Civil service - how easy is it to move?

[ConfusedCivilServant]

I’m fairly new to the civil service so I’m still a little bit clueless about how things work. I’m currently on a FTA and hoping to apply for new roles (in any gov department) in a different part of the country so I can be closer to my partner. I believe applying for a role within the same grade would be a ‘level transfer’.

My question is, how easy is it to relocate? If I’m offered a new job in the new city, will I be given some time to find somewhere to live? I’m also not sure how it would work with pre-employment checks. I assume I would just use my current address and then have the system updated with my new address once I’ve found a property.

Apologies for how erratic this is. If anyone has done something similar would love to hear from you. Thanks.

Have you done a minimum of 18 months? Double check as it may depend on department/role/grade but a lot of the roles I've been looking at require a minimum of 18 months before transfer. Sorry I can't help much beyond that, I've just (successfully) applied for a job a different department (higher grade), no idea if I will be classed as a transfer, I just applied on civil service jobs.

Apply for jobs and if you secure one the transfer process is fairly straightforward, but you may need to be pro active. There is an agreed process between departments which facilitates this. Departments are expected to facilitate a move within 8 weeks, but Covid may impact on this.

The new department/location agree a start date with you and your current department. So you should have a few weeks to arrange accommodation etc.

Check your Intranet as normally there is guidance on the transfer process.

A move between govt depts is a transfer, but as an FTA you might be prevented from taking up posts that are only open to existing civil servants (“across government”) for a certain amount of time specified by the advertising department. Different depts have different rules. If the job was advertised externally (open to all and sundry) then they can’t stop you. There is no set period of time that you have to stay in a post, but some depts do put that there is an expectation that you’ll stay in role for x time, because turnover can be ridiculous high in some parts of the CS (mainly in London based policy).

Regarding relocating, it depends on the nature of the job. I work in a policy role and I could do it from the moon if I had the chance. My manager works from a location hundreds of miles from me, as do others in my team, but if we worked in a job centre customer facing the location obviously becomes more pivotal to performing the role.

If you’re applying to move and looking at roles that require your physical presence in a certain location, I’d make sure you are ready to move there within a reasonable timeframe - 2 months absolute max really. It will be negotiable once you have secured the role, but definitely don’t start discussing it with them until then. If the role doesn’t involve customer facing then it should be more flexible location wise, we’re all working at home at the moment as is most of the civil service and that’s going to mostly continue to be the case in some form for a while even when restrictions lift. I literally don’t care where my direct reports are as long as they’re doing their work properly.