Job is only advertised for internal employees

[Babababanan]

I'm a bit confused.
On my local county council website, there is a job going working in a nursery close to me.
I am early years trained and currently out of work as I lost my job during the coronavirus lockdown. I am now with an agency.

I was about to apply for the job when I noticed it said in the job advert
"Only internal employees of the County Council can apply for this vacancy"

Am I being stupid? But what does this mean?
Does this mean that I would have had to work in this nursery before to apply for it?
What comes under working for a county council? I work for an education agency.

When I click apply, I have to say whether i'm internal or external. When I click 'internal' it asks for payroll number.

Does this mean I just can't apply for this job? Gutted because I loved the sound of it.

It means only people already employed in a County Council position can apply

Hi - it means its only open to people that are already employees of the county council - so unfortunately you cant apply. Companies often do this if there are possibilities of job reductions in other departments so that it gives existing employees a chance to get other jobs before being out at risk of redundancy.

It means you already have to work for (be employed by) the County Council in some capacity. Not necessarily in the nursery it could another department e.g social care/schools . Public organisations including the NHS do this as it give their employees who are "at risk" of redundancy an opportunity to apply before they are opened up more widely.
In fact usually you are told have to apply for any jobs for which you are qualified / pay at the same level otherwise you do not qualify for redundancy. Keep an eye out though as if no-one internal applies they may open it more widely.

This is what it says on the information booklet from the council:

The following groups of staff are permitted to apply for internal vacancies:
Relief/supply casual
Agency workers - from day to day of commencement within the Council
Interns
Summer placements

My council no longer do agency work through them, hence why I joined the agency that was listed on their website for supply;
So I can't apply then?

Thanks everyone - so there is no point even sending off an application? What a shame, but i'll keep looking

It seems clear that you cannot apply as you are not an internal candidate. I think what is confusing is why they have placed the advertisement where external people can see it, might have been better to have put it on the intranet rather than the internet.

@Babababanan

Thanks everyone - so there is no point even sending off an application? What a shame, but i'll keep looking

They might try to recruit internally for a few weeks and if they don’t find anybody they will go external, this is also very common. So I would keep your eyes peeled.

I've seen these lots of times on council websites, it's pretty self explanatory

I think what confused me was when you go on my county council website and click on 'supply'
It has a page basically explaining:
"From 2018, the process for supply has been changed. If you would like to work as supply across our County Council schools then please contact this agency"
And gives the details of the agency,
So I wasn't sure if I was classed as internal

you would only class as internal if the Agency placed you to work within the council already ie you were working for the council albeit via the agency

I think what is confusing is why they have placed the advertisement where external people can see it, might have been better to have put it on the intranet rather than the internet.

Exactly.

To be quite honest I'd rather they say that at the outset than the other way around. So many public sector jobs are already earmarked for someone and they have to go through the motions of advertising externally.

I've got to the point now where I won't apply for public sector roles as it's an utter waste of time. Quite often if you are the token non internal candidate interviewed the questions are weighted in such a way that anyone not already employed in the organisation has no chance of getting a high mark in the scoring matrix.

At least with this role they've been honest.

usually internal only vacancies are about people at risk of redundancy

when I was recruiting in public sector we were forced to advertise vacancies externally, even if there were a number of good internal (and therefore very low risk) candidates...my approach then was to tell any external candidates who contacted us for further details that we were expecting some strong internal applicants...(and we did recruit externally in this context on occasion i.e. if external candidate was strongest)

It's pretty standard for jobs to be internal applicants first in Local Authority. It means if someone at risk of redundancy gets the job, it keeps them employed (and is cheaper than making them redundant).
It will still be a competitive interview process though. If nobody suitable comes forward, then the job will be released to external candidates.
Keep your eyes peeled, it may yet be one you can apply for.

It’s done if there is a hiring freeze or group redundancies. They cant bring in new people when they don’t have enough budget for the current staff. If they fail to find an internal candidate, it may get opened up if the position is deemed critical enough, but there will be a mountain of paperwork and justification for the person doing the hiring.

Is there an "informal contact" name listed? E.g. for informal enquiries contact Jean Smith on 01234 567890.

Phone and ask if people working via your agency can apply. Be polite and upbeat. Get your name in "Hi, my name's (Name Surname) and I'm inquiring about the vacancy at Happy Tots Nursery". Then you'll know whether you can apply or not but also you've got your name out there if it later goes external or if another post comes up that you can apply for.

Vacancies in the Public Sector are often a game of musical chairs where people already employed shuffle around so the "final" vacancy that needs to be filled externally is somewhere completely different.

Meant to say that the person for informal enquiries will usually be on the panel for that job and probably others so it may be worth a call for the "Oh yeah, I remember speaking to her, she sounded keen" factor.