About the job

Summary

The Home Office mission is fundamentally important: to keep Britain’s streets safe and its borders secure. Each and every member of the Home Office plays a part in making that happen. With a budget of £13.6bn and a staffing profile of over 35,000, we lead on controlling immigration, cutting crime and preventing -terrorism.

Job description

This is an exciting and challenging opportunity to undertake some of the most complex and politically sensitive work of government. Our interactions often involve very vulnerable people with complex backgrounds, and the decisions we make are life-changing. We are looking for inspirational leaders who will help drive a culture in which colleagues feel they have the space to get the right outcome for every customer in every case. We are seeking three operational delivery professionals with a track record of engaging and motivating a diverse workforce through a period of significant change, the ability to improve services and balance customer experience and cost, and confidence in dealing with a wide range of partners in a complex and political environment.

The Director of Asylum and Human Rights Operations is responsible for deciding the claims of people who are seeking the right to stay in the UK because they are claiming asylum or are seeking leave to remain on human rights grounds. The introduction of the legislation envisaged under the Nationality and Borders Bill will mean training caseworkers to deal with asylum claims in different ways. The Director of Asylum Support is responsible for providing accommodation to those claiming asylum who would otherwise be destitute, whether adults, families or unaccompanied children. It is an incredibly challenging area, where you will need to ensure we meet a statutory duty in the context of multiple pressures on the system.

The Director of Resettlement leads the operation of safe and legal routes to the UK for those needing protection. This includes the UK Resettlement Scheme and family reunion. It also includes the work relating to resettling people from Afghanistan, ensuring the successful integration of people brought to the UK during the evacuation and overseeing the work to resettle and integrate others to whom the UK has made a commitment. This is very much leading a joint endeavour with joint teams with the FCDO, MoD and DLUHC , and incredibly close working with local authorities, the UN High Commission for Refugees and other partners.

Responsibilities

Essential criteria

The successful candidate will need to demonstrate their knowledge, experience, capability and behavioural approach to a high standard against the following key criteria:

• A proven track record of running large-scale and complex operations, balancing performance, cost and customer experience to drive delivery across complex case-working with a focus on customer outcomes and colleague engagement.

• An inspirational leader with a passion for leading and empowering diverse and geographically dispersed teams, able to motivate, engage, convey a persuasive vision of the future at all levels, and attract and develop diverse talent.

• A clear record of success in delivering transformational change to business processes and systems, which delivered cultural change, service improvements and cost savings; a willingness to innovate and take risks, continually challenging the status quo.

• The ability to build strong relationships and work highly collaboratively with a range of partners, especially other government departments, local government and the third sector, and the credibility to command the trust and confidence of Ministers and stakeholders in and outside of government.

• An understanding of managing commercial contracts and/or grants, harnessing the benefits of external expertise to deliver the business and help meet challenges.

• A strong ability to work both strategically and analytically, being able to set the vision and direction as well as use data to make decisions.

Benefits

• Learning and development tailored to your role

• An environment with flexible working options

• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity

• A Civil Service pension

Things you need to know

Security

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check.

See our vetting charter.

People working with government assets must complete basic personnel security standard checks.

Selection process details

Online application

To apply, you may submit the same application for one or more of the roles. Please make clear in your statement which role or roles you are applying for and why. Please follow the Job Advert instructions on the Civil Service Jobs website to apply online or via http://www.gatenbysanderson.com/job/GSe84071

Please provide the following no later than 23:55hrs Monday on 14th March 2022.

1. A CV setting out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role, including details where applicable of budgets and number of people led, relevant achievements in recent posts, together with reasons for any gaps within the last two years;


2. A Statement of Suitability (2 pages) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria in the person specification.


3. Diversity Monitoring - 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 characteristics, you will have the option to select 'prefer not to say'. See the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy for more information.

Failure to submit these documents will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification.

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

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with settled or pre-settled status or who apply for either status by the deadline of the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service
• relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the Civil Service
• certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals

Further information on nationality requirements

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code 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.

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.