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

The Detention Progression and Returns Command (DPRC) provides:

•    Entry to detention, through the Detention Gatekeeper (DGK).

•    Consideration of raised medical practitioner concerns, through the (Detention Centre) Detained Medical Report Team (DMRT).

•    Interaction with those in immigration detention, through Detention Engagement Teams (DETs).

•    Consideration of last minute representations, through the Operational Support Certification Unit (OSCU).

•    Changes to detained casework processes, through the Detained Casework Oversight and Improvement Team (DCOIT).

The DPRC serves all detained casework commands including the IE National Returns and Progression Command, IE Foreign National Offenders (FNO) Returns command, Detained Asylum Casework, as well as Border Force and Special Cases unit.

As the Area Manager for the Gatwick Detention Engagement Teams, we are offering you the opportunity to play a key role in transforming Home Office interactions with our detained population, providing a humane, safe and secure environment for those in detention, whilst the Home Office progresses their case. Detention Engagement Teams are in place in all seven IRCs across the UK.

Responsible for the provision of on-site day to day engagement between Home Office and those in detention, your team will proactively speak and meet with people in the Gatwick Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) to create robust plans for return, detecting and overcoming current or perceived barriers and concerns.

Responsibilities

Duties include, but are not limited to:

Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Line management of 2 Higher Executive Officers.
• Ensuring that engagement with those in detention is robust and meaningful. Monitoring contact across multiple disciplines (face to face, email, telephone and post) ensuring that all contact opportunities enable business critical objectives to be met.
• Identifying risks and seeking continuous improvement opportunities to further shape and develop DETs, ensuring that best practice is shared with colleagues across the network.
• Being the contact for any higher level issues and escalations connected to the wider business.
• Undertaking a proactive approach to workforce management, ensuring optimal deployment of resources across business hours and escalating associated issues, exercising effective financial control in managing resources, ensuring propriety, compliance and value for money.
• Providing guidance and support to managers relating to complex Immigration Enforcement policy and procedural issues involving those in detention.
• Acting as the lead on-site contact point between DETs and a wide range of internal/external stakeholders, in particular across Immigration Enforcement and Detention Services.
• Leading, managing and reporting on staff performance for those in the assigned management line, addressing any staff development needs, managing attendance and sickness related absence in line with current policies and procedures.
• Ensuring that all relevant Management Information relating to engagement activity is available, accurate and supplied to the DPRC management in a timely fashion.

Please note this role requires Personal Safety Training Level 2 and Enhanced DBS checks.

Person specification

Essential criteria

You must be able to demonstrate:

• Strong leadership, both personal and corporate in a fast-changing environment.
• Experience of working in partnership and collaboratively across teams and with external organisations at a senior level engaging and building trust with stakeholders to generate commitment to goals.

Desirable criteria

• Immigration Detention knowledge.

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.

As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete:

• a CV detailing job history and skills
• a statement of suitability (personal statement) (maximum 500 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 (personal statement). 

The CV will not be scored.

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. 

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 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 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.

Annual Hours Working Allowance

We operate 7 days a week, the Detention Engagement Team works on a roster system with shifts between 7.30am and 7:30pm Monday to Friday, and 9am to 5pm on Saturdays, Sundays and Public holidays and night shifts to support the Charter calendar.

We are open all Bank Holidays except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day.

This post may require some work during unsocial hours, therefore this post may include Home Office annual hours working terms and conditions and attracts an annual hours allowance (AHA). The allowances which varies by flexibility, shifts, location; however, the average allowance is 8%. You would be deployed to a range of different duties, shifts and locations and should expect to have a variance in the AHW dependent on the varying duties and shifts. 

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

Part time working

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.

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.

Flexible working is not an option

This role is not suitable for a combination of office and home-based working due to the requirements of the role. Successful candidates will be required to attend the office/other work location as specified in the advert at all times to carry out this role.

Reserve list

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

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 undergo a criminal record check. 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

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.