The Civil Service
A career in the Civil Service offers an almost unrivalled opportunity to improve the lives of people in the UK.
Civil Servants are politically impartial and are not members of the Government; instead, working in central government departments, agencies, and non-departmental public bodies, Civil Servants bring their specialist skills to bear in helping the government of the day develop and implement its policies as effectively as possible.
Members of the Senior Civil Service (SCS) are the senior leaders driving this important work and shaping the future of government and public services. Senior Civil Servants work across a range of professions and specialisms and come from a wide range of backgrounds. You might lead on technology projects impacting millions of people, develop cutting edge policy reflecting fast-changing contexts, ensure delivery of vital customer services or oversee teams helping keep UK citizens safe and secure.
The Home Office
Senior Civil Servants in the Home Office set the department’s strategic direction, develop new policy and manage operational responses to help deliver our mission of building a safe, fair and prosperous UK.
Leading in areas such as counter-terrorism, policing, fire, crime, drugs policy, immigration and passports, our Senior Civil Servants are very likely to have responsibility for significant budgets and for delivering high profile outcomes, as well as providing leadership and management to the teams delivering them.
In addition to their role in delivery, our Senior Civil Servants play an essential role in steering transformation and culture change within the organisation more broadly.
Senior Civil Service Management Levels
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SCS Pay band 3: £125,000 to £208,100
Director Generals are responsible for performance, results, use of resources and success or failure on matters of acute national importance. They transform the way we deliver and provide clear and effective leadership to what are often multi-location and multi-disciplinary teams. They must build excellent relationships with ministers, advisers and any stakeholders with influence over the successful delivery of the Government’s priorities. They will give final advice or take decisions in highly complicated, political, fast-moving and open-ended situations.
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SCS Pay band 2: £95,000 to £162,500.
Directors lead areas of significant delivery, policy or functional activity. They are generally accountable for several hundred employees in a range of technical, professional and administrative roles. Directors are likely to be the last word on important, though reasonably defined, matters or be a major player in decisions about big issues. Influencing stakeholders outside and inside the organisation is key to success in the job and is likely to extend across multiple policy areas and a variety of possibly conflicting interests.
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SCS Pay band 1: £73,000 to £117,800
Deputy Directors manage a project, policy or professional group. They may deal with some difficult and novel issues within an established framework, and their judgements influence the direction of a significant policy or delivery area. Deputy Directors need to influence others; however, managing those relationships will be less demanding than for Directors or Director Generals because the issues may be less complex.
Joining as a Senior Civil Servant
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Senior Civil Servants are expected to use their leadership skills and experience to help teams achieve their goals. They should be good communicators, able to collaborate with stakeholders across government and the private sector. They may also support ministers with their parliamentary duties, which involves building effective relationships, briefing ministers on policy, strategy and performance, understanding the political context and often working to resolve sensitive or controversial policy and delivery challenges.
Like all Civil Servants, our Senior Leaders are expected to act with integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality, in line with the Civil Service Code.
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There’s no one type of person working at the Home Office. Just like in wider society, everyone here’s different. We believe that different backgrounds, perspectives and voices add up to richer, fuller thinking that helps us deliver fairer, better outcomes.
Find out more
Learn how to apply for Senior Civil Service vacancies in the Home Office