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

Detention Services (DS) is part of Immigration Enforcement (IE) and supports compliance across the immigration system through the detention and removal of individuals who no longer have the right to remain in the UK, and for whom other enforcement approaches have been unsuccessful. DS is responsible for running the immigration detention estate, which comprises of several Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs). We have a responsibility to ensure that men and women in detention are held securely, safely and are treated with dignity and respect. 

This post sits within the Detention Services Central Support Services Team and will support our Workforce Planning and Recruitment Support across the department. You will join a small team with the primary responsibility to support day-to-day workforce planning activities to include recruitment (future planning for staff and estates), building and maintaining the management information for the department on workforce planning matters (for example headcount, recruitment, projections, retention) and contributing to a department level workforce planning strategy. 

You will report to the Senior Executive Officer Workforce Planning Lead and will have direct line management responsibility for one individual.

Responsibilities

You will be responsible for:

• Leading on the development of centralised recruitment processes within DS; providing support to recruiting managers, including business case approvals and recruitment queries; ensuring consistency in across the department and overseeing the flow of vacancies through engagement with Home Office Resourcing Centre and individual business units. Reviewing and maintaining the process adapting to change.  
• Tracking and maintaining Illegal Migration Act recruitment data, monitoring vacancies and recruitment through to onboarding. Ensuring that the workforce planning team is the central point of contact for DS and provide regular reporting on progress to the strategy teams.
• Contributing to the Home Office ‘places for growth’ agenda; supporting the Work Force Planning lead in representing the department in estates planning and ensuring DS plans reflect the ‘levelling-up’ strategy; supporting collaborating with central estates teams to plan building moves; providing assurance and planning for current and future office space requirements.
• Being responsible for management information; working with the team to introduce improvements to management information collation, analysis and reporting; delivering regular staffing and performance management reports that provide value; identifying trends and issues from management information; working with teams across the business to review and improve the range and quality of published data.
• Providing support for learning and development across DS; working with the DS training team to provide advice and guidance to managers in identifying learning and development opportunities for staff based on recruitment and retention trends within the business. 

Please note, internal Detention staff can remain working in their current location or choose to relocate to a location listed above.

Please note, this role may include some non-essential travel.

Please note, due to business needs, this role is full time only.

Please note, there is no shift working requirement, and therefore no AHW allowance available for this post.

Person specification

Essential criteria

• Strong oral and written communication skills, with the ability to communicate effectively through various methods, tailoring your delivery to suit your audience.
• Good attention to detail and work effectively with multiple workloads.
• The ability to develop relationships with colleagues of all grades, internal and external stakeholders.
• Good IT skills with experience of using Microsoft Word, Outlook and Excel. 

Desirable criteria

• The ability to collate, interpret and provide narrative for data.
• Experience recording data in excel using formula functions, shortcuts and building graphs and charts.

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 500 words) 
• provide evidence of the lead behaviour: Making Effective Decisions (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 lead behaviour Making Effective Decisions and the statement of suitability (personal statement). 

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 (Making Effective Decisions) 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 listed in 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 22nd January 2024. 

Interviews are expected to take place week commencing 19th February 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.

Please be aware the levels of national security clearance are changing which may impact on the level needed for this role by the time of appointment. All efforts will be made to keep candidates informed of any changes and what that will mean in terms of vetting criteria. For more information please See our vetting charter

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 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.

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.

Part time hours

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

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).

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. 

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 counter-terrorist 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.