The Home Office works to build a safe, fair and prosperous UK. We achieve this through our work on counter-terrorism, policing, fire, crime, drugs policy, immigration and passports.
We’re recruiting qualified Social Workers to join our Customer Service Group and the closing date for applications is Thursday 8th May 2025.
The Customer Services Group brings together Asylum & Human Rights, Asylum Support and Dispersal, Asylum Accommodation Centres, Resettlement Group, Passports, Citizenship & Civil Registration, Customer Operations Support Services and UK Visas & Immigration. As a major operational arm of the Home Office, we play a vital role in supporting the economy and cultural life of the UK.
About the role
As a Social Worker, you’ll work in pairs to conduct Merton-compliant age assessments across the UK on behalf of local authorities and the Home Office, writing robust assessments that can withstand scrutiny through legal challenge within agreed timescales. You will need to be qualified as a social worker to apply and have up-to-date membership with Social Work England or the equivalent in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
This role offers the opportunity for experienced social workers to become experts in the field of age assessment, developing strong working relationships with a variety of stakeholders and partners.
The National Age Assessment Board (NAAB) was established in March 2023 as part of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 and is still a relatively new age assessment function in the Home Office. If successful, you will help local authorities to improve their ability to conduct age assessments in order to drive up quality and standards.
Working Arrangements
This role is available on a full-time basis with the option of compressed hours working. This role is also suitable for part-time working hours, with a minimum requirement to work 8 hours per day at least 3 days per week due to business requirements.
There will be a requirement for frequent national travel (at least once or twice a week), and you will occasionally be required to stay overnight in a local authority area. Where this is necessary the Home Office will pay for travel costs and other expenses.
When you are not conducting age assessments in a local authority setting there will be opportunities to either work from home or your nearest National Age Assessment Board Home Office site.
Training
You will receive full training (Comprehensive Age Assessment and Level 2 Personal Safety Training) and support to do the job. Training takes place initially online and then continues on the job with a mentor who supports you until you are fully confident in the role.
Benefits
- A salary between £44,720 to £52,150 depending on location
- Civil Service Pension with employer contribution rates of 28.97%
- In-year reward scheme for one-off or sustained exceptional personal or team achievements
- Full training, along with access to development opportunities to help you grow in your career
- 25 days annual leave on appointment, rising with service to 30 days
- Eight days of public holidays, plus one additional privilege day
- An environment with flexible working options and a culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
Find out more about some of the other benefits we offer.
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Bristol
Cardiff
Croydon
Glasgow
Leeds
Liverpool
Manchester
Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
Peterborough
Poole
Sheffield
Solihull
Swindon
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NAAB Social Workers will:
- Develop an excellent working knowledge and understanding of the Merton age assessment process
- Represent the Home Office in local authority settings across the UK to deliver a high-quality service through the completion of robust but fair age assessments. This could include engagement with local authority social workers, teachers, foster carers, and other professionals involved in the young person’s care
- Support the Home Office response to legal challenges, where they arise, including preparing court statements and giving evidence in court.
- Use working knowledge of legislation and case law relevant to age assessment in all parts of the UK (England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, where applicable). Develop and contribute to activity as part of the NAAB’s quality assurance framework
- Adopt a child centred and trauma informed approach to working with young people and undertaking assessments. Provide the appropriate statutory response to any child protection or safeguarding concerns that come to light during the age assessment process
- Adapt personal practice in response to feedback given through the quality assurance process
- Contribute to the delivery of the NAAB’s engagement strategy. Drive up expertise and quality in the age assessment field, by contributing to and delivering high quality training to local authorities.
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The successful candidate must be able to demonstrate:
- Qualified and registered social worker with Social Work England, or the equivalent in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
- A successful track record with post qualification experience in a local authority and extensive experience of work with children in both statutory and non-statutory settings
- Culturally sensitive with experience of working with service users from diverse backgrounds
- Proven ability to conduct complex social worker assessments and complete high quality written assessment reports, robust enough to withstand legal challenge, within agreed timescales
- To maintain up-to-date knowledge of research findings, legislation, statutory guidance, policy developments and case law relevant to age assessments and child safeguarding practice
- Have significant experience of writing complex court reports and assessments
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This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.
- Application
As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete a personal Statement (maximum 1000 words).
The Personal Statement should be aligned to and demonstrate how you meet the skills and experience set out in the essential criteria, detailed in the job description.
For guidance and information on how to construct your application (Personal Statement), you are encouraged to visit Civil Service Careers website.
- Sift
The sift will be held on the Personal Statement.
- Assessment and Interview
If you are successful at sift stage, you will be invited to undertake a 45-minute written test, evaluating the communicating and influencing behaviour. This will be via a live MS Teams meeting.
If you successfully pass the written test, you will be invited to an interview, which will be a blended approach of strength-based questions and on the four behaviours:
- Managing a Quality Service
- Making effective decisions
- Working Together
- Delivering at Pace
The interview will take place via MS Teams. For guidance and information on what to expect and how to prepare for an interview, you are encouraged to visit Civil Service Careers.
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The closing date for applications is 23:55 on Thursday 8th May 2025
If you are interested in one of these roles, please apply using the button below.
