JOB SUMMARY

Family separation is never easy. The Child Maintenance Service helps parents, who are unable to make a private financial agreement in support of their child(ren)’s living costs, ensure and at times enforce, the legal responsibility to provide financial support. Our mission is to ‘get money to children’ because it makes a real difference to children’s lives.
At The Child Maintenance Service (CMS), we welcome applications from everyone. We are committed to creating an inclusive and diverse workforce where everybody can thrive. If you want to make a difference to the lives of others and be part of the UK’s largest public services Department, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), then this could be the career for you.

JOB DESCRIPTION

As the UK government’s largest public service provider, DWP support people into work, help disabled people live more independent lives, improve housing and address homelessness, provide the financial foundation for a secure old age through the State Pension, and ensure children of separated parents have more opportunity to fulfil their potential through a better child maintenance system.
CMS are a crucial part of DWP. We are responsible for all aspects of child maintenance in Great Britain and our objective is to get money to children, we do this through promoting financial responsibility, encouraging and supporting private maintenance arrangements and through the provision of a statutory maintenance service.
Our caseworkers are key to the success of CMS. You will play a pivotal role in realising our objective of getting money to children. As part of a supportive and welcoming team, you will provide excellent customer service in a fast-paced service centre and telephony environment, supporting separated families and securing children’s futures.

TO HELP YOU PREPARE AND SETTLE INTO THE INTERVIEW YOU WILL BE SENT THE BEHAVIOUR QUESTIONS IN ADVANCE OF THE INTERVIEW. THESE QUESTIONS SHOULD BE TREATED AS CONFIDENTIAL AND SHOULD NOT BE SHARED. THE INTERVIEW PANEL MAY ASK YOU OTHER QUESTIONS WHICH WILL NOT BE SHARED IN ADVANCE, INCLUDING FOLLOW-UP QUESTIONS, AND THOSE ABOUT YOUR ABILITIES AND STRENGTHS.

A blended interview aims to be more of a conversation at interview, offering a more inclusive approach. Strength and Behaviour based questioning explores what the candidate can and has done, but also their potential. The blended interview will consist of Behaviours, Strengths and Experience. The Behaviours being assessed at interview are:

• Communicating and Influencing (Lead Behaviour)
• Managing a Quality Service
• Making Effective Decisions
• Delivering at Pace

Please refer to the Candidate Pack for further information.
The Civil Service behaviours document should be able to help you prepare for the behaviour questions that you will be asked at interview. This document is designed to give you an overview of what is expected of individuals at each level. Before you attend your interview, think about examples that you can give of times when you have demonstrated the behaviours outlined above. This might be at work or somewhere else such as work experience, volunteering, your academic life or in connection with a hobby or your home life. When answering the questions, you could consider using the WHO method of answering questions to best structure your answer. This stands for What you did, How you did it and what the Outcome was.

NATIONALITY REQUIREMENTS

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements

ATTEND A LIVE WEBINAR FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS ROLE

If you would like to know more, you can attend a 60 minute webinar session via Microsoft Teams, which will include a short Q&A session. Follow the link to book your place:
CMS Recruitment Webinar - 19th March 12pm
CMS Recruitment Webinar - 20th March 6pm