum)

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

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

The sift will be held on the behaviour Leadership and the statement of suitability.

The statement of suitability will be scored first for all candidates. Those candidates who achieve the minimum pass score for the statement of suitability, will progress to a further sift where the lead behaviour (Leadership) will be scored. These candidates will therefore receive a sift score for both elements. Candidates who fail to meet the minimum pass score for the statement of suitability will not have their lead behaviour scored and will therefore only receive a sift score for the statement of suitability.

However, if a large number of applications are received, the sift will be conducted on the statement of suitability (personal statement) only. 

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 on all behaviours listed within the advert.

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

Sift and Interview dates

Sift is expected to take place week commencing 12th February 2024.

Interviews are expected to take place week commencing 4th March 2024.

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

Interviews will be carried out via video. Candidates will be required to have access to:

• A laptop (personal or work) with a working webcam
• Good internet connection
• Microsoft Teams

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.

 A reserve list will be held for 12 months from which further appointments may be made.

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.

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.

If you are considering applying for part time hours, please contact HORCCampaignTeamHOIntel@homeoffice.gov.uk to discuss your request as not all working patterns may be accommodated.

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).

Internally advertised roles are open to existing Home Office staff only.

Across Government roles are open to all government departments and Accredited NDPBs.

Roles are restricted to existing:

• Permanent Civil Servants.
• Fixed term appointments who were appointed following fair and open competition.  Please speak to your HR department if you are unsure of how you were recruited.
• Employees of those NDPBs who have been Accredited by the Civil Service Commission (see NDPB Accreditation - Civil Service Commission (independent.gov.uk).  Please check if you are a Civil Servant or Accredited NDPB Public Servant.  Public servants from Accredited NDPBs will be recruited as external hires rather than civil servant transfers. See section on NDPBs within the Candidate Information Notes.

Also see the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles for more information on Exceptions Recruitment - Civil Service Commission (independent.gov.uk)

Other worker types operating within the public sector (e.g. Agency workers, Contractors, police, military, NHS etc.) and those appointed under Exceptions 1-4 of the CS Commission’s Recruitment Principles (including Secondments, Seasonal Workers) are not eligible to apply.  They can only apply to Externally advertised roles.

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.