Civil Service - Refusing Promotion on Loan

[Loupe]

Hi, hoping someone can help. There doesn't seem to be a HR department only guidance to follow on the intranet and my manager tells me the HR business partners are only for managers to speak to. At a loss! I am new to the Civil Service and never had a non-existent HR department before.

I applied for and received an offer for a promotion on loan. The role was advertised externally with no reference to obtaining approval for the loan from current department prior to applying.

I have been told that my current department cannot offer me a role at the end of the 18 month loan at my promoted grade (this is not ideal but fair enough) and they have now notified me that my loan request is denied.

I think I could resign and take the new role anyway, but that's not what I want to do (restart probation, problematic with pension).

Any advice from anyone who is a manager or has been through something like this in the CS?

Instead of resigning can’t you just do a transfer on a permanent basis rather than as a loan? I wouldn’t want to resign as length of service is important. More than 2 years and your a protected employee.

my manager tells me the HR business partners are only for managers to speak to

Does this mean just the HRBP for your business area, or HR generally? You can get in touch with HR, it doesn’t have to be the HRBP (although there are no rules about who can contact them either).

"I think I could resign and take the new role anyway"

And if you did that, you would not be allowed to move to the other Dept on loan as you would not be classed a Civil Servant. You would be unemployed.

Your current dept can always use the "business needs" excuse and prevent a move, promotion or level.

If you have been in the CS a while - you should be aware that loan moves need to be agreed between your current dept and the other govt dept. The fact the vacancy was advertised externally has no bearing other than that the other Govt dept can seek new entrants on what is effectively a short/fixed term contract.

Hate to say it, but your current dept is well within their right to refuse/permit this move.

Sucks, but thats the system. Always look for permanent jobs whereby you cant be prevented from moving unless you have some outstanding warning etc.

Couple of questions - why could I not accept the job offer as an external applicant if I have resigned? And what are the important factors around length of service?

Because at the time of your application, you were not an external candidate.

You were considered as an employee of another Govt dept.

So if you resign from "A" in an attempt to go to "B", you would be classed as unemployed and thus not in a position to be loaned from A to B in the traditional sense.

An external recruit would obviously not be a loanee, but rather, a fixed term appointment.

Surprised you dont seem to know such basics? How long have you been in the CS out of interest?

The mistake you’ve made is not informing your DM that you intended to apply externally for a loan post in another department. There may have been a way to make it work if they were aware of it, even if it meant falling back to your current post in 18 months.

I find the CS to be very accommodating in terms of development and opportunity (where possible), but blindsiding them will not go down well. They haven’t been given the opportunity to plan for a replacement and don’t want to lose a resource.

No idea what your best bet to take the other job is, but resigning sounds like a bad idea.

It's basic courtesy to tell /ask permission from your manager before applying for a secondment, loan, whatever, and have them ok it. It's not unique to to CS.