About the job

Job summary

A great opportunity to be part of the Naval Base Emergency Planning Team working closely with our Industrial Partners to ensure the nuclear accident emergency arrangements for the Devonport Site are maintained and enhanced. This post directly supports the site’s compliance with nuclear Authorisation/Licence allowing us to deliver our primary function to maintain nuclear powered submarines. Navy Command and the Naval Base provides an open, flexible and encouraging work environment with Civil servants and Armed Forces personnel working together in a wealth of interesting and challenging professions in different fields.

Within this role you will be part of a diverse team working alongside Naval Base departments, and industry partner’s Emergency Planning Group to provide a complete emergency planning and response function for the Devonport Site.

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

Job description

The Devonport site is a strategic Defence asset as an Operating and Support Base for the Royal Navy and Royal Marines, delivering and enabling a range of direct and indirect support services for the Naval Service. Comprising HMS DRAKE, significant industrial facilities and a range of military and non-military lodger units of which, Defence Equipment & Support, Submarine Delivery Agency, Flag Officer Sea Training are the most substantial. It is supported by a number of key Industry Partners including Babcock, Mitie and Serco. The Devonport site is characterised as a Base, Barracks, Port & Dockyard.

The Naval Base Commander Devonport is responsible for providing a World Class, Secure, Safe, Integrated Operating and Support Base for the Royal Navy; his mission is supporting the Royal Navy Worldwide from Devonport. A key part of this responsibility is the support to the submarine programme and the provision of the Nuclear facilities which are regulated by the Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator (DNSR) under DSA02-DNSR Safety Regulations to achieve Nuclear Authorisation.

 The Emergency Planning & Response 1 (EPR1) post is responsible for acting as: part of the EPR Intelligent Customer function for assessing delivery of contracted services provided under the Future Maritime Support Programme; maintaining and developing emergency plans and subsidiary documentation; supporting the planning and delivery of nuclear emergency response training, drills and exercises; managing the Nuclear Emergency Response Organisation (NERO Baseline; and assisting in scrutiny of Site Clearance requests, concessions and design changes.

Person specification

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

The EPR1 is responsible for:

• As the Suitably Qualified and Experienced Person (SQEP) Naval Base lead for the maintenance and review of the Devonport On-Site Emergency Plan – DEVNUSAFE in direct support of Authorisation Condition 11 (AC11).
• Supporting the planning and delivery of Nuclear emergency exercises on the Devonport site, demonstrating the adequacy of the NAEA iaw Radiation (Emergency Preparedness and Public Information) Regulations 2019 and in direct support of AC11.  This includes supporting the management of Devonport Naval Base Nuclear Exercise Issues Tracker for Learning from Experience (LFE) purposes.
• As SQEP Intelligent Customer (IC) for conducting assessment, audit and review of activities and processes carried out by Devonport Royal Dockyard Ltd (DRDL) in accordance with the requirements of the Future Maritime Support Programme (FMSP) contract in support of the site Nuclear Accident Emergency Arrangements (NAEA) Providing assurance to the NAEA Facility Operator that these adequately support the NAEA.
• The maintenance and updating of the Nuclear Emergency Response Organisation (NERO) Baseline to ensure a viable and compliant Response Organisation.  The provision of information to the NAEA Facility Operator on the status of training across the site in direct support of AC11 monthly. Responsible as SQEP Naval Base lead to act as sponsor for the Nuclear Response Organisation Training and Qualification Business Procedure NBBP 52.
• As the SQEP Naval Base lead for the planning and delivery of the testing of the full Nuclear Emergency Response Organisation Communication System (including an analysis of the test) in direct support of AC 11.
• As a Back Up Devonport Accident Control Centre (DACC) Coordinator as part of a duty Nuclear Emergency Response Organisation roster. Maintaining SQEP, participating in exercises, drills, training and directly supporting AC 11 and the NAEA.
• Supporting the production of the Nuclear Accident Emergency Arrangements (NAEA) Annual Report for presentation to the Management Safety Committee.
• As SQEP IC for scrutinising Site Clearance Certificates and controlling the release and acceptance of, or agree concessions on maintenance, for equipment that directly supports the NAEA, gaining assurance from Maintenance and Design Managers that equipment, systems and supporting facilities remain fit for purpose.
• The provision of training to key Nuclear Response Organisation Personnel, specifically Duty Commanding Officers (DCO’s) in their role as Stable Iodine Tablets (SITs) Distribution Coordinator and the Naval Base Duty Officers (NBDO’s) as the MOD Forward Command Post Coordinator.
• As SQEP Naval Base lead to act as sponsor for the MOD Shelter Station Marshalls and Exclusion Zone Reception Centre (EZRC) Cell Instructions.

PRE-JOINING ESSENTIAL TRAINING

To have demonstrated knowledge of Nuclear Authorisation and Nuclear Accident Emergency Arrangements

POST JOINING ESSENTIAL TRAINING

• Local Emergency Procedures Course (LEPC)
• Nuclear Emergency Procedures Course (NEPC)
• Local Mandatory Training
• Cabinet Office accredited training (specifically Introduction to Civil Protection).
• Lead Auditor Course
• Nuclear Introduction Course (NIC)
• Nuclear Site Safety Justification Course (NSSJC)
• Wider Nuclear Emergency Response Training (provided externally) to include emergency command and control
• Project Management Training.

The NIC is currently delivered at HMS SULTAN in Gosport, Portsmouth and the Introduction to Civil Protection in Easingwold near York, therefore travel will be required to attend.

There are no minimum qualifications required for this post.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £35,290, Ministry of Defence contributes £9,528 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.

Candidates will be required to provide CV details to include job history; qualification details and previous skills and experience.

Candidates will be required to provide a statement of suitability. (Word count: 250)

When choosing your Behaviour examples, please make sure you use real life scenarios that relate to your own experiences. Whilst technology may help to enhance your written submission, presenting the ideas of others or those generated by technology, could result in your application being rejected.

At sift and interview, you will be assessed against the following Success Profiles:

Behaviours

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace
• Technical Skills

Technical Skills

• Nuclear Competence 3.2: Nuclear Emergency Preparedness.
• Nuclear Competence 3.3: Nuclear Emergency Response Events, Demonstrations and Exercises.

The Technical Skills - Framework is included witin the NSQEP Advert Guidlines attached file.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact: DBSCivPers-Resourcingteam3@mod.gov.uk .

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical.

The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

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 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

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.