About the job

Job summary

There are 680,000-830,000 UK based adults posing various degrees of sexual risk to children. Online technologies play a key role in facilitating their access to children and other offenders, as well as creating opportunities for law enforcement and our partners to safeguard children, identify offenders and reduce the threat at the scale needed to have a genuine impact on the threat. There are a number of foreseeable technological changes which will have a major impact on our ability to protect children, for example: greater use of end2end encryption, eXtended Realities, AI, IP resolution and Internet Connection Records.

The Online Safety Act establishes a new regulatory framework to tackle online content, particularly in relation to safeguarding children. The Act includes a legal requirement on "user to user" and search service providers to identify and report CSA on their services. To process, receive and disseminate these reports, a UK Designated Reporting Body is being established in the NCA.

CSA Threat Leadership is a high-profile part of the National Crime Agency, attracting significant attention from Ministers, parliament and stakeholders across law enforcement, industry and the third sector, both in the UK and abroad.  

This is a unique opportunity to influence how we protect children and manage public safety in an increasingly online world at a time when the NCA Strategy is to develop our capabilities online, upstream and overseas.  

Job description

As a manager within a small team you will be involved in understanding the ever changing online landscape affecting the Child Sexual Abuse Threat. You will be working with internal and external partners to model how these changes will impact the online systems and processes currently in place around CSA detection and investigation and how Law Enforcement will respond. 

The role will require the applicant to become an expert on how wider industry detects CSA material and how Law Enforcement undertake their response through intelligence development and criminal investigations. 

By understanding the impact technology changes have on how industry detect CSA and how LE investigate the criminality, the NCA will be able to offer mitigations and solutions prior to wholescale implementation and ensure that as a system leader the response to the threats are mitigated wherever possible. 

You will be required to understand the implications of the Online Safety Act and assist in the NCA complying with its responsibilities as outlined within the legislation and developing our operational relationship with Ofcom as the new regulator.

By applying for this role you are confirming that you are willing to work on the child sexual abuse threat. NCA will provide access to Occupational Health Services and individuals placed into CSA roles will be required to complete a psychological assessment prior to joining and throughout your employment. 

***To be considered, you will need to successfully complete SC Enhanced clearance before commencing the role and achieve DV STRAP clearance within the first 12 months in post. Applicants must be willing to undergo DV clearance and STRAP induction and be full UK Nationals or Dual Nationals, of whom one component is British may be considered on a case by case basis***

Person specification

Responsibilities will include but are not limited to:

• Supervisory and line management of team members if required. 
• Pro-active assessment of the impact of technology changes on the Online CSA landscape and ability to identify risks to the Agency’s operational effectiveness. 
• Manage a portfolio of multiple work-streams and prioritise work as required depending on a number of factors.
• Work extensively with law enforcement and government departments and represent the Agency at cross government committee/meetings, as required.
• Lead the wider identification of capability gaps within the SOC response to CSA and develop system responses to address those gaps.
• Manage the creation of high quality reports demonstrating the impacts of change and identifying risk mitigations at both tactical and strategic levels and have the depth of knowledge to confidently brief these to senior stakeholders.
• Work collaboratively to identify the impact of the Online Safety Act on the detection of CSA material on online platforms. 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £47,380, National Crime Agency contributes £12,792 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

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

If you wish to apply for this vacancy, you must submit your application by 23:55 on Sunday 18th February 2024. 

You will be asked to complete a CV as part of the application process,  Please see the candidate information pack for more information.

Please note, the CV will not be assessed and will used for reference only.

Once submitted your application will be acknowledged by the Government Recruitment Service. 

Please note depending on the volume of applications a Longlist at sift may be conducted on following criteria:

• Good understanding of technical changes impacting the CSA threat and their impact on the operational response 

Candidates must pass this criteria for their application to be progressed.

A panel will then assess your application to select those demonstrating the best fit for the role by considering the evidence you have provided against the criteria set out in the Entry Criteria section.

Failure to address any or all of these may affect your application.

Sift results are expected to be released w/c Monday 11th March 2024.

Interviews will take place throughout March and April 2024 - locations to be confirmed. Please be advised that the type of interview (eg. virtual/face-to-face) may be subject to change and successful candidates will be notified of this prior to attending. However the interview is conducted, the interview criteria will remain as shown on page 16 of the Candidate Information Pack.

The above sift and interview dates are an indicative timeline.

Should you be successful at sift but cannot attend on the interview date(s) listed the recruitment team cannot guarantee an alternative date. Please contact the recruitment team.

You will then be asked to attend an interview in order to have a more in-depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence. 

Full details of the assessment process will be made available to shortlisted 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. Any instances of plagiarism including copying of examples/answers from internet sources will result in a withdrawal of your application. 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.

Multi-Location

Where more than one location is advertised, candidates will be appointed in merit order for each location. You will be asked to state your location preference on your application.

Please be aware that you can be posted to any location that you put in your preferences. If you would only like to be posted to one location, please confirm one location only. If you are posted to a location that you have requested and you do not accept that location, you may not be offered another role.

Please note, only advertised location can be offered. Notes populated in a free text box will not be taken into consideration.

Near Miss

Candidates who are judged to be a near miss at interview may be considered for other positions in the NCA which may be at a lower grade, but have a potential skills match.

Hybrid Working

Here at the NCA we have a hybrid working arrangement in place enabling officers to work a proportion of their role remotely. Eligibility and the degree of home working will vary depending on the requirements of the role. Further details can be discussed at offer stage.

Reasonable Adjustment

We are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible to all. As part of our application process you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustment to our recruitment process that you may need. If you have a disability or long-term condition (a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long term effect on your ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities protected under the Equality Act 2010) and need us to make any adjustments or do anything differently during the recruitment process, please let us know by emailing ncarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk, 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:

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.

Please contact us by emailing ncarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk or calling 0117 372 0000 as soon as possible before the closing date if you wish to discuss any reasonable adjustments before applying.

Inclusion and Accessibility

The NCA embraces and values diversity in all forms. Being truly reflective of the communities we serve and building a culture where everyone can perform at their best is critical to leading the UK’s fight against serious and organised crime – something which affects us all. We want to recruit and retain the very best and broadest diversity of officers so the NCA welcomes applications from individuals from all backgrounds.

We are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a Disability Confident Leader we are committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact ncarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

VETTING REQUIREMENTS SC

All security clearances require you to provide evidence of your UK footprint where you have been physically present in the UK.

The requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years.

Failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected.

If you require SC clearance you will need to provide evidence of the below requirements.

Checks will be made against:

• Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)
• UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records
• Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency
• Security Services records

VETTING REQUIREMENTS - DV 

All security clearances require you to provide evidence of your UK footprint where you have been physically present in the UK.

The requirement for DV is to have been present in the UK for at least 7 of the last 10 years.

Failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected.

If you require DV clearance you will need to provide evidence of the below requirements.

Checks will be made against:

• successful completion of the BPSS
• UK criminal record and identity checks
• credit reference checks
• relevant personnel and medical checks (if required)

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the following page https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/demystifying-vetting

We encourage all candidates to thoroughly review the candidate pack which explains the role further before submitting an application.

If you have any specific queries about the role that are not covered by the candidate pack, please contact:

ncarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

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.