How to get a job as a Senior Policy Advisor in the Home Office
UK Home Office Careers
We are the lead government department for immigration, passports, drugs policy, crime, fire, counter-terrorism & police.
Hi, I’m Panx, and I’m a senior recruiter for the Home Office. Our Public Safety Group is advertising for 40 Senior Policy Advisors based in London and Manchester. I wanted to help you understand what these roles do, what it’s like to work in them and how we recruit to them.
Our Senior Policy Advisor roles are fast-paced and rewarding, with exceptional long-term career prospects. You will work in a rapidly changing environment, working with your team to develop policy around pressing and often public issues of the day. Many of these may be high-profile and Ministerial priorities.
In return, we offer a competitive starting salary, a Civil Service Pension with employer contribution rates of at least 26.6%, as well as a range of other brilliant benefits including flexible working and 25 days annual leave on appointment, rising with service.
What does a Senior Policy Advisor do???
Senior Policy Advisors in the Home Office deliver high quality advice and input to Home Office ministers and senior leaders, as well as partners both inside and outside Government. You will evaluate complex information, including legislation, to develop evidence-based policy. It will be necessary to work flexibly, as priorities can change rapidly.
Our job adverts explain exactly what skills and experience are required for these roles. Essentially, we’re looking for individuals who are able to think strategically and consider how their teams can deliver the right outcomes. You also need to be comfortable collaborating with a range of people at both junior and senior levels.
What does a Senior Policy Advisor look like?
There’s no one type of person working at the Home Office. We believe different backgrounds, different perspectives and different voices add up to richer, broader thinking that helps us deliver fair and balanced decisions. That’s why we’re committed to creating a welcoming, inclusive workplace where all our colleagues can bring their whole selves to work and perform at their best.
How do I apply for a job as a Senior Policy Advisor?
We strive to make our recruitment fair, open and to appoint only on merit, and as a result, elements of our selection processes can sometimes feel unfamiliar to external candidates, so hopefully it’ll help if I explain how they work.
?1.???Application
This vacancy uses?Success Profiles to assess your Behaviours, Experience and Strengths. As a first step, you should submit your CV and a Statement of Suitability (of no more than 1,000 words). Also, you will be required to provide evidence of the lead behavior ‘Making Effective Decisions’. These will be assessed to determine whether you have sufficient experience in the essential criteria for the role.
If we receive a high volume of applications, they will be sifted only against the lead Behaviour of Making Effective Decisions
We’ll ask you to remove any information that identifies you, for example your name, age or place of education, so that you’ll be judged on merit alone and not on your background, circumstances, race or gender. This is really important to us.
2.???Interviews
Shortlisted candidates will be invited to attend a final assessment. This will consist of
3.???Pre-Employment Checks
Candidates who are successful at interview will be made an offer subject to the successful completion of your pre-employment checks. Following this a start date will be agreed. Please note failure to show the correct documentation during your interview will cause delays to your pre-employment checks and security clearance process being completed.
Feedback
We are unfortunately only able to provide feedback if you are invited for an interview or assessment.
Reserve Lists
If we have more successful candidates than available roles, a reserve list may be held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointment may be made.
We often have similar roles available at different grades. If a candidate is suitable for a similar role or a lower grade than they have applied for, we may offer the candidate that role without the need to go through a further selection process providing the role has the same behaviours and essential skills.
Meet the Team!
We’ll be holding two events on Wednesday 15 December to enable you to meet members of the team and to learn more about their work. We’ll also be talking through our recruitment and selection processes, as well as answering as many of your questions as we can. You don’t have to attend to apply for these roles, but if you want to, you can register here using the links below.
I hope this has given you an insight into the work of a Senior Policy Advisor and how we recruit to those roles. If you’re interested in applying, you can access the full advert here. The closing date is 23:55 on 6 January 2022.
We’ll publish more examples of how to apply for different Home Office jobs, at a range of levels, in the future; in the meantime, you can check out all our currently advertised vacancies on the Civil Service Jobs website.