Uncategorized - Civil Service Commission

PRESS NOTICE

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has today been awarded the Commissioners’ Mark of Excellence for innovation and commitment in recruiting external candidates who may not have previously considered a career in the Civil Service.

The judging panel were impressed by the Ministry of Justice’s commitment and consistency in externally advertising roles – most notably at Senior Civil Service level - as well as the range of initiatives in place to support candidates who are new to the Civil Service and schemes to encourage greater interchange for existing staff.

First Civil Service Commissioner, Baroness Gisela Stuart said:

“The purpose of the Mark of Excellence is to showcase some of the great work we see going on across government, highlighting innovative and thoughtful initiatives that attract strong and diverse fields of candidates for Civil Service Jobs.

“MoJ’s entry was truly excellent. For a broad range of roles right across the country they have focused hard on how to attract, encourage, and retain applicants who may never have thought of becoming a civil servant. The team have tried different and new ways of doing things within the Commission’s principles ensuring appointment on merit after fair and open competition.

“People will have seen the MoJ’s prison service TV campaign, depicting human stories of prisoners and staff to address common misconceptions of working in these extraordinary roles. MoJ has put together a range of materials to help turn people ‘thinking about it’ into applicants and to help retain successful applicants within the civil service. Their entry also highlighted a strong programme for interchange, supporting the government’s ‘porosity’ and skills agenda.

“MoJ were highly commended last year so becoming this year’s overall winner is a credit to their consistent work leading the way in government on external recruitment.”

Antonia Romeo, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice said:

‘It’s fantastic news that the MoJ has been recognised for our continued commitment to best practice in recruiting highly talented people and developing their capability. Winning the Mark of Excellence highlights the efforts MoJ colleagues have made in designing innovative recruitment initiatives aligned to our ambitious agenda, and ensuring a career in the MoJ is one of the most rewarding in government.”

Five further entries were ‘highly commended by the judging panel this year:

Government Legal Department – for their ‘Leeds prototype’ campaign, recruiting and supporting 18 specialist external legal experts.
Intellectual Property Office – for consistent removal of barriers for external candidates and targeted outreach work to attract Science, Technology and Maths candidates to Civil Service roles.
The Scottish Government – for their strategic approach, facilitating faster and more open recruitment and their strong support for secondments and skills transfer.
Office for National Statistics – for their use of new platforms for open advertising of civil service roles, dispelling myths and providing high quality, tailored information to new pools of candidates.
Home Office – for their ‘Senior Leaders’ initiative providing information on equivalence with private sector management positions and partnership recruitment work for the Stoke government hub.

19 departments and agencies submitted entries for the Commissioners’ ‘Mark of Excellence’ .

Winning organisations are able to display the Mark of Excellence logo on all their recruitment advertisements for one year and will be taking part in an online event to share their approaches with recruitment teams across the Civil Service in the Spring.

Notes to Editors

More information about the work of the Commission is available on its website www.civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk
Media enquiries about the work of the Commission should go to Maggie O’Boyle on 07880 740 627.
For more information about the MoJ’s recruitment work please contact MoJ Press Office 0203 334 3536
The Civil Service Commission was established as a statutory body in November 2010 under the provisions of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010. The Commission is independent of Ministers and the Civil Service. It is responsible for upholding the requirement that recruitment to the Civil Service is on merit on the basis of fair and open competition. The Commission comprises senior figures from the private, public and third sectors who oversee recruitment into the Civil Service. Commissioners are appointed by the Crown for five-year non-renewable terms of office.
You can also follow the Commission on Linkedin and X @CivServComm

The Civil Service Commission works to ensure that recruitment into the Civil Service is based on merit, and made in a fair and open manner. Over the past year, the Commissioners’ Mark of Excellence has focused on rewarding innovative recruitment efforts by Government departments and organisations to bring in, induct and retain outstanding external candidates for public sector positions. This is in line with wider efforts to make all senior vacancies in the Civil Service advertised externally, known as 'external by default' policies, and broaden the skills and experiences available within the Civil Service.

The overall winner - Ministry of Justice

The judging panel were impressed by the Ministry of Justice’s commitment and consistency in externally advertising all roles, as well as the range of initiatives in place to support candidates who are new to the Civil Service and schemes to encourage greater interchange for existing staff.

Five further entries were ‘highly commended by the judging panel this year:

Government Legal Department – for their ‘Leeds prototype’ campaign, recruiting and supporting specialist external legal experts from outside of London.
Intellectual Property Office – for removing barriers for external candidates and targeted outreach work to attract Science, Technology and Maths candidates to Civil Service roles.
The Scottish Government – for their strategic approach, facilitating faster and more open recruitment and their strong support for secondments and skills transfer.
Office for National Statistics – for their use of new platforms for open advertising of civil service roles, providing high quality, tailored information to new pools of candidates.
Home Office – for their ‘Senior Leaders’ initiative providing information on equivalence with private sector management positions and partnership recruitment work for the Stoke government hub.

The 2023 judging panel included Baroness Gisela Stuart, First Civil Service Commissioner, Atul Devani, Entrepreneur and Civil Service Commissioner, and Fiona Ryland, the Civil Service Chief People Officer. 19 departments and agencies submitted entries for the Commissioners’ ‘Mark of Excellence’.

Here are some of the case studies and examples of their work:

Ministry of Justice - Winner 2023

Amongst the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ) ongoing work to attract external talent, they launched an Initiative to improve recruitment of Armed Forces veterans to provide opportunities for veteran candidates to fill critical frontline roles in the prison and probation services in those locations most in need.
MoJ also set targets to increase the recruitment of prison leavers in the Civil Service, bringing valuable lived experience and insight to the delivery of the justice system and significantly contributing towards the cross government targets for the recruitment of prison leavers.
They are improving the geographical diversity in the workforce at all levels by expanding capacity in their current estate to recruit into 37 locations across the country, including locations in Scotland, Wales and many regions in England.
They improved engagement and outreach with college and school leavers in areas with greater social mobility challenges; and set up a dedicated development scheme to attract a location specific talent cohort in the North of England.
They showed commitment to upskill current staff - giving current staff access to a wider selection of development options for existing staff, ranging from project leadership skills to dedicated commercial, digital, HR, communications, analytical and finance apprenticeships.
And finally they improved transparency around Civil Service recruitment to bring in more external expertise. This included hosting a large-scale careers showcase; designing and delivering a national advertising campaign; developing bespoke tools to support vacancy managers to engage local communities; introducing processes and guidance to ensure mandatory external advertising of senior roles; and rolling out candidate webinars across functions and business areas to engage and inform candidates on what to expect from Civil Service interviews and application processes.

Highly Commended Entries

The Government Legal Department’s ‘Leeds Prototype’ Campaign case study: engaging external applicants for a regional office

The Government Legal Department (GLD) are working to build a critical mass in their national offices outside of London, meeting their Places for Growth aspirations, with a focus on Leeds.
For this initiative, they used a specialist supplier to headhunt and engage candidates. The supplier proactively approached passive candidates with specialist legal skills outside of London. They ensured the supplier was educated on the Commission’s principles, regarding complying with fair and open competition, so that headhunted candidates and those who applied were treated in the same way and applications treated fairly.
They worked to ensure that all candidates (external and internal) were personally briefed and given the opportunity to speak to someone within our Leeds legal team, a tool usually reserved for Senior Civil Service Recruitment. These informal chats prior to sift helped to engage and retain candidates. Candidates were also provided with reference weblinks, specifically linked to the field, for further research such as, “The Judge Over Your Shoulder” guidance document alongside Government Legal Department’s Business Plan and Annual Reports.
This was all done in conjunction with senior stakeholders in Leeds and the specialist supplier built a microsite to aid attraction, whilst remaining compliant – e.g. salaries clearly stated and start and end dates for campaign adhered to.
As a result, GLD appointed 18 Grade 6 specialist lawyers, 17 of whom were external, across four of our specialisms over 5 months, dramatically reducing their time to hire and gaining excellent feedback from candidates and stakeholders alike.

Intellectual Property Office case study

The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) have a strong secondments and loans policy in place and offer support to IPO staff going to other organisations to develop their skills and experience. Roles cannot always be kept open if secondments or loans last over a year, so IPO try and accommodate them in the directorate they leave on their return, otherwise they will be found a role within the wider IPO. Having recently sent staff overseas to European Patent Office, IPO are excited to have three more joining them in the New Year.
IPO have also launched external pages to help guide external candidates with their applications to make the process easier. They launched a Civil Service Careers site inclusive of a 'Recruitment Support' page covering structuring and submitting a CV, writing a personal statement, understanding ‘Success Profiles’, inclusive recruitment initiatives, Vetting and Security Clearance.
Bespoke webinars are also run for large scale or niche roles to provide applicants with scheme specific information, as well as detailing the benefits of joining the IPO, the company culture, and the opportunity to dive deeper into questions. These webinars set applicants up for success by presenting information in innovative ways.
IPO have a number of Outreach programmes including;
- Code First Girls (a collaborative scheme with a not-for-profit social enterprise that trains women and non-binary individuals in IT skills)
- Returning to STEM (an opportunity for STEM professionals looking for a chance to return to work following a career break)
- Graduate Opportunities in Digital, Data and Technology (2-year placement developing graduates’ technical and personal skills via an in-house training programme)
- Patent Degree Apprenticeships (5-year programme offering a route into a technical based role with a fully funded degree qualification and work experience with the interest of ‘growing our own’.)

Scottish Government case study

This year the Scottish Government has taken extra steps to promote a career in the Civil Service to external candidates.
They have demonstrated how they support candidates through interviews, showing success with a recent Graduate Development Programme campaign and a more transparent assessment approach.
Using a dedicated website, online candidate packs and interactive webinars they have been able to bring in a number of high calibre graduates into the Scottish Government. As a result of their new attraction strategy and assessment process, they have also been able to make a significant increase in offers to disabled candidates in comparison to the last Graduate Programme. This has led to extending the same level of detail, candidate-centric information, and transparency to all future vacancies and schemes.
In the last year, they introduced a dedicated ‘Attraction’ team to provide a streamlined and professional approach to Scottish Government campaign strategies. To ensure broad outreach, the team make use of UK-wide channels to advertise and attract candidates for various roles.
At a more local level, there is regular engagement with staff networks and Local Authority Employability Services who can offer support and information to candidates with their applications.

Home Office case study

The Home Office demonstrated how they are committed to building a stronger and more inclusive workforce, encouraging applications from candidates across the UK. Their advertising strategy, alongside focus on their brand and website to improve the user’s experience and attract talent, has been key.
Home Office has developed targeted advertising approaches, tailored to specific roles and locations. As well as advertising on Indeed, LinkedIn and Spotify, potential candidates encounter adverts and the Home Office brand on their local bus, on local radio or on local posters and billboards.
Coupled with this was the launch of the new Home Office Careers Website providing comprehensive information on the types of roles and careers available in the Home Office and clarity on our application processes. Feedback from users has been really positive.
To help candidates understand the application/assessment stages, they have a range of channels which has led to greater engagement and role-specific support through chatbots, Live Chat, email and telephone as well as online events for significant campaigns
A positive outcome is that candidates navigate selection processes with greater success, making vacancies easier to fill. The strategy has proved successful, generating a rise in applications and a rise in the proportion of candidates who are new to the Civil Service.

Over 20 entries have been submitted for the 2023 Commissioners’ Mark of Excellence.

The Mark of Excellence will be given to the department/s or organisation/s that have demonstrated consistent excellent practice in promoting a career in the Civil Service and widening opportunities to external candidates.

The judging panel is made up of First Civil Service Commissioner, Baroness Gisela Stuart, Civil Service Commissioner and entrepreneur, Atul Devani, and Civil Service Chief People Officer, Fiona Ryland.

The entries will be shortlisted by the panel, with an overall winner and runners up announced by the end of the year.

Civil Service Commissioner and panel member, Atul Devani said:

‘As independent Commissioners, we get to see some excellent and innovative HR practice in departments. The Mark of Excellence is a way of sharing ideas and celebrating those hiring teams who go the extra mile, using the flexibility of the Recruitment Principles to attract and bring in talented people.

This year we are focusing on the innovative ways departments are making external by default a reality; how they widen the pool of candidates available to work in the Civil Service at all levels and how they induct and retain those external recruits.

We’d like to thank all those who have submitted entries and wish them good luck. We’ll be alerting shortlisted departments next month and announcing the winners at the end of the year.’

Winners of the Commissioners’ Mark of Excellence can use the logo on all their recruitment activity for one year.

The Commissioner’s mark of excellence aims to showcase innovation and commitment to recruit outstanding candidates across all grades into the Civil Service.

The core function of the Commission is to ensure that recruitment is based on merit in a fair and open manner.

This year the award will focus on rewarding innovative recruitment efforts by departments and organisations to bring in, induct and retain outstanding external candidates for public sector positions. This is in line with efforts to make all senior vacancies in the civil service, external by default, and broaden the skills and experiences available within the Civil Service.

The Commission - working with the Chief People Officer - will also look to commend efforts to help civil servants get external experience in the private sector; move between local and national authorities; and move between the four nations of the civil service.

How to Apply

If you are working in a department and organisations that are audited by the Civil Service Commission, you can apply using the form here.

The award will be judged by a panel, led by Baroness (Gisela) Stuart , made up of an independent Commissioner and the Chief People Officer of the Civil Service.

Criteria

This year, we will look to commend work that attempts to fulfil the Commission’s objective of competitions based on merit, advertising vacancies that are ‘External by Default’ to widen the pool of applicants, and finding outstanding candidates for recruitment competitions.

External by default and accessibility : The department or organisation has started new initiatives/or additional effort to bring in exceptional talent from outside the current pool of the Civil Service, by:

Advertising vacancies externally by default and supporting candidates to make strong applications and prepare for Civil Service interviews
Tailoring induction processes for external candidates
Making efforts to retain excellent external candidates
Creating an advertising strategy to encourage external applications and other initiatives, improving wording of job descriptions, or new outreach programmes

or/and

Encourage porosity and upskilling members of the civil service by allowing and encouraging them to do external secondments and then return to the Civil Service, to reduce reliance on external consultants. Particular recognition will be given to efforts made to:

Transfer talent between national and local positions in the Civil Service
Transfer of talent between the four nations of the United Kingdom.

Please note that you do not have to fulfil all criteria, but provide examples of where some of the criteria is met.

We are looking for new independent Commissioners to regulate appointments into Civil Service roles across the UK. We are particularly keen to hear from you if you have senior experience in local government or have interest and expertise in Wales.

Find out more and apply here: https://apply-for-public-appointment.service.gov.uk/roles/7653#about-the-role

Watch: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1A2ya69apHZ6htebCkEcQIZ1vlyGji3bE/view?usp=drive_link

Civil Service World article

Independent Article

First Civil Service Commissioner, Baroness Gisela Stuart, gave evidence to the House of Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee about the work of the Commission on 18th April 2023.

You can watch the First Commissioner’s evidence session here: https://committees.parliament.uk/event/17824/formal-meeting-oral-evidence-session/

“People wanting to come into government at a fairly senior level know they may have to take a considerable cut in salary. But they’ve reached a stage in their professional career where they relish the complex and complicated issues they can get involved in. Government is a challenge. But they regard that challenge as a privilege.”

First Civil Service Commissioner, Baroness Gisela Stuart, was interviewed by Civil Service World about her first year leading the Commission and her priorities as a regulator.

Read the interview

Download the Commission’s annual report

“External recruitment strengthens the skills and abilities available to serve the country. There should be continual interchange - people moving in, back out to other sectors and returning to the Civil Service. There needs to be more interchange with local government and with the devolved administrations. This shouldn’t just be a one way traffic. And if the Civil Service is successful in recruiting people from other sectors and backgrounds, they also need to be ready to utilise their skills and not reject them because they sometimes do things differently. The aim is to learn from each other. Central government will only be able to deliver if it understands and responds to the needs of the whole of the United Kingdom. Local government, devolved administrations and the private sector have a lot to offer. In turn, they benefit from having first hand experience of the business of government.

“As its regulator, the Commission’s principles apply to recruitment into the Civil Service. Within that, we want departments to be innovative and try new approaches to attract a wider range of candidates. Last year we launched the Commissioner’s Mark of Excellence to celebrate recruitment campaigns that tried new ways to hire diverse talent and share innovative practice across departments.“

Gisela was speaking at an event at the Institute for Government on ‘Opening Up the Civil Service: how to improve external recruitment’ on 8 March. She was joined on the panel by Katherine Braddick, a former civil servant now Group Head of Strategic Policy at Barclays, Jonathan Simons, Partner at Public First and former civil servant, and Alex Thomas and Jordan Urban from the Institute for Government.

Watch the livestream of this event

Find out more about the Commissioners’ Mark of Excellence

Recruitment Principles

“If we are serious about external recruitment by default, those coming in from outside the Civil Service at a senior level, need to be properly supported and inducted. There is no point in looking for talent and professional experience to complement the work of the Civil Service, only to see people leave after a short period because they feel their skills aren’t utilised. The Civil Service has to show that it is open to ideas and challenges from outside. At the same time, we should celebrate civil servants’ skills and experience and encourage them to spend some time in the private sector or local government before returning. Arms Lengths Bodies, some of them represented here today, can play an important role in opening entry routes”

“The Commission chaired 246 open recruitment campaigns for some of the most senior leaders in the country last year. There are incredible roles available in the Civil Service including some of the most complex, fascinating challenges facing our country; we don’t do enough to celebrate the opportunities available, nor to we acknowledge how rewarding public service at the highest level can be.”

The First Civil Service Commissioner, Baroness Gisela Stuart, spoke at the Association of Chief Executives and Public Chairs’ Forum Annual Conference on the subject of ‘Change and the public body leader’ on Wednesday 1^st February. She joined a panel discussion with Sir Jon Thompson (Chief Executive of the Financial Reporting Council and deputy chair of HS2) and Oliver Griffiths (Chief Executive of the Trade Remedies Authority).

Cabinet Office Minister, Rt Hon Jeremy Quin MP, gave the opening keynote speech on the need for public bodies to focus on efficiency and effectiveness, recruitment and reducing the footprint in London and accountability.

Lord Evans, Chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, gave the closing speech about ethical leadership in the public sector and the importance of organisational values.

From January 2023, the Civil Service Commission is delivering regular training open to all Civil Servants, but specifically aimed at those working in HR and recruitment.

The slides used during these sessions are below followed by an accessible plain text version:

CSC-training-presentation-website Download

Civil-Service-Commission-Recruitment-Principles-training-Plain-text Download

Exceptions Refresher

This lunchtime refresher course is being run from January 2023. It is open to all Civil Servants, but specifically aimed at those working in HR and recruitment.

20230126-Exceptions-presentation.pptx Download