Absolute chaos with Civil Service - seeking advice on my recruitment

[Lockthedoor]

Hi all,

I am looking for ideas, thoughts and opinions about the current situation I am in after applying for a grade 7 role with the civil service (back in June!)

So, I will try to cut the story short. In September I got a provisional offer, and told I was allocated to DIT. By mid-November I received my security clearance, and was approached by a grade 6 in DIT for a potential role. The role, however, had not been created yet, and depended on the result of the elections.

I contacted Government Recruitment Service shortly after the meeting, to inform them that the role didn't actually exist, and that I was confused as to why my onboarding was taking so long. They replied that they would look for other opportunities in other departments too.

By the time the elections were over, I sent another round of emails. No replies whatsoever. The grade 6 who had approached me went on leave, but has not replied to my email yet. As of today, I still have absolutely no clue as to what is happening. And no one is replying to the emails I have sent before and after the Christmas break.

At this point, I am keen to know whether I have a role in the civil service or if the ship has sailed.

Couple of specifications:

1. I am not an existing civil servant.
2. The campaign recruited 100 Grade 7 for 3 different depts (2 of which directly related to brexit)
3. I was told that I am not in a reserve list, but that I have been recruited immediately.

Please help

Parts of the civil service have always been notoriously slow. In the last few years, large-scale Brexit-linked reorganisations, redeployment, resignations and creation of new roles after a long period of recruitment freeze have combined to create chaos in some places.

I feel for you, and also for the poor hiring managers who probably wanted you at a desk and working yesterday (and are now tearing their hair out). If you really want the job and can stick with it a little longer, I'd bet that there's actually people fighting over who gets the newbies. They really need good people but Whitehall systems are under significant strain.

This kind of thing has been happening for years.
I had a friend who was unemployed for a couple of months in 2006, he went through exactly the same process then found out there wasn't a role for the job he'd applied for but there would be another 'soon'.
He waited for at least 7 months with various emails going back and forth and eventually found out he was 1 of about 6/7 others locally in the same limbo. He eventually got an entirely different job and never ever was contacted for the Civil Service job!

I suspect they are waiting now to see what Cummings wants.

Thank you all for your replies.

I am aware that Brexit related roles are a bit all over the place, and I fear Cummings' plan to reorganise Whitehall are also having an impact.

I don't mind waiting and looking for temp jobs, but this role is really something that interests me deeply. I would be concerned if I was told that the entire campaign might get scrapped and that I have waited all this time for nothing- does any of you think that's a possibility?

Thanks

6 months is nothing you have done well to get as far as you have in this timeframe.

I waited for over 2 years after a board recruitment back in the day.
I was told Home Office Immigration but was eventually put into Home Office Nationality when new posts were created.
What do you mean by a grade 6 contacting you? Sounds a bit weird. Privately?

@TheCanterburyWhales: Well I got an email from the grade 6 and asked if I wanted to join her team.

I am absolutely new to the Civil Service, so literally have no idea how the recruitment process works, how they place candidates etc. Thus far I have only received really vague information...

I know someone in a similar situation. She suspects there is an unofficial freeze on recruitment until Cummings has decided what is going to happen next.

@GladAllOver : Jeez... I thought this might be the case... It's strange though because I have seen that DIT is recruiting (in fact launching new recruitment campaigns) despite all the rumors of mergers...

I suppose the Departments have to keep themselves busy planning, until they are told otherwise.

Yeah I think DIT is merging, or so I hear from civil servant friends!

Yeah looking pretty grim thus far. Question for all (and THANK YOU for your replies, I really appreciate it):

Is there a chance that I won't start at all in the end (regardless of how long the process takes)?

Only Cummings knows at the moment.