need help with COMPETENCIES for Civil Service job interview PLEASE!

[user1492367197]

Have an interview for an EO job shortly. Think I have my examples sorted with the exception of - monitor the storage of critical data and customer information to support decision making and conduct regular reviews to ensure it is stored securely, accurately, confidentially and responsibly. Is this connected with the Data Protection Act ? I just dont understand what it is referring to in the work place. Please help its URGENT thanks.

I'm not familiar with the civil service specifically but as I was reading that my first thought was data protection act.

It's information/records management in general, so following processes to ensure compliance with things like Data Protection Act, FOI, Public Records Act and other relevant legislation (for example if you work in a finance role - Financial Services Act etc.)

So, ensuring that the information your team produces is held securely in the record keeping system, which allows access controls, sharing, and retention and disposal.

Not leaving papers on the train. Also not leaving secure laptops in taxis (though no-one I know has had a work-funded taxi in years).

More seriously, do you at least know of the existence of the DPA and have a vague idea what it means in terms of record-keeping. Bonus points for anything about FOI.

I just thought the Data Protection Act was more about only keeping information that was relevant and for a limited amount of time. Just hope someone reads this who has a full understanding of the competency. Cheers

could you give me a link or expand on the FOI bit. If we are happy this is what they are after- Data Protection I will research. What does the bit - to support decision making - mean? is it when no longer relevent to decision making it should be weeded? always had a clear desk policy suppose could include the. We on the right track?

That's not a competency, it's an example of effective behaviour under the competency of "Making Effective Decisions"

The equivalent example of ineffective behaviour is "Take little care with data and information storage; allow inaccuracies and mishandling to occur"

I think, in the context of the competency, you will need to make evidence based decisions and to do so effectively you need to ensure that the evidence you have is accurate. Honestly, depending on the area of the civil service, it might be as simple as making sure only you have the key to the filing cabinet.

Thanks got it FOI freedom of information - cheers

Few tips:
Don't look at this indicator in isolation but as a part as the entire competence and think about how it fits in there (they are not asking for an example for each indicator rather one or two that cover the competence).
Look at the corresponding ineffective indicator, this should help make it clearer what is being looked for.
Any legislation etc will partly depend on what information was being dealt with but do be clear on what the FOI act is as a minimum.
Information to support decision making - again depends on the role - but you should be able to give examples around having relevant and accurate information (how did you ascertain the information was accurate and up to date and valid, either when you gathered it initially or when you retrieved it from elsewhere). Explain how you have stored data to ensure it is retrievable (filing systems, use of metadata etc) and stored appropriately (think about different types of data and how you would store e.g. personal information should not be accessible by just anyone). Decision making could be anything from making a purchase to disciplining an employee.
A Google search will bring up all the information about foi, dpa etc

Thank you all very much, I am a lot clearer as to what is required.

I've heard good examples around not leaving bank details of consultants etc free for anyone to access on the shared drive, making sure there's a team protocol for checking whether we still need to hold information regularly, and more broadly being responsible for information management (so filing , usually electronically, and archiving).

If you haven't dealt with an FOI request before, I would suggest just being familiar with the idea that people can request information and have a right to get it, within certain constraints (cost, being a narrow enough question) would be helpful.