Application for Grade 7 Civil Service

[Sierpinski]

I am currently teaching but hoping to return to the Civil Service which I left in 2003. I am applying for Grade 7 posts.

I was an IP2 but working above grade because of sickness and bereavement just as the policy area was suddenly becoming high profile. Now applying for Grade 7, do I use these civil service examples from 2001-3 more than the teaching ones? I have done lots in teaching but none of it is on a massive scale and only school wide.

I have read some really helpful advice from 2018 but it’s really pushing the grand scale of things for a grade 7 and I have only worked with other schools really
or school wide - certainly not nationwide…. But everything was nationwide in Primary Care where I previously worked.

Just unsure of how to proceed and any advice would be greatly received.

Many thanks in advance!

If you look very carefully at the requirements and set things out in STAR format you'll be fine.

I would use whichever role demonstrates the required competencies best.

Tbh, don't use 18 year old examples to prove your ability to do the G7 role. Far better to demonstrate competencies that are contemporary and current.

G7 is a team leader role, so if possible you should use examples where you've led and worked through others.

I can't be the only person to have read the title and wondered which scales you need to learn

The interviews will be competency based do old examples are fine. Just have back ups using more recent teaching in case they ask.

Use your most relevant examples according to the questions asked. You don’t need to refer to your old CS role; but then neither should you preclude it if it happens to offer a good opportunity to demonstrate a behaviour or strength. The new Success Profile Framework has moved CS recruitment away from using a purely competency based system of assessment and introduces a more flexible framework which assesses candidates from different backgrounds against a range of elements using a variety of selection methods. Read up here for how they’ll be interviewing you and how you should prepare: www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles

Hm, you put on your previous thread that the role is about streamlining data between primary and secondary care (presumably in health? Is the job DHSC?). I’d use wherever you think our strongest examples are that fit the competencies (now called “behaviours” as per the success profile framework linked to above. I’d be surprised if you don’t have stronger more recent examples than 18 yrs ago?

Sounds like your previous role was in primary care, and you should make that clear from the previous jobs bit of the application, but agree with PPs that anything you’ve done in teaching which demonstrates leadership (department/ whole school/working with other schools) will be good. Not everyone external applying for a G7 job will have national-level experience and that’s not necessarily a disadvantage. For a G7, you need to demonstrate in your examples how you’ve worked on complex, tricky stuff, and that’s often where I’ve seen HEO/SEOs fall down - their examples are too limited (eg for “delivering at pace”, a time when they had to meet a one day deadline, rather than one where they led a team to deliver multiple competing priorities over a 6 month period but all with demanding deadlines).

You also said on the other thread that there are 4 posts available, which also means they may be able to recruit a range of people with different skill sets/experiences.

Good luck!

Thanks everyone for this. Really helpful advice!
I will take it on board.