Guidance on Making An Application

We aim to appoint the best applicants to these posts and we want to ensure that every applicant is properly assessed and treated fairly. The application form plays a crucial role in the selection process. These notes are designed to help you to complete your form as effectively as possible

Before filling in the Application Form

Read through the information provided and consider to what extent you have the necessary skills and experience. The Person Specification identifies a list of carefully considered criteria appropriate to undertake the role of Trainee Probation Officer. This enables the selection panel to assess, as objectively as possible, your suitability for this role. You should make sure that your application specifically addresses all aspects of the Person Specification.

Do a rough draft first. This will help you to avoid mistakes and ensure that your final version is well organised, clearly presented and relevant. No guesses or assumptions will (or can) be made about your skills and experience and it is therefore essential that you tell us as much as possible about yourself in the space available. No loose or additional papers will be accepted, other than where necessary for employment history.

Completing the Application Form

Please complete the application form in type or BLACK pen. If you complete the sections by hand, it is important that the text can be easily read, so please do ensure your writing is legible.

Choice of Probation Area(s)
In this section please indicate the Probation Area or Areas for which you wish to be considered, indicating first choice with 1 and second choice with 2 and so on. Information about each of the Probation Areas in this region can be found in Section 4 of this Information Pack.

Section 1: Personal Details
Please ensure that you complete ALL the details in this section. In particular we would draw your attention to:

• National Insurance No:
  You will find your National Insurance Number on your pay slip, P60, or P45. Alternatively, this information is available from your employer or your Inland Revenue office.
• Restrictions to residence in the UK:
  You do need to answer YES or NO to this question. If there are any restrictions to your residence in the UK which might affect your right to take up employment in the UK you must provide details in the space provided.
• Requirement of a work permit prior to taking up employment:
  As with the previous question please tick the appropriate box.
• Travel Requirements:
  You will be required to travel from your employment base in order to access some of the training and development opportunities, and on qualification you may need to travel in your role as a Probation Officer. This may necessitate quite lengthy journeys.
  Can you meet this requirement? Please answer YES or No to this question. Please refer to the 'eligibility' section.

Section 2a: Disability
The National Probation Service welcomes applications from disabled people. We guarantee an assessment centre place to all applicants with disabilities who meet our minimum requirements. If you consider that you do have a disability within the terms of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, we do not need any further information from you at this stage but all applicants shortlisted will be invited to advise us of any specific arrangements or equipment required for the Assessment Centre Event. Before completing this question please refer to the Disability section (Section 1, page 2).

Section 2b: Health Record
In this section we need to know how many days absence you have had through sickness during the last two years. Please specify dates and duration of all absences. At this stage reasons for absences are not required. However, if a particular matter affected your sickness record, you may wish to give appropriate details.
Section 3: Educational and Other Qualifications
You must give accurate details in chronological order of academic / vocational / professional qualifications.
Please indicate grades for all subjects. Candidates should note that successful candidates will be asked to provide proof of all qualifications listed.

Section 4: Other Training Undertaken
Please give details of other training undertaken. Vocational or specialist training, short courses, in-house training, IT etc can be included in this section.

Section 5: Present Employment
Please ensure that you give full details.
Section 6: Previous Employment History, including voluntary work
Please ensure that you give full details. Candidates are required to supply details of ALL gaps in their employment history, e.g. career break.

Section 7: Previous Convictions
The National Probation Service is exempt from the provisions of Section 4 of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Acts 1974. However, having a criminal conviction is not an automatic bar to appointment. Each case will be carefully considered on its own merits. Please see the 'eligibility' criteria.

Applicants must answer YES or NO to this question.
If you answer YES, you must give full details of ALL previous convictions, as an adult or a juvenile, whether spent or not. You must also declare ALL cautions, bind overs, any road traffic offences, Courts-Martial, or any pending proceedings, e.g.

Caution(s)/Bind Over: Nature of Offence; Date of Caution/Bind Over
Conviction(s): Nature of Offence; Date of Sentence; Sentence
Charges Pending: Nature of Allegation; Approximate date of Hearing

Sect Section 8 - Achievement Questionnaire

The achievement record is scored at the shortlisting stage and can determine whether you are offered an Assessment Centre place or not, so please use this guidance to help you to make the best use of this opportunity to supply evidence of your abilities.

In this section we will assess your skills in:

o Ability to Relate to Others
o Working as Part of a Team
o Planning and organising
o Values

The first step is to read the sections carefully. Each gives a clear indication of the evidence that the markers are looking for. Referring to the Person Specification will also be helpful. Plan your response to each section and then check that you have covered every aspect of the required evidence. In Planning and Organising, for example, you are asked to give an example that covers effective prioritising, systematic workload management and review and revision of priorities. If you therefore choose an example where everything in your project went smoothly and you did not need to review and revise priorities, you will have a hole in your evidence that will potentially cost you marks.

What examples should I choose?
The four sections provide you with a range of possible choices. First, note the requirement that you should choose 'an example which best illustrates this ability'. This means one example that covers all the evidence requirements, not a general statement about your abilities in this area. A common mistake made by candidates is to write a general description that does not focus on their proven abilities.

You can choose examples from any area of your experience and they do not need to be work based. They should be recent i.e. within the past two years and it is helpful if they are relevant to the broad role of Trainee Probation Officer because this enables you to clearly illustrate transferable skills. 'Relevant' does not necessarily mean work-related - an example that shows how you juggled study, hobbies and personal commitments could be good evidence of Planning and Organising. Beware of overlapping examples because you can only get credit for each piece of evidence once. If you are a student, for example, try not to base all the achievements on study related issues - you will score higher if you can vary the evidence.

Please note that for 'Ability to Relate' where you are asked to demonstrate your ability to work with people who have experienced personal or social difficulties (not necessarily offending related) your example can draw upon experience with one person or more (e.g. can be with a relative(s), neighbour(s), friend(s), colleague(s) etc), and again does not have to be work related,

Each achievement record should cover the following areas:

• A brief description of the nature of the task or activity
• Your role and exactly what you did and when
• The outcome and your specific contribution to achieving the objective

Presentation
Do a rough draft first and get someone to comment on it if possible. Ask them to help you review whether you have followed the instructions and fully covered all the evidence requirements. The word limit for each of the four sections is 150 words and marks will be deducted if you exceed this limit. One of the skills that trainees need to demonstrate is the ability to write clearly and concisely. It is therefore important to make each sentence count.

General contextual description e.g. 'I work in a large social services team that services a metropolitan area' does not count as evidence of your ability, therefore you should focus as much of the section as possible on yourself and your contribution and achievements. There is no place for modesty, make sure that you give yourself credit. Make full use of the word limit, a shorter answer is unlikely to contain sufficient detail to score competitively.

If you do not complete your application electronically, you can either hand write the achievement records or word process the text on paper, which can be cut to the appropriate size and pasted into the space available for each answer on the form, but you may not attach extra pages to the form. If completing the form by hand, it is important that the text can be easily read so please do ensure that your writing is legible. Please count the number of words used in each achievement record and enter the number in the box provided.

We will also be assessing your written communication skills in this section.

Section 9 - Reasons for Applying

In this section we will assess your skills in:

• Motivation and Commitment

This is your opportunity to demonstrate some knowledge and understanding of the demanding work of the modern NOMS environment, explain why you want to be a Probation Officer and to say why you think you would be suitable. A common mistake of candidates in this section is to outline their 'transferable' skills and abilities without clearly identifying how they cross-reference to the Probation Officer role.

You have been provided with information about the Probation Officer role and also given details on how to access further information. You are advised to refer to this information before completing this section of the form. In particular, you are advised to visit the Home Office website (www.homeoffice.gov.uk). The site contains a section on the National Probation Service (see A-Z index, then select 'Probation').

You may find it helpful to do a rough draft and make sure that you cover all the evidence requirements. This section has a 500 word maximum word limit and again marks will be deducted if this is exceeded. As with Section 8, you can either hand write this section or word process the text on white paper, which can be cut to the appropriate size and pasted into the space available on the form, but you may not attach extra pages to the form. If you do complete this section by hand please ensure that your writing is legible. Please count the number of words used and enter this in the box provided.

We will also be assessing your written communication skills in this section.

References
References are very important and you are asked to identify two.

• One of these must be your present or most recent employer - this does need to be your manager/supervisor and not a colleague. If you currently work for an organisation via an agency, please supply the details of the agency.
• The 'second' referee may be someone you know in a work related/voluntary or educational capacity, and someone able to comment upon your character, competence and suitability for this post. It cannot be the same person who supplied your employment reference and must not be a family member, e.g. brother-in-law, sister etc.
• If you are a student without any employment experience, or if you have been unemployed or self employed for a considerable period of time, you will need to provide two references to meet the criteria requirements of the 'second' referee.
• Please ensure that you give full name and address details for your referees. Under the new vetting procedures we are required to seek references covering a minimum two year period. You therefore need to be aware that we may need to approach you for additional referees if those provided on your application form do not cover the required period.

You should note that, if you are offered an appointment, information from referees will only be used for this application process and that could include being shared with relevant higher education providers.

Declaration:
Remember to sign and date your application form. Without your signature and date the application form is incomplete.

FINAL CHECKLIST

v Fully complete your application form very carefully and then sign it

v Ensure that all sections of application form are returned.

v Keep a copy for your own information

v Assist our evaluation of the selection process by completing the Monitoring Form

v DO NOT send a Curriculum Vitae (CV) - it will not be considered

v DO NOT add any additional pages or inserts to the application form, other than for employment history as they will be disregarded

v Enclose a stamped, self-addressed postcard if you want your application to be acknowledged

v Send your completed application form to reach us by 4 p.m. Friday, 25th April, 2008. Late applications cannot be accepted.

v Make a note of the relevant Assessment Centre dates in your diary

Download Guidance on Making an Application

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