1. About the Public Service Centre

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PUBLIC SERVICE CENTRE

PUBLIC SERVICE CENTRE OPERATOR

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APPLICATION PACK

The information contained in this pack is compiled to assist you with your application. You will find information enclosed:

1. About the Public Service Centre

2. The Application Process

3. Competency questions section of application form

4. Good and Bad Examples of How to Evidence your Application

5. The assessment process

6. Training Programme

7. Support

PLEASE CONSIDER THESE DOCUMENTS CAREFULLY BEFORE COMPLETING YOUR APPLICATION.

Please also ensure that you carefully read all guidance notes available on the online application process.

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1. ABOUT THE PUBLIC SERVICE CENTRE

South Wales Police are proud of our Public Service Centre, a centre that puts the communities of South Wales at the heart of everything it does. Our highly trained staff will answer and respond to emergency and non-emergency calls. The centre will provide support to operational officers through radio dispatch. Our aim is to be a fully multi-functional team.

Our staff are the first point of contact for our organisation and it is at this point that our staff can positively influence the overall experience people have of the service provided by South Wales Police.

In addition, the information gathered by our staff will be the foundation upon which the response to a wide variety of operational incidents is based, including road accidents, firearms incidents, anti- social behaviour, hate crime and assaults.

The Departments’ role within the organisation includes:

 Managing emergency and non-emergency telephone communications to the Force, both from the public and other emergency services.

 Ensuring the accurate recording and passing of incident information.

 Arranging a police response, calling on specialist units like the helicopter crew, firearms or scenes of crime staff to support the policing operation if necessary.

 Managing police radio transmissions.

 Liaising with local authority CCTV operations, prisons and other Government organisations (for example Royal Mint).

 Managing police communications at major events (e.g. a royal visit) and sporting events.

 Monitoring the M4 corridor in the South Wales Police areas.

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Our Public Service Centre handles over 1.2 million emergency and non emergency calls from the Public every year.

We are the first point of contact for callers and play a crucial role in ensuring the public get the right response from us. Our state of the art technology enables us to respond to calls effectively and to make sure officers are efficiently dispatched to the wide variety of operational incidents including road accidents, anti-social behaviour incidents, hate crime assaults and firearms incidents.

SHIFT PATTERN

You will be required to work a shift pattern, which consists of working a combination of eight, nine and ten hour shifts over a 24/7 period for six days which will include morning, afternoon and night shifts , followed by four rest days.

2. THE APPLICATION PROCESS

Within this recruitment campaign for Public Service Centre Operators, we are looking to recruit staff to commence training in 2017.

Application

Applications will be available from 09:00 Friday 3rd March 2017 and must be received by the advertised closing date, at 12:00 Tuesday 14th March 2017. The Application Form is an electronic application and can be accessed via the South Wales Police Website http://www.south- wales.police.uk/apply-for-a-job/ No hard copy applications or CV’s will be accepted.

Key dates

Please note that you must be successful at each stage of the process in order to be invited to attend the following stages.

 20th – 24th March 2017 – we will be scoring your application forms.  10th – 18th April 2017 – Candidates attend Audio tests to be held at Bridgend  24th – 28th April 2017 – Candidates attend Assessment Centre to be held at Bridgend

These dates may be subject to change. If you are unable to attend on the date allocated to you, unfortunately we will not be able to progress your application as further dates are not available.

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3. COMPETENCY SECTION (Section 4 of application form)

Skills, Knowledge and Personal Qualities

This is an important section. Please observe the following instructions carefully, as failure to do so may result your application being rejected.

On the vacancy advert you will find a Role Profile relating to the job that you are applying for. This profile provides an overview of the role, comprising of role purpose and main responsibilities and the criteria (person specification) that you will need to be able to meet in order to do the job. You should refer to the Role Profile when completing the competency assessment and when evidencing your skills, knowledge and experience in your suitability for the role, you should refer to all elements of the role profile (role purpose, main responsibilities and person specification and the method of assessment on the back page).

You must provide evidence of the qualities you already have or may develop that enable you to carry out the role. Your answers in this section will be used to decide whether your application will proceed to the next stage. It is important that you think carefully about your responses, which can be from your recent or past experiences.

To evidence the relevant experience, skills, knowledge and personal qualities you will need to provide specific examples of work, tasks or events which you have undertaken or attended. You can also draw on skills or experience that you have gained as a result of doing voluntary work, work in your own home, or at school, college or university, as well as in paid work.

It is not necessary to provide evidence for every individual point. One example will often cover a number of key criteria and so it may often be appropriate to provide one scenario detailing a number of skills or personal qualities.

When completing this section, please contain your evidence to the space allocated on the form. This section has a wordcount of 13,000 characters and will count down when you insert your information. The short listing panel will make a decision based upon the evidence provided here.

When evidencing against the person specification criteria, please refer to the matrix table at the end of the role profile, as this will assist you in what to include in your application form. The matrix provides you with what is to be assessed at each stage of the process (shortlisting and interview) 5

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specifically relating to personal qualities, as some will be assessed at shortlisting stage and others at interview stage.

Please avoid inserting personal information e.g. name or address as such detail will be removed before the short listing panel conducts their initial selection. If you make references to individuals, complimentary letters, relevant project work/assignments, job descriptions etc please do not photocopy and send such documents to us as these will not be forwarded to the short listing panel.

When providing an example, you may find it useful to use the “STAR” or “CARA” model to structure your evidence. However these models are not mandatory for completion of the application form.

STAR Approach

Situation or Describe the situation that you were in or the task that you needed to accomplish. You must describe a specific event or situation, not a Task generalised description of what you have done in the past. Be sure to give enough detail for the panel to understand. This situation can be from a previous job, from a volunteer experience, or any relevant event. Action you took Describe the action you took and be sure to keep the focus on you. Even if you are discussing a group project or effort, describe what you did - not the efforts of the team. Don't tell what you might do, tell what you did. Results you What happened? How did the event end? What did you accomplish? achieved What did you learn?

CARA Approach

Context The "Context" is your introduction, where you describe the scenario you were faced with, the date and the place. Describe the situation and the task you were faced with, when, where, with whom? (20%) Action The "Action" forms the main body and should be the longest part of your answer. How? What action did YOU take? Sometimes people focus on what the group did without mentioning their individual contribution. (50%) Result The "Result" is the conclusion and like the introduction, should be quite short. What results did you achieve/conclusions did you reach? (20%) After The ‘After’ what did you learn from the experience? (10%)

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4. GOOD AND BAD EXAMPLES OF HOW TO EVIDENCE YOUR APPLICATION FORM CUSTOMER SERVICE BAD GOOD I have excellent Customer Service Skills, I have excellent customer service skills I can demonstrate this with an and very good communication skills. I example- I currently work in a store in Cardiff, a lady came in to the store speak to members of the public on a quite upset that the dress she had bought had a rip in the back. The dress regular basis and deal any queries to was for a wedding the following day. I told her I would look in the store provide excellent customer service. room for another dress, we had the same dress but not in the same colour. The colour was important as she was a bridesmaid and needed to match everyone else. The lady at this point was crying, I took her to the interiors department as this is usually quieter and sat her down and told her I was going to do my utmost to sort the problem for her! I rang all the local stores but no one had the dress, so I checked with the catalogue and they had one left but it was in the Warehouse in Leeds. Normally we only deliver on next day delivery but I spoke to the manager in the warehouse to see if we could get it to her today! He said he could get it to the store but not to a home address. I spoke to the lady and explained the situation, she explained that she had lots of plans and tasks for that evening in readiness for tomorrow and wasn’t able to get back to town. She was panicking by this point. So I agreed to wait in the store till the dress arrived and then drop it to her. She lived in Pontypridd but the wedding was in the Miskin Manor which is on my way home so I could drop it off to her! I dropped the dress off and the customer was extremely relived and delighted. She sent a lovely thank you letter to my manager about me. COMMUNICATION SKILLS BAD GOOD I have excellent communication skills I talk I was recently asked to give a presentation to a group of students. My part to people all the time in my current job. I of the presentation was for a day in the life of a call handler – I developed listen to what they have to say and then a power point presentation to help me this included some calls I had reply appropriately recently taken for them to listen to. I also allowed time for them to ask questions. I got excellent feedback from my manger for the way I explained my role, I didn’t use any jargon, the PowerPoint was easy to follow and I had printed some documentation for them as handouts.

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In June this year I was involved in the School open evening for the year 6 students that would be coming to the comprehensive in the September. I was given the lead for the Science Department. This involved me giving presentations to small groups of students and parents. I explained what they children will study for the first year! I gave handouts to them for them to take home. I also arranged for the children to have a go at some experiments under supervision. I had excellent feedback from the head teacher in how well I communicated with both parents and children. Changing my language to suit both children and adults.

IT SKILLS BAD GOOD I can use all packages in the Microsoft I have excellent I.T. skills and am proficient in the use of Microsoft suite and use a computer daily in my work. packages such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook which I use on a day to day basis in my current role as a Supervisor. I use Excel daily to record income for the day this information is forward to Headquarters via outlook. As the supervisor I also developed a short power point for staff for the offers that were coming up for Christmas, This allowed staff to revisit the briefing as and when they needed. I also use Microsoft word to write the end of month reports which again I submit to Headquarters via Outlook.

Eligibility checks (Papersifting)

Applicants for the Police Service must undergo thorough screening. Please list all surnames by which you have been known, including your name at birth.

Your application will not be processed without a National Insurance number.

You must be able to answer YES to all of the following statements before applying – further information is available on our website - http://www.south-wales.police.uk/en/join-us/public- service-centre-operators/

 You must be 18 years of age or over at the time of applying.  You need to be a British citizen or a citizen of a country that is a member of the European Economic Area, or Switzerland. Commonwealth citizens and foreign nationals who are resident in the UK and free from restrictions are also eligible to apply.  You have been a resident of the United Kingdom for the last 3 years - Applicants are reminded that they must have been continually resident in the UK for the three year period immediately before an application is made. This is to satisfy the requirement to vet all applicants in an equitable manner and the UK Police service does not currently have any means of facilitating vetting checks overseas, to the extent required of those who have been resident in the UK. Applicants, who cannot be vetted, cannot be appointed.  Ideally, you should not have a criminal record. If you have a conviction as an adult or juvenile it is unlikely that you will be suitable, but some minor offences and cautions may not exclude you. This includes anyone who has received a formal caution in the last five years, committed a violent crime or public order offence. When making our decisions we are guided by npia-02-20112835.pdf (3192 downloads).

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 You must not be registered bankrupt with outstanding debts, have outstanding county court judgements against you, or be subject to a current Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA).  You have no more than 3 motoring convictions in the last 5 years.  The Police Service has a policy of prohibiting any of their officers or staff from becoming members of the British National Party (BNP), Combat 18 or the National Front, whose aims, objectives or pronouncements may contradict the duty to promote race equality.

Short Listing (scoring of the competency questions in your application form)

A selection panel will short list applications against a number of set criteria. The criteria chosen for each short listing is selected directly from the Role Profile and you will be able to see what the shortlisting panel will be selecting against as this is available in the matrix table at the end of the role profile. This is what you should be evidencing against in your application. Applicants are expected to evidence their ability set against the identified criteria in the Role Profile. At all times you must give examples indicating the quality and quantity of work you have been doing. Please refer to further information under the application process.

We will notify all applicants of the outcome of the selection process, whether or not their application is successful. We will be able to provide you with your scores but unfortunately individual feedback will not be available. You will be welcome to re-apply when we are next recruiting. 5. THE ASSESSMENT PROCESS

Audio Tests

If your application is successful you will be required to pass 2 audio tests. One test will be to assess your spelling and grammar specifically, and the other will be to test whether you can extract salient information from the call. Both tests will assess your ability to handle these types of calls and obtain the information our police officers need.

In order to pass the tests you don’t need to type word for word, but you must cover all the relevant and important information and everything you type must make sense. You will be allowed to stop or rewind the test but this will slow your typing speed and you may not finish all the scenarios in the prescribed time which may affect your overall score.

A practice audio test is available on our website http://www.south-wales.police.uk/en/join- us/public-service-centre-operators/

You will be provided with your scores but unfortunately we will not be able to provide individual feedback. If you are unsuccessful you will be welcome to re-apply when we are next recruiting.

Assessment Centre

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If you are successful in the audio tests you will be required to attend an assessment centre where you will need to complete a Police Initial Recruitment Test (PIR) in relation to number and verbal reasoning; a competency based interview; and a role play telephone call where you will interact with an assessor.

The Assessment Centre is a series of practical exercises designed to test your mental dexterity. These exercises are used to determine if applicants have the necessary skills and judgement to perform the role of Public Service Centre Operator.

We will give you full information on what is involved in the assessments at the relevant time.

You will be provided with your scores but unfortunately we will not be able to provide individual feedback. If you are unsuccessful you will be welcome to re-apply when we are next recruiting.

Vetting, Reference, Referee and Medical Checks

Applicants will be invited to complete a medical questionnaire which may be discussed to identify any issues which may prevent appointment because of a risk to the applicant or anyone using the service of South Wales Police. In addition, a hearing test will be completed for the purpose of health surveillance. The nature of work necessitates security-vetting checks. Appointment is conditional to all these checks being completed satisfactory. Employment references will also be sought from current and previous employers from the last three years.

6. TRAINING

All recruits will undergo a modular training programme that will last for a total of 10 weeks. Elements of the training will take place in our training site within South Wales Police Area. You will also complete part of your training in your substantive place of work, that being the Public Service Centre, South Wales Police Headquarters. During the 14 week training period you will not be permitted to take any annual leave.

There will be classroom based learning followed by consolidation within the “live‟ environment, you will receive support every step of the way.

Weeks 1 – 10 – you will receive training in the South Wales Police IT systems and all elements of call handling.

Weeks 11 – 14 – consolidation within the Public Service Centre

Week 15 – annual leave

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You will complete assessments along the way and you will be required to reach an acceptable standard of operating.

7. Support The Force has a number of associations to support applicants. We want our workforce to reflect the diverse range of communities we serve, and are committed to supporting applicants through our recruitment processes whatever your lifestyle or background.

We have a dedicated representative workforce team who are promoting careers in policing amongst under-represented groups. For more information please visit: www.south-wales.police.uk/JoinUsLearnMore

Ability Support Network Julia Tyler (ASN) 01656 655555 Ext. 31-877 Tony Parker 01656 655555 Ext. 34-834 Black Police Association Chair - Bharat Narbad (BPA) 01656 303502

Christian Police Association www.cpauk.net (CPA) Female Police Association Chair - Lisa Gore (FPA) 01656 655555 Ext 27204

LGBT Network [email protected]

Finally, good luck with your application and if you have any questions or queries then please don’t hesitate to contact the HR Helpdesk on 01656 305870.

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