Social Worker - Child Protection Team

National Crime Agency

Apply before 11:55 pm on Sunday 10th November 2024

 

Details

Reference number

374258

Salary

£34,537 - £44,546
Roles based in London will receive an additional London Weighting of £4,040. Recruitment and Retention Allowance: This is currently set at £3,000 for this post. The RRA is an enhancement to the role and is reviewed annually.
A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Job grade

Executive Officer
NCA Grade 5 / Police Constable

Contract type

Permanent

Business area

NCA - Investigations

Type of role

Humanitarian
Investigation
Operational Delivery
Policing
Risk Management
Social Development

Working pattern

Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time

Number of jobs available

9

Contents

Birmingham, London*, Wakefield (Calder), and Warrington. *For London based roles your contractual place of work will be Stratford. However, as that site will not be operational until Summer 2025 in the interim period you will be required to carry out your contractual duties from Vauxhall, or such other reasonable location, on a temporary basis. For the avoidance of doubt as your contractual place of work is Stratford, the move from any temporary place of work will not give rise to any entitlement to payments for travel time or costs under the Relocation and Excess Travel Policy. Successful applicants currently employed by NCA for this post may request to remain in their current contractual location. This should be discussed and agreed prior to proceeding with pre-employment checks. Please note this is dependent on business needs, please commence discussions with the hiring manager at the earliest opportunity.

Job summary

This is a unique opportunity to develop skills in safeguarding children and vulnerable adults within a law enforcement agency focusing on serious and organised crime.

The Child Protection Team require individuals who have a social work degree or equivalent (please see list of qualifications accepted under session 'Qualifications' below), registration with Social Work England and post- qualifying experience and skills to assess the level of risk to children and vulnerable adults. The officer will utilise their specialist skills and experience to provide advice and undertake direct work to support the NCA to execute its safeguarding duties effectively and to this highest possible standard. 

Job description

The role will support the triage and response to the reports received daily from vulnerable children and young people, their parents and their carers through the CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection) Safety Centre reporting service. 

The team also provides specialist skills to the agency that are essential to supporting safeguarding responses during operational activity. The successful candidate will be required to support this function including providing specialist tactical advice, developing safeguarding strategies, engaging in localised safeguarding processes and deploying in instances where safeguarding risks have been identified.

**To be considered, you will need to successfully complete SC Enhanced clearance before commencing the role.**

Person specification

  • To develop child protection strategies to be used by operational teams to support the safeguarding and welfare of children and vulnerable adults.
  • To work as part of law enforcement led investigation teams to give specialist advice on potential risks to children and vulnerable adults at any stage of investigative activity and to support the Senior Investigating Officer in the risk management of operational tactics.
  • To provide hands on assistance in operational deployments, supporting, assessing or interviewing children and vulnerable adults.
  • Providing advice and intelligence to local professionals to assist in safeguarding children from sexual exploitation both online and offline, including providing written advice and engaging in localised safeguarding procedures such as strategy meetings and position of trust meetings.
  • To help identify and safeguard children who are at risk of harm or are experiencing abuse online.
  • You will work closely with our investigators across the whole of the NCA, advising on safeguarding matters.
  • To participate in the triage and management of referrals from the public by undertaking risk assessments and communicating directly with vulnerable children, their parents and carers and local safeguarding professionals.
  • To provide advice directly to children, parents and carers and professionals who report child sexual abuse and exploitation to us through the CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection) Safety Centre.

Desirable Criteria:

  • Experience of working on issues relating to sexual abuse and exploitation and/or an understanding of the challenges created by the online environment.

In the event of a tie-break at interview, the panel will progress the candidate with the highest score in the leading technical criteria to determine merit order. If the leading technical criteria scores are still tied, the panel will then assess desirable criteria to determine merit order. If scores are still tied following the review of desirable criteria, then the panel will revert to sift scores to determine merit order.

Licences

Full UK Driving Licence.

Qualifications

The following qualifications/skills are essential to the role and proof will be required at interview:

Social Work degree or equivalent Social Work qualification;
Bsc in Social Work
BA in Social Work
MA in Social Work
Msc in Social Work
Diploma in Social Work (DipSW)
Certificate of Qualification in Social Work (CQSW)
Post-Graduate Diploma in Social Work

Please ensure the dates of any accreditations you are relying on, are entered on to the CV.
Should you progress to the assessment stage of the process, you will be required to provide a copy of the original certificate.
Failure to provide evidence at interview may result in your application not progressing to the next stage.

Memberships

Social Work England Registration.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

  • Working Together
  • Delivering at Pace

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

  • Understanding and experience of completing joint child abuse investigations with the police, applying relevant statutory knowledge and guidance.
  • Understanding of online child sexual abuse and exploitation and how to respond to the risks to children.
  • Understanding and experience of effectively safeguarding children within a multi-agency environment.
  • Demonstration of applying relevant statutory duties, legislation and guidance when working with children and families.

We only ask for evidence of these technical skills on your application form:

  • Understanding and experience of completing joint child abuse investigations with the police, applying relevant statutory knowledge and guidance.
  • Understanding of online child sexual abuse and exploitation and how to respond to the risks to children.
  • Understanding and experience of effectively safeguarding children within a multi-agency environment.
Alongside your salary of £34,537, National Crime Agency contributes £10,005 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

All officers in the NCA are members of the UK Civil Service. You will be eligible for:

  • Civil Service pension scheme
  • 26 days annual leave rising to 31 on completion of 5 years continuous service
  • If qualifying criteria is met new joiners to the NCA from UK Police Forces or UKIC will have service with those employers taken into account for continuous service purposes for Annual Leave entitlement only, this will be up to a maximum of 31 days leave (including 1 privilege day)
  • Training and development opportunities
  • Special leave 
  • Flexible working and family friendly policies
  • Cycle to work scheme
  • Blue Light scheme 

For further details on benefits please visit https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/careers/benefits-and-support

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

If you wish to apply for this vacancy, you must submit your application by 23:55 on Sunday 10th November 2024.

You will be asked to complete a CV as part of the application process. Your CV should set out your career history including training and qualifications, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure that each entry of your career history also has a few sentences outlining a description and the key elements of that role, and that you provide reasons for any gaps within the last two years. Please ensure the dates of any accreditations you are relying on are entered onto the CV. 

  • CV – The CV will be used for reference only and will not be scored.
  • 3x Technical / Experience skills via a 250 word Statement of Suitability per criteria, as outlined in the Person Specification. 

For further application guidance please visit https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/careers/applying-and-onboarding

Once submitted your application will be acknowledged by the Government Recruitment Service.

Please note depending on the volume of applications a Longlist at sift may be conducted on following criteria:

  • Understanding and experience of completing joint child abuse investigations with the police, applying relevant statutory knowledge and guidance.

Candidates must pass this criteria for their application to be progressed.

A panel will then assess your application to select those demonstrating the best fit for the role by considering the evidence you have provided against the criteria set out in the Entry Criteria section.

Failure to address any or all of these may affect your application.

Sift results are expected to be released w/c Monday 25th November 2024.

Interview Details 

You will then be asked to attend an interview in order to have a more in-depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence. 

There will be one round of interviews - Candidates will be assessed against Behaviours and Technical skills outlined in the Person Specification.

Interviews will take place w/c Monday 9th December 2024 - locations to be confirmed. Please be advised that the type of interview (eg. virtual/face-to-face) may be subject to change and successful candidates will be notified of this prior to attending. However the interview is conducted, the interview criteria will remain as detailed within this advert.

The above sift and interview dates are an indicative timeline.

Should you be successful at sift but cannot attend on the interview date(s) listed the recruitment team cannot guarantee an alternative date. Please contact the recruitment team.

Full details of the assessment process will be made available to shortlisted candidates.

Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. Any instances of plagiarism including copying of examples/answers from internet sources will result in a withdrawal of your application. Further action, including disciplinary action, may be considered in such cases involving internal candidates. Providing false or misleading information would be contrary to the core values of honesty and integrity expected of all Civil Servants.

Interview Outcome 

Candidates will be alerted of the outcome of their interview via their CS Jobs Portal.  

If your application is successful and we are unable to offer you a post immediately, you will be invited to join our reserve list. If over the next 12 months we are able to offer you a position, we will contact you as soon as possible. 

Once we make you an offer you will then go through our vetting and pre-employment checks processes.

All appointments will be made in location merit order. 

The NCA is a law enforcement agency and as such we are part of the Criminal Justice System. Therefore if you are going into an operational role we need to be aware if any of our officers have, either before they join us or afterwards, any of the following:

  • Any criminal conviction (including by Court Martial), or caution or fixed penalty notice for disorder or theft;
  • Any adverse judicial findings;
  • Any charges or summonses where the proceedings are not complete;
  • Any misconduct or gross misconduct findings or where proceedings are not complete.

You will be asked to complete a declaration form covering the above if offered a role with the NCA. 

Each case will be considered on its merits and a positive declaration does not automatically mean that your application will not be progressed. However, should you fail to disclose a relevant matter then your application or employment will be adversely affected. If in doubt, please declare it at this stage.

Internal Applicants

Successful applicants currently employed by NCA for this post may request to remain in their current contractual location. This should be discussed and agreed prior to proceeding with pre-employment checks. Please note this is dependant on business needs, please commence discussions with the hiring manager at the earliest opportunity.

Multi-Location

Where more than one location is advertised, candidates will be appointed in merit order for each location. You will be asked to state your location preference on your application.

Please be aware that you can be posted to any location that you put in your preferences. If you would only like to be posted to one location, please confirm one location only. If you are posted to a location that you have requested and you do not accept that location, you may not be offered another role.

Please note, only advertised location can be offered. Notes populated in a free text box will not be taken into consideration.

Near Miss

If you are not found appointable at the advertised grade you may be offered the lower grade role if you are considered to meet the skills, experience and behaviours for the lower level. The benchmark for appointing to the lower grade is set at the start of each campaign. All offers will be made in merit.

If you are found appointable at the higher grade but there are no positions available you may be offered an appointment at the lower grade.

Hybrid Working

Here at the NCA we have a hybrid working arrangement in place enabling officers to work a proportion of their role remotely. Eligibility and the degree of home working will vary depending on the requirements of the role. Further details can be discussed at offer stage.

Reasonable Adjustment

We are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible to all. As part of our application process you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustment to our recruitment process that you may need. If you have a disability or long-term condition (a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long term effect on your ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities), 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 ncarecruitment.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.

Inclusion and Accessibility

We are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a Disability Confident Leader we are committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process. For details of the available group please visit https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/careers/benefits-and-support

In order to monitor the effectiveness of the National Crime Agency’s Diversity & Inclusion strategy, the NCA require certain personal details about you on submission of your application. Please note that this will be treated in confidence and will not impact your application. You will be asked to complete an E-consent survey asking for permission to share this data with the NCA to be used for statistical/monitoring purposes only, refusal of consent to share the information will not impact your application.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact ncarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Additional Information 

  • The NCA is a 24/7 organisation, and working patterns must support business requirements. Some roles may require you to respond at short notice or outside of core hours.
  • Individuals will be required to undertake and pass a substance misuse test as part of pre-employment checks.
  • Successful candidates may be required to undertake a medical. If required, the medical will take place in either London or Warrington. Unfortunately, travel costs will not be reimbursed.
  • If you are an internal candidate who has passed interview but is undergoing an internal investigation or have a written warning in place preventing a post move you may not be able to be posted until this investigation is concluded or restriction lifted. You will remain on the reserve list for a max of 12 months.

VETTING REQUIREMENTS SC

All security clearances require you to provide evidence of your UK footprint where you have been physically present in the UK.

The requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years.

Failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected.

If you require SC clearance you will need to provide evidence of the below requirements.

Checks will be made against:

  • Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)
  • UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records
  • Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency
  • Security Services records

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

We encourage all candidates to visit the NCA careers page for further information please visit https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/careers

If you have any specific queries about the role that are not covered above please contact:  ncarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk



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

Security

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.

Medical

Successful candidates will be expected to have a medical.

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.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).
This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

  • Name : NCA Recruitment Team - GRS
  • Email : ncarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

  • Email : ncarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint in relation to any stage of the recruitment and selection process please email Central.recruitment@nca.gov.uk. please ensure that you refer to the campaign reference number. If you remain dissatisfied following the outcome of your complaint you have the right to contact the Civil Service Commission to pursue it further.
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/recruitment/recruitment-complaints/

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