Civil Service Fixed Term Contract Help

[LLB80]

I am currently on a 2-year FTC within a CS department which my role was recruited for via an agency and not open internally across the team due to specialism and no-one in the team having the right experience to be considered at the time. I am employed directly by my government department and not contracted through the agency.

However, what I want to know is if I can apply for jobs on CS Jobs that are advertised "across government" or am I only eligible to apply for "external" roles? The roles which I want to apply for are being advertised "across government" when looking at applying the tick boxes are sketchy as doesn't really highlight if qualified or not, as the criteria just outlines the following (which none of the below are applicable:

Eligibility

Not all staff working in a government department or accredited non-departmental public body are considered to be civil servants.

If any of the following statements apply to your circumstances then you should select ‘No’ when answering:

• You are a member of agency staff working in a government department
• You are employed by an external organisation contracted into government roles
• You are a self-employed contractor working in a government department

Are you already a civil servant, or employed by a Civil Service Commission accredited public body?

YES
or
NO

Then just goes on to ask my Home Dept and if passed probation, poor performance, applying for promotion etc

I have passed my probation and not under any performance management

I don't wan to get near my 2-year mark and be unsure if the role will become available internally for me to apply for my own job as I know its likely to be 1-2 months before it due to expire that they will let me know (as they have done that before with other roles in my team).

Also, I am not sure since starting this job if I am using less of my skills compared to in my previous roles in the private sector and the role seems to be a bit all or nothing days and doesn't really excite or challenge me. There is lots of new things to learn within the CS as more complex but the job itself sometimes feels a bit of a tick box exercise. Obviously this is a different matter and hence why I want to explore other options.

Thanks for help.

If you are on a FTE you can apply for internally advertised roles.

It sounds like you may have been appointed via an exception to fair and open competition (exception 1 or 4). If this is the case, unfortunately you are only eligible to apply for externally advertised roles. Best check with whoever recruited you.

Are you contributing to the Civil Service pension scheme or eligible to do so? If so, you're a civil servant.

@LLB80 sorry I missed this. @Civservpolicyperson is correct you need to have been recruited via fair and open competition.

Double check with your HR whether you meet this criteria.

Yes I have pension contributions from employer and as a employee each month.

i did think I potentially would be classed as exception 4 and therefore exempt…which is a bit frustrating.

Yes my original thoughts as exception 4 (as my role wasn’t open to internal staff) and would be exempt from applying for across gov roles which is frustrating that can’t have the option to apply for those roles even though could have up to 2 years CS experience. Just doesn’t filter out when applying on the system which makes it more confusing when applying.