Accessibility Consultant - Digital Career Development

Job summary
The first duty of the government is to keep citizens safe and the country secure. The Home Office has been at the front line of this effort since 1782. As such, we play a fundamental role in maintaining the security and economic prosperity of the UK. The Home Office leads on immigration and passports, refugee protection, counter-terrorism, policing, fire services, and crime and drugs policy. 
 
About Digital Data and Technology 
 
Digital Data and Technology (DDaT) enables the Home Office to keep the UK safe and secure. We design and build the services that help people apply for visas or passports; support policing and counter-terrorism operations; and protect the UK’s borders. 
 
This is an exciting time to be at the Home Office. You’ll have a chance to shape the future and support our mission to deliver exceptional public services that work for everyone. 
 
Our work is guided by these principles: 
• We put user needs first 
• We value delivery and outcomes over process 
• We work in the open 
 
Our flexible working policy ensures a healthy work-life balance. We also nurture talent and offer a broad range of learning and development opportunities that will help you flourish in your role. 
We work hard to maintain a positive working culture and are committed to helping you fulfil your potential. We value diversity and provide an open, inclusive and supportive environment to help you do your best work.

The Home Office operate a hybrid working model means that staff will need to attend their workplace a minimum of 40% of their contracted hours, averaged over an agreed period which suits business needs.

You can keep up-to-date with our work on the Home Office DDaT blog.

Job description
We’re looking for an Accessibility Consultant to join our successful Digital Career Development Programme and contribute to delivering better services at the Home Office.

In this role you will support and be supported by experienced consultants, as part of the central accessibility team. Together you will drive greater accessibility of Home Office digital products, so they work for people with disabilities.

It will provide a thorough introduction to the accessibility profession. You will learn about people’s access needs, then how and why we strive to meet them, in the context of inclusive user centred design. You will learn how to conduct accessibility testing, support teams with their testing and make recommendations on fixing the issues found. You will help deliver training, guidance and advice in engaging ways to influence colleagues, suppliers and stakeholders.

This 18-month contract to complete a finite piece of work. combines development activities, structured learning and a charity project. At the 12-month point, you’ll have the opportunity to apply for a permanent role and promotion with the Home Office. This programme is an excellent opportunity to learn from accessibility experts and begin your own career as an accessibility consultant in government.

Online Event

We will hold an online event during August before the advert closes to provide an opportunity to hear more about the Programme and ask questions. If you would like to attend, please email DigitalDevelopmentProgramme@digital.homeoffice.gov.uk - please specify the role you are interested in.

Person specification
What you'll do day to day

You will work within the Accessibility Assurance team in the Chief Technology Office as an Accessibility Consultant.

You will be based in Croydon with occasional visits to offices in central London and around the UK. There or remotely you will interact with colleagues from many other digital professions, including design, research, development and testing.

Alongside your team mates your main day-to-day responsibilities will be:

• Contributing to and supporting the adoption of accessibility standards for services, suppliers, Digital Data and Technology professions and other roles
• Supporting the delivery of training and guidance on researching, designing, building and testing services for accessibility
• Supporting in-house assurance for accessibility by helping to plan, conduct and report on reviews and testing against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
• Working with delivery teams, under supervision, to prioritise issues discovered during testing, along with pragmatic solutions and improvement recommendations
• Under supervision, supporting the compilation and publication of accessibility statements to comply with accessibility regulations

You will also be expected to:
• Participate in administration and mechanisms to make the team effective and efficient

• Contributing to, supporting and sharing the work of the accessibility community across government

• Develop your knowledge of accessibility and digital

Essential Criteria:

You will be someone who:

• Has a proactive interest in accessibility, disability inclusion or user-centred design
• Has an appetite for learning and development and taking responsibility for to upskilling yourself
• Is technically minded, with some hands-on experience of accessibility standards and a basic understanding of accessible HTML and CSS
• Organises and prioritises work effectively to be able to respond to changing and competing demands, independently and as part of a team
• Is empathetic and pragmatic when dealing with people
• Is ready and able to advocate and share your knowledge about issues

Desirable Criteria:

Ideally, you’ll have some experience or knowledge of:

• working with people with access needs, low digital skills, or vulnerable people
• using office suite software and online communication and collaboration tools and assistive technology
• growing skills of other people
• testing systems or processes against expectations and reporting findings

Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

Making Effective Decisions
Changing and Improving
Communicating and Influencing
Working Together
We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

Making Effective Decisions
Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

Technical Understanding (Accessibility)
Testing
User Focus
Benefits
Learning and development tailored to your role
An environment with flexible working options
A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%
Things you need to know
Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.
This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, drives up performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.

As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete:

a CV detailing job history
a statement of suitability (personal statement) (maximum 750 words)
provide evidence of the behaviour Making Effective Decisions (250 words maximum)
Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

The statement of suitability should be aligned to demonstrate your skills and experience for the role and how you meet the essential criteria and Technical Skills as detailed in the job description.

For guidance on how to construct your personal statement, you are encouraged to visit Civil Service Careers. Links – Statement

For guidance on how to construct your behaviour examples, you are encouraged to visit Civil Service Careers. Links –Behaviours

The sift will be held on the behaviour Making Effective Decisions and the statement of suitability (personal statement). The CV will not be scored.

If we receive a large number of applications, we may also hold an initial sift on the behaviour ‘Making Effective Decisions’. If a large number of applications are received, the benchmark may be raised.

If you are successful at sift stage, you will be invited to an interview which will be a blended approach of behaviour and experience-based question. The interview will consider all your attributes as listed in the advert and may consider evidence from all other elements of the assessment. You will be asked questions based on your experience, behaviours and technical skills. We will ask you to complete a practical exercise to assess your technical skill as an accessibility consultant.

The exercise will involve you testing a predetermined set of webpages to find accessibility issues, according to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Before the interview you will need to send an email reporting what you find, so we can assess it. At the interview we will ask you to explain your approach to the task and some questions relating to the report. More details of the exercise plus how and when to submit it will be provided alongside the invitations to the video panel interviews.

Sift and Interview dates

Sift is expected to take place week commencing 28th August 2023.

Interviews are expected to take place week commencing 2nd October 2023.

We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert, however on occasions these dates may change.

Interviews will be carried out via video. Candidates will be required to have access to:

A laptop (personal or work) with a working webcam
Good internet connection
Skype for Business/Microsoft Teams
Further Information

Please read the essential skills for this position carefully. We will only consider those who meet the listed requirement.

If you have previously made an unsuccessful application for a role with the same essential skills and are not able to demonstrate how you have developed these skills since your last application please reconsider applying as your application is unlikely to be successful.

For meaningful checks to be carried out, individuals need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time to enable appropriate checks to be carried out and produce a result which provides the required level of assurance. You should normally have been resident in the United Kingdom for the last 3 years if the role requires CTC clearance, 5 years for SC clearance and 10 years for DV. A lack of UK residency in itself is not necessarily a bar to a security clearance and applicants should contact the Vacancy Holder/Recruiting Manager listed in the advert for further advice.

A location-based reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for 12 months. Should another role or similar role become available within that period you may be offered this position.

Note for Candidates:

Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. All applications are screened for plagiarism and copying of examples/answers from internet sources. If any is detected the application will be withdrawn from the process. Further action, including disciplinary action, may be considered in such cases involving internal candidates. Providing false or misleading information would be contrary to the core values of honesty and integrity expected of all Civil Servants.

If you are currently an agency member of staff working within the Home Office, a contractor or contingent worker you can only apply for roles that are advertised externally, i.e. outside the civil service. If you are eligible to apply for a role, you are required to select yourself as an external applicant and not internal when submitting your application on Civil Service jobs. This will prevent any delays in pre-employment checks should you become successful in being made an offer of employment after the Interview stage.

Every day, Home Office civil servants do brilliant work to develop and deliver policies and services that affect the lives of people across the country and beyond. To do this effectively and fairly, the Home Office is committed to representing modern Britain in all its diversity, and creating a welcoming, inclusive workplace where all our people are able to bring their whole selves to work and perform at their best.

We are flexible, skilled, professional and diverse. We work to recruit and retain disabled staff and area Disability Confident Leader. We are proud to be one of the most ethnically diverse departments in the civil service. We are a Social Mobility Foundation top 75 employer.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant's details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

For further information please see the attached notes for candidates which must be read before making an application.

Existing Civil Servants should note that some of the Home Office terms and conditions of employment have changed. It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the Terms and Conditions they will adopt should they be successful in application and should refer to the notes for candidates for further details.

Transfer Terms: Voluntary.

If you are invited to an interview you will be required to bring a range of documentation for the purposes of establishing identity and to aid any pre-employment checks.

Please see the attached list of Home Office acceptable ID documents.

Any move to the Home Office from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

Reasonable Adjustments

If a person with disabilities is at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

Contact Government Recruitment Service via HOrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs
Complete the “Assistance Required” section in the “Additional Requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you're deaf, a language service professional
If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the ‘Contact point for applicants’ section.

Feedback



Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Nationality requirements
This job is broadly open to the following groups:

UK nationals
nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
nationals of the Republic of Ireland
nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with settled or pre-settled status or who apply for either status by the deadline of the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service
relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the Civil Service
certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)
Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.
Apply and further information
This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.
Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
Name :Home Office Resourcing Centre
Email :horccampaignteamddat@homeoffice.gov.uk
Recruitment team
Email :HOrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Further information
If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the recruitment
principles, and wish to make a complaint, then you should contact in the first instance
HORecruitment.GRS@cabinetoffice.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission.