About the job

Job summary

Immigration Enforcement is responsible for enforcing the government’s immigration laws, tackling illegal migration, removing foreign national offenders and immigration offenders from the UK. It also aims to disrupt the organised criminal groups that exploit the vulnerable for their personal gain. Learn more on the Immigration Enforcement careers page.

Job description

Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) and Reporting Offender Management (ROM) teams are part of the Home Office’s strategic aim to reduce the number of illegal migrants present in the UK and to work with partners, employers and the public to increase compliance with Immigration and employment rules.

Working for Immigration Enforcement is rewarding, challenging and fast-paced, requiring quick decision making in demanding situations, whilst maintaining the highest standards of professionalism. Some roles are physically demanding, so you will also need to be physically fit.

An exciting opportunity has arisen to step into this challenging, but rewarding leadership role, within various teams in ICE & ROM South region. If you are passionate about making a real difference and are looking for a rewarding and stimulating career path, then come and see what we have to offer.

You will report to the SEO (Senior Executive Officer) and will line manage approximately 6-8 direct reports.

Immigration Enforcement prides itself on being an open and supportive workplace. We actively embrace diversity and promote equality of opportunity, to enable us to reflect the communities that we serve. We provide people with the opportunity to work at pace and deliver in stretching roles.

This is an exciting opportunity for the right candidate to develop and embed a wide range of people and engagement skills within a high performing team, delivering what is required to continue to make the team a great place to work and to support staff and senior managers in delivery.

You will be required to work shifts and participate in an on-call duty roster. Shift patterns can include early starts, evening working, night shifts, weekends, and public holidays. It is your responsibility to be aware of the shift pattern which relates to your post before accepting the offer. Current AHA% is listed above, it varies by location dependant on business need in that area. This allowance is in addition to your salary (AHA% is an allowance which varies according to location and business needs).  

We also offer an excellent benefits package in addition to your salary and AHA allowance.  To find out more about our benefits, please use the link below.

https://careers.homeoffice.gov.uk/benefits

Travel to other locations may sometimes be required.

The South Central (Portsmouth) ROM CIO will be required to travel on a regular basis to reporting at Police Stations across Hampshire Dorset, Devon and Cornwall.

The East of England ROM CIOs will be required to travel on a regular basis to reporting at Police Stations across Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire & Suffolk.

The Stansted ROM CIOs will be required to travel on a regular basis to reporting at locations in Essex.

Responsibilities

As a Chief Immigration Officer, you will be an important member of our leadership team. Specific responsibilities will vary according to changing priorities but are likely to include;

• Leading on enforcement activity in the ROM, promoting voluntary departure and supervising operations to assist in the returns process.

• Supervising enforcement operations as Silver. Authorising service of notices where an immigration offence has been committed.

• Taking referrals from IOs, authorising service of enforcement notices and detention where appropriate, ensuring that all enforcement activity is justified, legal and proportionate.

• Regular attendance at the ICE/ROM tasking meeting, reviewing tasking requests and accepting/declining in accordance with current priorities.

• Leading your team, regularly engaging with them and setting clear direction. Providing visible and inspirational leadership, by creating a positive team spirit, role modelling positive behaviours, recognising and praising strong-performance and effectively managing under-performance.

• Fostering a continuous improvement approach, making positive suggestions for the improvement of current working practices which lead to operational performance improvements, cost savings or better services for customers.

• Confident on working with CID and Atlas and producing reports for performance reporting. Undertaking assurance and quality reviews and providing returns.

• Driving official vehicles as required.

• Driving-up performance within your respective reporting area through increasing operational productivity, detentions, Emergency Travel Documents (ETDs) applications and Intel gathering. 

• Effectively tasking resources and ensuring work is aligned to National Tasking Board priorities to maximise delivery. 

• Direct line management of 6/8 staff, adhering to management best practice, HR policies and guidance and ensuring there is adequate resource to meet business needs.

• Ensuring staff adhere to enforcement instructions and guidance and progress cases (such as conducting all voluntary departures and detentions, flagging up possible detention cases to the relevant teams). 

• Ensure effective processes in place to monitor all aspects of staff performance; maintain and improve productivity and deliver value for money. Maintain and provide comprehensive and accurate statistics on reporting performance. 

• To work collaboratively and develop strong working relationships across all relevant teams to deliver business outcomes (e.g. detentions on reporting, voluntary departures, ETDs, Intelligence gathering). 

• To lead and oversee ad hoc projects both within the Reporting Team and across other Immigration Enforcement teams.

• ROM work is a fast-moving, reactive environment, requiring strong organisational and management skills and quick, well-judged, decision making. 

• The role will provide opportunities to lead and develop a team in an important area of Immigration Enforcement work. It will also involve managing internal stakeholders through interactions with ICE/CFI teams, Detention Gatekeeper (DGK), and FNORC. 

• The role will provide opportunities to work with the National ROM team to operationalise processes under the Illegal Migration Act.

• Lead on culture work within ROM, progressing the staff survey action plan. Engage with the team and stakeholders to move forward the fair treatment and Op-Ex work.  

• The job holder will report into the SEO for ROM in the respective area.

Person specification

As an Operational Chief Immigration Officer (CIO), we are looking for candidates who already have IE operational training and experience, along with a good working knowledge of IE working practices and experience of using ATLAS/CID/PRONTO.  This is essential, as we will need you to immediately embark on our work by deploying with, and leading your team on frontline enforcement activity, demonstrating visible, operational leadership, whilst quickly gaining an in depth understanding of the issues affecting your team.

To carry out this crucial and rewarding work you will need to be an excellent communicator, who can remain calm and professional even in emotionally charged and pressurised situations. You should have the ability and confidence to be assertive, taking control of situations where necessary, making sound decisions in a fast-moving and dynamic environment.

This is a demanding and physical role, so you will need to be emotionally resilient, physically fit with a good level of mobility, and comfortable with working in challenging environments both inside and out.

Essential Criteria: 

• Ability to provide inspirational, inclusive and engaging leadership in a fast-paced environment. Valuing diverse views, eliminating discrimination, harassment and bullying and actively promoting health and well-being.

• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to confidently deliver face to face messaging clearly and with conviction, creating a shared vision and clearly setting direction.

• Track record of building strong and productive relationships with key stakeholders (internal & external), building trust and respect and articulating rationale to influence outcomes.

• Evidence of sound decision making skills and ability to make quick decisions in dynamic and evolving situations. Able to quickly analyse information from a range of internal and external sources, identifying risks and finding solutions.

• Experience of working in a changing, fast-paced environment, with the ability to work effectively and collaboratively under pressure, to meet multiple, challenging deadlines and deliver on a range of key outcomes.

• Commitment to ensuring that within your area of responsibility, there is compliance with relevant legislation, policy, procedure and governance, including driving a culture of managing data securely in line with GDPR.

Please note: a Full UK valid (Manual and/or Automatic) Driving Licence is required.

Desirable Criteria: 

• Experience in leading teams through change.

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) 

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

The sift will be held on the statement of suitability (personal statement). 

Candidates who progress to interview, will be assessed using a blended approach of Behaviour and Strengths-based questions. A presentation will also be required. Further details on this will be given later on in the process.

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

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 from 23rd January 2024. 

Interviews are expected to take place week commencing 12th February 2024. 

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

Interviews will be will be held in person at Windsor House, London.

We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change. You will be provided with sufficient notice of the confirmed dates.

Where multiple locations are available a location based reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for 12 months. Should another role or similar role become available within that period you may be offered this position.  

When completing your application you will have the opportunity to select your preferred location(s). Please ensure you select all locations you are interested in. Candidates who are successful at Interview will be placed in order of merit per location and provisional job offers will be made in strict merit order per location preference. Provisional offers are made, as they are on condition that you successfully pass all pre-employment checks.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to time constraints we may not be able to offer alternative interview date(s). It is therefore expected that candidates who are successful at sift stage will make themselves available during the above time frame given.

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.

Note for Candidates:

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.

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.

Are these Reserved Posts for UK Nationals only?

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.

Annual Hours Working Allowance

Annualised Hours Working (AHW) is an attendance system where staff work an agreed number of hours for the year rather than weekly conditioned hours.

You will be required to work flexibly on any day of the week, including weekends, nights, Public Holidays and the Privilege Day, and the hours may vary each week. Attendance may also be subject to change at short notice.

The rate payable under the AHW scheme is driven by business requirements and may vary depending on location.  Your initial rate will be confirmed when you have started in post and will be paid as a percentage of your basic salary.  If a member of staff has agreed an annualised hours arrangement, this does not become a permanent or guaranteed right.  Annualised hours working is subject to changes in operational needs and managers can adjust, cease or suspend it, for operational or performance reasons. Annualised hours agreements are reviewed at least annually.

The annualised hours year runs from 1 April to 31 March.  If an individual begins working on an annualised hours basis part way through the year, they will receive a part-year agreement and the Annualised Hours Allowance will be pro-rated for the remainder of the year to reflect that agreement.

If you transfer to a non-AHW post the requirement to work in accordance with the terms of the AHW policy will also end, and you will move to standard Home Office Terms and Conditions.

The initial rate payable is From 18.18% to 22.69% depending on location. 

Age: These are shift working roles and so you must be 18 years or over.

Appearance

As part of this role you will be required to wear a uniform (which will be provided). Staff must ensure that their uniform is worn correctly, in line with these uniform standards, is kept clean and is well presented. To support this requirement, adequate uniform supplies will be available and issued. Uniformed staff represent their organisation at all times and should ensure that their dress and personal appearance reflects this responsibility.

Flexible working

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).

Personal Safety Training (PST)

These roles can be physically demanding and if successful you will be required to complete and pass specialist training including Personal Safety Training (PST) which develops skills in personal safety, arrest and restraint techniques. This demands physical activity and physical contact with delegates on the course. You will be required to complete a PST health declaration and, if necessary, attend a medical examination. A formal offer will be conditional upon you being physically fit to undertake and pass the training.

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

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.