About the job

Job summary

In December 2021 Baroness Heather Hallett, a retired Appeal Court judge, was appointed by the Prime Minister as Chair of the independent public inquiry into the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry was formally established with full powers under the Inquiries Act 2005 in June 2022. The Inquiry sits independently of the Government with the Cabinet Office acting as the sponsoring department. 

Following an initial set-up phase, the Inquiry began hearing evidence in May 2023. We are now seeking principal practitioner psychologists to fill two Clinical Lead posts within the Support and Safeguarding Team. The post-holders will provide expert clinical consultation and guidance on trauma-informed engagement across the Inquiry.

These are exciting roles, offering the opportunity to lead a pivotal team in fast-moving circumstances to ensure lessons are learned from the UK response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Further information about the Inquiry can be found on the UK Covid-19 Inquiry website.

About the Support and Safeguarding team

The team is led by the Chief Psychologist and comprises psychologists, social workers, counsellors and specialist civil servants. It holds a wide and varied workload of clinical and project work. The clinicians oversee the provision of emotional support to witnesses, members of the public who engage with the Inquiry and our staff. They also advise Inquiry staff on how to work in a trauma-informed way through training, case consultations, policy contributions and direct involvement in projects. The Head of Safeguarding within the team is responsible for safeguarding practice across the organisation, including the duty safeguarding service. The team’s work is underpinned by the following values: safety, empowerment, and collaboration.

To find out more about the team and the role, please refer to slides 5-6 of the attached candidate information pack.

Job description

The multidisciplinary Support and Safeguarding Team is responsible for ensuring the Inquiry delivers its functions in a safe and trauma-informed way. As a senior member of the team, reporting directly to the Chief Psychologist, the post holders will lead on the implementation of the Inquiry’s trauma-informed strategy. The role will involve providing consultation, training and advice to non-clinical colleagues and promoting and embedding trauma-informed practise across the Inquiry. The Inquiry is progressing at pace and is high profile; the post holders will therefore need to be able to adopt flexible approaches to providing quality advice and do so in tight timeframes. Essential for these roles is the ability to adapt to the unique context of working within a public inquiry; experience of working in non-healthcare settings will be an advantage. 

The post holders will have distinct workstreams allocated to them and will manage the work of other more junior clinicians. The workstreams the post holders will contribute to include: public hearings and investigations; the Every Story Matters engagement campaign; commemoration activities; research; engagement with key stakeholders such as the seldom heard, children and young people, people affected by long Covid and the bereaved. One of the post holders will also have clinical oversight of the emotional support provided by our suppliers to members of the public and our staff. The role does not involve any direct client work but will likely include the provision of clinical supervision.

Some of your responsibilities will include but are not limited to:

• Providing trauma-informed consultation, training and advice to colleagues, verbally and via written papers and policies
• Designing bespoke trauma-informed models of emotional support for engagement activities with the public
• Line management to other members of the team 
• Clinical supervision 
• Contributing to clinical governance and quality assurance activities within the team
• Acting as duty safeguarding officer on a monthly basis, providing safeguarding advice to Inquiry staff and contractors, in line with our policy and procedures. 

Further information can be found on slide 7 of the attached candidate information pack.

Information session

If you’re interested in finding out more about the role, please join our information session on Thursday, 25thJanuary, at 11:30 PM. You can book onto the session by completing this form, and you will be sent an invitation via Google Meets.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

• HCPC registered practitioner psychologist
• Significant experience of providing trauma-informed, psychological consultation to teams or organisations 
• Experience of working at a senior level, including providing clinical supervision, line management, service development and evaluation
• Experience of working within a multidisciplinary environment and of a variety of working environments and cultures including non-clinical settings enabling you to communicate psychological concepts to non-clinicians
• Comprehensive, intersectional, and inclusive understanding of psychological trauma, prolonged grief, trauma-informed approaches and practice
• Personal qualities that enable you to work at pace to provide psychological consultation to fast moving projects, be flexible and solution-focused
• Ability to assess and respond appropriately to risk, including safeguarding issues and organisational risk

Desirable Criteria

• Experience of working in an Inquiry, investigation or legal context
• Experience of managing or delivering a service
• Experience of overseeing the delivery of emotional support services via sub-contractors, including contributing to quality assurance processes and contract management systems
• Specialist experience of working with the following groups or areas:
  - Staff well-being
  - Children and young people
  - Seldom heard groups
  - Diversity and Inclusion
  - Research
  - Clinical health psychology

For more information on the desirable criteria, please refer to slide 9 of the candidate information pack.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £53,400, Cabinet Office contributes £14,418 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

To apply for this role, please submit the following documents no later than 23:55 on 4th February 2024 via the CS Jobs portal:

• A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you provide employment history that relates to the essential and desirable criteria, and that any gaps in employment history within the last 2 years are explained. The CV should not exceed 2 A4 pages.
• A Statement of Suitability (max 1250 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role in reference to the essential requirements highlighted. You may also choose to reference the desirable skills listed.

For the shortlist, we will assess your experience and select applicants demonstrating the best fit for the role by considering the evidence provided in your application.

As part of the online application process, you will be asked a number of diversity-related questions. If you do not wish to provide a declaration on any of the particular characteristics, you will have the option to select  'prefer not to say’. See the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy for more information.

Should you encounter any issues with your online application, please get in touch with us via: cabinetofficerecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Conflicts of Interest

Please note if there are any potential conflicts of interests with the Inquiry’s subject matter, you are expected to raise these and discuss them, in confidence, with the senior recruiting manager in the first instance.

Selection process

Assessment 

As part of the interview, you’ll be given a scenario-based task to complete and present to the interview panel. The topic will be shared on the day.

Expected timeline (subject to change)

Expected sift date – w/c 05/02
Expected interview date/s – w/c 19/02
Interview location - Remote, online

Reasonable adjustments

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 Services via cabinetofficerecruitment.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 a wheelchair access at interview, or if you are deaf, a language service professional.

Further information

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

Please note that this role requires CTC clearance, which would normally require 3 years of UK residency prior to submitting your application. This is not an absolute requirement, but supplementary checks may be needed where individuals have not lived in the UK for that period. This may mean your security clearance (and therefore your appointment) will take longer or, in some cases, not be possible.

Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.

Any move to Cabinet 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.

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

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service /Disclosure Scotland/Access NI 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 

For further information on the Access NI confidential checking service telephone: the Access NI Helpline on 0300 200 7888 and ask to speak to the operations manager in confidence, or email accessni@ani.x.gsi.gov.uk

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. 

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

Existing Civil Servants and applicants from accredited NDPBs are eligible to apply, but will only be considered on loan basis (Civil Servants) or secondment (accredited NDPBs). Prior agreement to be released on a loan basis must be obtained before commencing the application process. In the case of Civil Servants, the terms of the loan will be agreed between the home and host department and the Civil Servant. This includes grade on return.

This role is full time only. Applicants who wish to work an alternative pattern are welcome to apply however your preferred working pattern may not be available and you should discuss this with the vacancy holder before applying.

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

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.