Civil service job help

[newjobnerves]

I have some questions about a civil service job I've seen advertised:

1. salary: advertised as one figure e.g. £40,000, does this mean there is no salary scale (aka no room for progression within the role) or will you literally be on the said figure and that's that?
2. childcare vouchers: it advertises childcare vouchers, I'm wondering if this is outdated now as I know the MOD stopped new applicants from applying for them from last year.
3. car parking: do you pay to park where you are? (I appreciate this may depend on where you actually work!!) interested to see if there is a consensus.
4. It advertises 12 days bank holiday as opposed to 8, how does this work?
5. Flexible working: I know it'll depend on the role, but is home working common in the civil service? I assume flexible working is?

Sorry for the questions, it looks like an exciting role but I have very much carved my job out perfectly in terms of work life balance so it's a scary thought moving.

1. Not normally ask the recruitment contact
2. yes
3. Depends on where you work subject to many different factors and often people have to die or retire before you even get a space!
4. That's confusing ask the recruitment contact as there are different terms for different start dates.
5. Never assume anything depends on the whim of your line manager!

The civil service varies a lot from department to department, but in my experience of two central London departments, if salary is advertised like that, it'll be the bottom of the range and it will be hard to negotiate but it might be possible. There should be progression, but it's been severely curtailed in the last few years, the only way to get any real pay increase is promotion. Flexible working is more common in some departments than others, but generally supported. Exclusive home working is uncommon ime, but working from home a day or more a week v common. 12 days public and privilege days - the Tuesday after the late May bank holiday is an extra one, there's one or two extra at Christmas, and often a half day on Maundy Thursday. I think it's usually 10 or 10.5 rather than 12 but would have to check. I work part time so I get that plus my annual leave in hours anyway (60% of the total as I do a 3 day week).
Not sure about the vouchers, I think some places still have them.
No parking where I am.

Thank you both. I appreciate civil service is hard to generalise. I've emailed to ask about childcare vouchers and car parking, I just hate asking about peripheral things at this stage in the process but as I am actually quite happy in my job it just helps me weigh up pros and cons if that makes sense. I've managed to do some online sleuthing to find out the salary range, seems odd to me not to advertise that though I appreciate generally speaking civil service expects you to go in at the starting range which I'd be more than happy with, but it's nice to know what the ceiling is as I'm a planner ha.

Mmm you'll be expected to plan in work life but don't expect to be able to plan your wages etc as the Civil Service has pay negotiations with The Treasury every year...

I just mean in terms projecting income potential, it gives me an idea of the range I can work up to over the next few years (if successful) because a salary range of just £2000 would be less desirable for example. Are they negotiated to the extent salary ranges are constantly changing? I only have experience of local government in the public sector so I'm not sure how that compares, there it was very static, you worked up to your top salary scale point, had the annual cost of living increase but pay reviews didn't happen annually, only the cost of living review.

for my department

1. Salary would be fixed, there is no range unless you are looking at senior posts I guess. There are yearly changes but these are tiny at the moment and less 'pay rises' and more 'tipping the hat at keeping up with inflation'. It's negotiated on a yearly basis though.
2. I don't know sorry, there was a change recently but as they don't apply to me I haven't taken too much note.
3. no place I've worked has made you pay to park on site, but you may be waiting months to get a pass so be prepared to make other arrangements
4. we have 8 (two at easter, two in may, one in august, one fore new year, two at christmas) maunday thursday was rolled into annual leave a while back . we have an extra day for christmas eve though that's taken from your annual leave entitlement
5. all of our contacts have flexi time in them - you can earn days worth of credit or days worth of deficit, as long as you are covering key work at key points of the day and are within the limits and within business needs etc etc.

working at homenia slightly different and where I work there is only a small number of people who can really do this and its expected to be the exception and you usually attend the office.

1. salary: advertised as one figure e.g. £40,000, does this mean there is no salary scale (aka no room for progression within the role) or will you literally be on the said figure and that's that?

2. childcare vouchers: it advertises childcare vouchers, I'm wondering if this is outdated now as I know the MOD stopped new applicants from applying for them from last year.

3. car parking: do you pay to park where you are? (I appreciate this may depend on where you actually work!!) interested to see if there is a consensus.

4. It advertises 12 days bank holiday as opposed to 8, how does this work?

5. Flexible working: I know it'll depend on the role, but is home working common in the civil service? I assume flexible working is?

6. The job will fall within a pay scale. The figure they have quoted is where they expect you to start. You might be able to negotiate where on the scale you start, depending on your experience. (One of the injustices of CS recruitment is that internal candidates can't negotiate.). You used to get incremental pay rises each year based on service but since austerity measures were introduced I'm not sure if this still applies. There might be performance related pay too.

7. don't know

8. depends on the building. I had parking where I worked but when the office moved the parking went.

9. you get an extra bank holiday for the Queen's birthday. Can't remember the others. Be careful if you plan to work part time, you will have to take 12 full days but you will only be credited with 12 pro rata days, meaning you will owe them hours for every BH. It used to wind my P/T managees up no end!

10. working from home is becoming more common in the CS. They are very keen on the "work is a thing you do not a place you go" idea. It's saving them a fortune in accommodation. Depends on the role though. Flexible working also means not having set starting and finishing times.