Job summary
The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) was established under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 on 1 December 2012, operating from two sites, Liverpool and Darlington. We operate on behalf of government delivering Disclosure functions in England, Wales, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, and Barring functions for England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
DBS operates within the safeguarding arena alongside our multi agency partners. Safeguarding means protecting people�s health, wellbeing and human rights, and enabling them to live free from harm, abuse and neglect.
We provide a service that enables organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors to make better informed, safer recruitment and other decisions. We do this by providing information to enable them to determine whether individuals are unsuitable or unable to undertake certain work, particularly with occupations involving regular contact with vulnerable groups, including children.
DBS has four strategic objectives and four cross-cutting strategic priorities:
Strategic objective one: Customer Experience
We will provide increased reliability, consistency, timeliness, and accessibility of service for our customers, increasing quality and value for public money.
Strategic objective two: Technology
We will drive efficiencies and value for money across DBS and foster a culture of innovation through a modern, stable, secure and accessible technology estate
Strategic objective three: Making a Difference
We will strengthen our reputation as a recognised and trusted provider of public services, and as a source of specialist expertise who actively contributes to safeguarding across the communities we serve.
Strategic objective four: Our People and Organisation
We will make DBS a modern workplace, with a talented and diverse workforce who are empowered to do their jobs and to fulfil their public duty.
Our strategic priorities are as follows:
Quality - We will deliver the highest possible quality of products and services, to the highest standard of practice and integrity.
Value for Money - We will achieve optimal value from how we work, where we work, and who we work with, for our customers and stakeholders.
Diversity and Inclusion - We will increase the diversity of our workforce, of the representation in our decision making and service offering, and the inclusiveness of our operations and the services we provide.
Sustainability and Wellbeing - We will look towards increased sustainability in the improvement of our products and services, and enhanced focus on the wellbeing of our people and customers
Job description
Do you have the ability and experience to lead a team of caseworkers who make effective decisions about someone�s suitability to work with vulnerable groups?�
Can you set and monitor performance expectations for your staff to manage delivery and provide support to team members to ensure team and individual caseloads are effectively prioritised and progressed?�
The role of Team Manager is at the heart of the Barring & Safeguarding Directorate. It involves managing a casework decision making team or an operational support team to produce timely and accurate safeguarding decisions on referrals to the DBS.Through effective caseload and quality management, you will lead the team to ensure that cases within your team�s responsibility are timely and accurately progressed to ensure quality safeguarding decisions, within agreed service level agreements.�
�
Using internal data sources, you will review cases within your region and/or team to support you to progress cases in line with internal caseload management principles�to ensure our range of internal and external measures and service level agreements are met and exceeded.�
�
You will utilise support from the directorate�s quality teams, receiving and giving feedback on a 1:1 basis to caseworkers to ensure learning from quality findings are embedded within your teams� working practices whilst balanced with timely decision making.�
�
You will work as part of a team providing and receiving support from colleagues within Barring and Safeguarding, in particular the FAST (First Action Support Teams) area.
Successful candidates will need to be resilient - the nature of casework can be challenging. You�ll need to be confident that you can manage on a daily basis with reading and assessing material which relates to the abuse of, and harm caused to vulnerable people.�
In return you will have the support of your Head of Service and Directorate Management Team, access to peer support, comprehensive guidance, and continuous professional development.
Roles may rotate and at times you could be asked to manage any of the teams within the Directorate at the SEO grade.
Corporate Duties:
Responsible and accountable for the management and performance of a team, which may include:
1. Ensuring a consistent, quality, fair and objective approach across all casework.
2. Encouraging the personal development and learning of individuals within their team
3. Embedding the Quality Framework for the team and overseeing the quality of decision making,
4. Pro-actively monitoring and addressing performance (quality and output) issues as required
5. Defining the workloads, performance expectations and distribution of work, in discussion with peers for consistency across teams.
6. Monitoring and meeting key performance indicators such as Speed of Service targets
7. Ensuring delivery of a quality management service.
8. Support and participate in the delivery of the DBS Strategy and the B&S Delivery Plan�
Leadership�
9. Provide all members of the team with a coherent vision of the work of the DBS � Barring & Safeguarding, ensuring a common understanding of the DBS�s values and objectives.
10. Clearly articulate expectations for the team (including both quality and output); monitor performance and achievement; take prompt appropriate action if expectations not met.
11. Support the Associate Directors and Heads of Service in developing and implementing the changes required in line with the B&S Delivery. Plan with a team� operation and focus.�
12. Be alert to blockers to progression, identifying, forging and building on good relationships with stakeholders (both internal and external to Barring and Safeguarding) to support casework movement
13. Encourage a culture of continuous improvement, identifying and leading on opportunities to improve processes and realise efficiencies
14. Be accountable for the team�s caseload, including overall caseload management and for the quality, timeliness and consistency of work delivered by team members.�
15. Assuring the teams casework decisions to ensure decisions are appropriate, defensible and well written.
Casework
16. Provide support, advice and guidance to Caseworkers on casework issues where needed; identifying at the earliest opportunity the need to consult others, for example when legal or specialist advice is required.
17. Ensure effective caseload management is undertaken on the team and that all cases are actively managed, providing regular feedback and clear direction and support to caseworkers.
18. Make balanced and fair decisions in relation to more nuanced cases by assessing often complex and conflicting evidence and authorise decisions/recommendations made by casework team members.
19. Participate in case conferences and lessons learnt sessions/workshops to drive good quality in decision making
Management
20. Monitor through regular discussions, the health and wellbeing of their team, providing advice and support where necessary.
21. Manage the induction of new recruits within their team, ensuring they are inducted effectively into the DBS and provide ongoing support (which will be supported by the People and Development team).
22. Managetheperformance, learning and development needs of team members, setting and monitoring individual performance objectives through regular review meetings and feedback.
23. Contribute to the effective management of casework processes, identifying and implementing process improvement opportunities and contributing to a culture of continuous improvement.�
Person specification
Essential Criteria:
24. Ability to apply an objective, evidenced based approach to decision making that is rooted in critical/risk analysis
25. Knowledge of how to apply professional curiosity, critical analysis and challenge to decisions providing feedback and ensuring learning is taken and applied.�
26. Ability to seek & analyse large volumes of information working at pace to arrive at rational and sound conclusions based on evidence.
27. Ability to analyse and use data to understand and improve team and individual performance.
28. Experience and evidence of successfully delivering against key outcomes at a management level in a comparable organisation in the private or public sector.
29. Experience of leading and developing a team in a pressurised outcome focussed environment.
30. Experience of managing improved team and individual performance and prioritising team and individual caseloads to support delivery of performance objectives
31. Experience using IT, particularly Microsoft packages (Word, SharePoint. MS365, Excel, and Outlook)�
Desirable Criteria:
32. Ability to work in a sensitive decision making environment -handling sensitive, confidential data�
33. First line management qualification (or equivalent experience)�
34. Casework experience � experience of making safeguarding risk based decisions.
35. Proven experience of working within a legislative framework and applying legislative criteria, policy and guidance to decision making.
36. Evidence of Continuous Professional Development
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
37. Communicating and Influencing
38. Changing and Improving
39. Leadership
40. Delivering at Pace
Benefits
Alongside your salary of �38,700, Disclosure & Barring Service contributes �10,449 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.
The DBS offers a number of excellent benefits for its employees. These can include:
41. Generous annual leave entitlement
42. Excellent maternity, paternity and adoption schemes (after a qualifying period)
43. Commitment to the health and wellbeing of our employees
44. Employee Assistance Programme
45. Flexible working opportunities
46. Eyecare voucher scheme
47. Occupational Health Service including referrals for counselling and physiotherapy
48. 24/7 Counselling and Wellbeing Service
49. A with an average employer contribution of 27%
Legislative changes and the closure of Employer Supported Childcare scheme on 4 October 2018 will mean that if you are already a Civil Servant and move across the Civil Service, your ability to claim Childcare Vouchers will be impacted. However, you may still be eligible to claim Tax Free Childcare. For further information and to check if you are eligible for Tax-Free Childcare see�.
The DBS vision and purpose is to make people safer by being a visible, trusted and influential organisation, providing an outstanding quality of service to all our customers and partners, where our people understand the important safeguarding contributions they make and feel proud to work here. To do this, the DBS is committed to being an employer that is able to attract, develop, retain and engage diverse talent that is representative of the communities we serve, and to be an organisation providing outstanding service to all our existing and new customers, who are diverse and have a range of different needs. We want all our staff to be able to bring their �whole self� to work.