Office for National Statistics
Crisis Management and Protective Security Advisor
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The locations for this role are Newport and Titchfield (Fareham).
This role is aligned to ONS hybrid working principles, which are based on attending the office with purpose. The post holder will be expected to contribute to the organisation’s overall 40% office attendance, in line with business and role requirements.
The induction process for the role will be conducted in person.
Job Summary
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest producer of official statistics, covering a range of key economic, social and demographic topics. These include measuring changes in the value of the UK economy, estimating the size, geographic distribution and characteristics of the population, and providing indicators of price inflation, employment, earnings, crime and migration.
The last few years has seen an extensive overhaul of security and information management to meet the challenges of corporate and statistics transformation in technology, methods and practice, the Digital Economy Act and organisational risk appetite. The capability is evolving and expanding to address changes in threat and business direction.
Security and Information Management Directorate (SaIM) operates six key services across ONS: security risk advice and management; knowledge and information management (KIM); protective security and business resilience operations; security compliance and audit; cyber security; and Security Culture.
This role sits in the Physical Security and Business Continuity division within the SaIM directorate. This role reports into the Head of Security and Information Risk (CSO Deputy).
Job Description
The role forms part of the Protective Security & Business Resilience Operations (PSBRO) Team within the Security and Information Management Division. The post reports to the Business Continuity & Crisis Management Lead, who reports directly to the Protective Security & Business Resilience Operations Principal.
The primary focus of the role is the development, coordination, delivery and continuous improvement of ONS Crisis Management arrangements, ensuring the organisation maintains effective capabilities to prepare for, respond to, recover from and learn from disruptive incidents and emergencies. The role may evolve to incident management later.
The role supports the delivery of organisational resilience objectives through the maintenance of crisis management frameworks, governance arrangements, exercising programmes, training activities and assurance processes.
Whilst Crisis Management forms the core responsibility of the role, the post holder may also provide support to wider PSBRO activities, including Protective Security, Business Continuity and organisational resilience initiatives where operational priorities require.
The role will work closely with senior leaders, business areas and external partners to ensure that ONS maintains effective response arrangements capable of supporting the delivery of priority statistical outputs during periods of disruption.
Due to the nature of the role, a minimum of 30 hours is required.
Responsibilities
- Act as a key advisor on ONS Crisis Management arrangements.
- Support the maintenance and continuous improvement of crisis management policies, frameworks, plans and procedures.
- Coordinate the development, review and testing of Strategic, Tactical and Operational response plans.
- Support the operation of Gold, Silver and Bronze command structures during incidents and emergencies.
- Help Coordinate crisis response activities during organisational disruptions.
- Develop and deliver crisis management exercising programmes, workshops and simulations.
- Support the delivery of crisis management training and awareness activities across ONS.
- Record, monitor and report on lessons identified from exercises, incidents and real-world events.
- Produce briefings, reports and management information for senior leadership teams and governance groups.
- Maintain crisis management governance arrangements and action tracking processes.
- Develop relationships with operational business areas to improve resilience and crisis response capability.
- Support organisational preparedness activities and resilience planning initiatives.
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Person specification
Essential Criteria:
- Experience coordinating activities within complex operational environments, ensuring effective delivery across multiple workstreams.
- Excellent communication, stakeholder engagement and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build productive relationships at all levels.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities, including identifying risks, issues and opportunities for continuous improvement.
- Proven organisational skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities, work independently and remain calm under pressure and uncertainty.
- Experience preparing reports, briefings and management information, supported by proficiency in Microsoft Office applications and collaboration tools.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Communicating and Influencing
- Making Effective Decisions
- Working Together
Salary and Benefits
Alongside your salary of £28,138, Office for National Statistics contributes £8,151 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).
The Office for National Statistics is part of the Civil Service, and as such we share a number of key benefits with other departments, whilst also having our own unique offerings to support our valued colleagues across the organisation.
Whether you are hearing about us for the first time or already know a bit about our organisation, we hope that our careers site will give you a great insight into the benefits and facilities available to our colleagues, and our fantastic working culture.
Inclusion & Accessibility
At ONS we are always looking to attract the very best people from the widest possible talent pool, and we are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a Disability Confident Leader we’re committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.
As part of our application process, you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process that you need. If you would like to discuss any reasonable adjustments before applying, please contact the recruitment team in the first instance.
If you would like an accessible version of any of the attachments or recruitment documents below or linked to in this advert, please contact the recruitment team who will be happy to assist.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.
Security Clearance
For ONS the requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for 3 consecutive years immediately prior to applying and the department will consider eligibility by exception on a case-by-case basis. You will be asked to provide information regarding your UK residency during your application, and failure to provide this will result in your application being rejected.
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If you are unsure that you meet the eligibility above, please read the information available on Gov.uk on this link or contact the recruitment email on the advert before applying to discuss, as failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected and any offer of employment being withdrawn.
At the point of SC application, you will need to provide or give access to the following evidence:
- Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)
- UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records
- Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency
- Security Services records
Please note we will reach out to you once the advert has closed to confirm eligibility for this role, this will be via an e-mail. Please check your junk e-mails for any correspondence.
Visa Sponsorship
ONS are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role. Applicants are expected to hold a valid right to work in the UK when employment commences. If you are applying on a time-limited visa, this will need to be valid for at least 18 months at point of application.
To work at the ONS, candidates must meet both UK right to work and security clearance requirements (where applicable).
If you are unsure whether you meet the appropriate right to work or security clearance eligibility criteria, please refer to the guidance on Gov.uk or contact the recruitment email provided in the advert before applying. Failure to meet these requirements will result in your application being rejected and employment offers being withdrawn.
Application Process
Number of Stages: 2 stage process
Stage 1: Application
The assessment process at the application stage will be based on your work history, CV, skills, experience, and personal statement. It is important that your application is tailored to highlight the skills, knowledge, and experience relevant to the role.
A personal statement is required at application stage, the maximum word count allowed is 1250, which should not be exceeded. You should provide evidence for each essential skill criterion listed in the person specification. As these criteria are scored, it is advisable to give clear examples for each one, including the impact of your actions, ideally utilising the STAR technique (Situation, Task, Action, Result).
Please note that Success Profiles Behaviour examples are not required at this stage of the application process.
In instances where a high number of applications are received, the sift pass mark may be adjusted, and candidates will be invited to interview based on merit order, i.e., those with the highest scores.
When a high volume of applications are received, the sift pass mark may be adjusted. Candidates will be invited to interview based on their merit order, with those achieving the highest scores being prioritised. Applicants who score below the adjusted pass mark but still pass will be placed on hold and may be invited to interview at a later date.
Stage 2: Interview
If invited to interview, you will be assessed using techniques aligned with the Civil Service Success Profiles framework, covering all behaviours listed in the job advert and any required technical skills.
Interviews will be via Microsoft Teams.
ID checks will be required at the start of the interview.
A reserve list may be held for a period up to 12 months from which
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