About the job

Job summary

The post-holder will play a key role in the leadership and management of the geographically dispersed National Bee Unit, within the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s (APHA) Plant and Bee Health (PBH) team, including responsibility for operational, technical and administrative matters.

The role encompasses both day-to-day operational delivery and incidents and outbreaks of statutory pests and diseases. Line managing a team of regionally based HEO’s, the post holder will be responsible for delivering operational excellence in leadership, service delivery, technical standards, stakeholder engagement and customer service in order to deliver the NBU’s field delivery programme for England and Wales.

This is an important role safeguarding GB from honeybee pests and diseases and threats to GB apiculture generally. Through managing and driving forward a programme of statutory risk based inspections, maintaining and developing technical skills and standards of the inspectorate, along with co-ordinating the delivery of the NBU’s beekeeper training programme in support of statutory regulatory activities and delivery of KPIs. The post holder is responsible for certain specific bee health communications and dissemination activities, which may include the production of National Bee Unit advisory leaflets, articles for the Bee Press and social media. 

The post-holder will work with the Head of the NBU to drive quality and assist with wider change and improvement initiatives.

Job description

The role will:

• Be responsible for providing leadership and management of the NBU’s field inspection teams with oversight of the Bee Health Programmes in England and Wales.
• Ensure effective and efficient deployment of inspectors in line with agreed priorities, business plans and performance targets.
• Ensure all field staff operate to the required H&S and quality assurance standards, maintaining the NBU’s ISO accreditation.
• Work to develop staff professionally to ensure capability to meet targets, support succession plans and to respond to changing policy objectives and pest and diseases impacting honeybee health.
• Build effective working relationships and communication within the team as well as other senior managers within APHA, stakeholders and policy colleagues.
• Promote, support collaboration and share new ways of working and refinement of existing routine activity.

Person specification

The successful candidate will be able to demonstrate: 

• Professional/ technical knowledge of apiculture including practical experience of honey bee management
• Experience of operational and technical work related to Bee Health and an understanding of commercial apiculture
• Experience of: 
  - leading and managing a geographically dispersed team 
  - providing a quality service to customers
  - responding to changing demands and priorities
  - negotiating and setting targets, and monitoring and managing results
  - working with a range of stakeholders 
• A working knowledge of APHA, DEFRA and Devolved Governments
• Excellent communication and presentation competence 

Key skills: 

• Copes well in pressured environments 
• Inspirational and engaging leadership with the ability to make effective decisions 
• Ability to manage and communicate change 
• Ability to deliver value for money solutions 
• Strong performance management and continuous improvement to meet targets 
• Resource management in challenging times 
• Exceptional organisational skills 

Travel to APHA locations will be regularly required. A full driving licence and access to a vehicle will be required as the role requires field visits to areas lacking other transport arrangements. 
 
The work of the post can involve physical demands when in the field on supervised visits (on uneven or slippery ground). 
 
Out of hours work may be required in the event of an incident or outbreak of disease. 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £39,439, Animal and Plant Health Agency contributes £10,648 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, Strengths, Experience and Technical skills.

Application Process

As part of the selection process you will be asked to provide: 

• a CV detailing your relevant experience and qualifications
• a 500 word personal statement. 

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Sift

Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.

Interview 

If successful at application stage, you will be invited to interview where you will be assessed on your Technical Skills in the form of a presentation, Behaviours & Strengths under the Success Profile Framework. 

Technical Skills 

We will assess you against this technical skill during the selection process

• Communicating and Influencing - this will be in the form of a presentation which will also encompass your knowledge of UK Bee Keeping

Details of the presentation will be sent at the time of being invited to interview.

When giving your Behaviour answers you should focus on very specific examples and frame your answer using the STAR method.

All interviews will be conducted virtually via MS Teams. 

Contract

Current Civil Servants (all contract types) will need to ensure that they are still employed as a civil servant at the point of starting in the relevant new post. If their contract ends (e.g. end of FTA contract or resignation) at any point during the recruitment/onboarding process for the advertised role, they will no longer be eligible and may be withdrawn.

Location

As part of the pre-employment process for this post, successful candidate(s) will be able to agree a contractual workplace from those locations listed in this advert. The agreed contractual workplace is then the substantive and permanent place of work for the successful candidate(s)

Where the location is ‘National’ the successful appointee should discuss and agree an appropriate contractual location in line with both Defra’s location policy and site capacity, prior to proceeding with pre-employment processes.

Successful applicants currently employed by the hiring Defra organisation for this post may choose to remain in their current contractual location or may choose to change contractual location to one of those listed above. This should be discussed and agreed prior to proceeding with pre-employment processes.

The agreed amount of time spent at a workplace for this post will reflect the requirement for Civil Servants to spend at least 60% of their working time in an organisation workplace with the option to work the remaining time flexibly from home. Working time spent at a workplace may include time spent at other organisational locations including field-based operational locations, together with supplier, customer or partner locations. This is a non-contractual agreement which is consistent with common Civil Service expectations.

Travel costs to non-contractual workplaces will be subject to departmental travel and subsistence policies. Travel costs to contractual workplaces are the responsibility of the employee.

The successful candidate is required to carry out all their duties from a UK location, and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time.

Defra includes the core department, APHA, RPA, Cefas and VMD.

Reserve List

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

Merit Lists

Where more than one location is advertised, candidates will be posted in merit order by location. You will be asked to state your location preference at interview.

Near Miss

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

Salary

New entrants are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band.

Visa Sponsorship Statement

Please take note that Defra does not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker License sponsor and are unable to sponsor any individuals for Skilled Worker Sponsorship.

Reasonable Adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put 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 defrarecruitment.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

Accessibility

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

Criminal Record Check

If successful and transferring from another Government Department, a criminal record check maybe carried out.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service /Disclosure Scotland on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading. 

For further information on the Disclosure Scotland confidential checking service telephone: the Disclosure Scotland Helpline on 0870 609 6006 and ask to speak to the operations manager in confidence, or email Info@disclosurescotland.co.uk

Internal Fraud Database Check

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.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

NSV

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

Higher Security Clearance 

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.

All of these posts require the successful candidate to hold basic security clearance. Candidates posted to Weybridge may be subject to a higher level of clearance because of the security requirements for that location. Job offers to these posts are made on the basis of merit. Security vetting will only take place after the receipt of a job offer.

Childcare Vouchers 

Any move to Defra from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. 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.