26.18 EO Team Leader

Job summary

DBS was established under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 on 1 December 2012, operating from two sites, Liverpool and Darlington. We operate on behalf of government delivering Disclosure functions in England, Wales, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, and Barring functions for England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

We operate in the complex world of safeguarding alongside our multi agency partners. Safeguarding means protecting people’s health, wellbeing and human rights, and enabling them to live free from harm, abuse and neglect.

We provide a service that enables organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors to make better informed, safer recruitment and other decisions. We do this by providing information to enable them to determine whether individuals are unsuitable or unable to undertake certain work, particularly with occupations involving regular contact with vulnerable groups, including children.

DBS has a number of strategic priorities:

1. Providing high quality, reliable, consistent, timely and accessible services for our customers.
2. Embracing technology to drive improvements to the quality of our work.
3. Developing a talented and diverse workforce that understands how their contributions help to achieve our objectives.
4. Building a flexible, vibrant and contemporary workplace where our staff will be able to do their jobs using modern ways of working that are smart and which promote OneDBS.
5. Raising awareness of the DBS and the services we offer, keeping people informed through our communications, to increase public understanding and confidence in our organisation.
6. Becoming a respected and trusted organisation, working with our partners to play an influential role in the environment in which we operate.

DBS operates in a complex partnership landscape, with both public and private sector stakeholders, and a variety of commercial arrangements.

Job description

DBS has an ambitious strategy plan; our focus is to build on the foundations of the early years of DBS by developing our capacity and capability for change.

Disclosure Operations will transform services to our customers by improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the end-to-end service and continuing to develop our digital channels.

Application Management is responsible for ensuring the DBS checking processes are carried out accurately and efficiently. They conduct all Police National Computer (PNC) matching processes, check applicant details against barred lists, identify which police forces to send applications to, resolve queries raised by the police and co-ordinate the fingerprint process for applicants. Staff deliver all Disclosure products resulting from over seven million applications.

Application Management is the largest area within Operational services, comprises approximately 440 staff who work across two shifts – a flexible day shift and an evening shift working 5pm until 10pm.

Team Leaders play a key role in driving performance, quality and delivering increasingly efficient working practices. Responsible for engagement, utilising the potential of their staff and will have direct line management responsibility for AO PNC Agents.

Person specification

Key Task/areas of accountability.

• Line management responsibility for up to 14 members of staff.
• Support and guide staff and managers to improve performance
• Develop good working relationships with other teams in the organisation to share information and work together effectively
• Comply with policies, procedures and security instructions in order to assure the integrity and accuracy of the work of the team.
• Ensure that all dealings with customers and colleagues are handled in a timely, courteous and helpful manner
• Manage resources on the team to ensure there is adequate cover to meet the likely work demand
• Take responsibility for one’s own performance and personal development
• Provide technical and other assistance to the team as required.
• Deliver production outputs according to the benchmark and quality standards laid down
• Support continuous improvement of the business by driving the management of change within the area.
• Recognise and implement opportunities to improve efficiency.

Essential criteria:
• Strong people skills e.g. Improving performance, engagement and developing others

Desirable criteria
• Demonstrable recent experience (within the last 12 months) of leading an operational team.
• Demonstrable experience of performance management and an ability to influence performance through effective decision making and having brilliant conversations.

Important:

All DBS employee’s contracts are office-based by default at one of our two sites. However, as per the Right to Request Flexible Working legislation, employees are eligible to apply for a remote or hybrid work arrangement which (if approved) take effect after six months if transferring from another government department, or after successfully completing probation as a new joiner. Requests will be considered in line with business need and the requirements of the role. Informal hybrid working arrangements are also available from day one.

Further Information:

The nature of work we carry out at DBS requires a high level of accuracy and therefore as a responsible employer, we do not allow staff to opt out of the Working Time Directive (1998) to work over 48 hours. DBS requires any workers with one or more jobs with another employer to keep the organisation informed about the other job(s) and the hours involved. If an individual has more than one employer, their combined hours of work should not exceed the 48-hour limit.

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 for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Further Information:

To view the DBS Recruitment and On-boarding Privacy Notice, please click the link below:

DBS Recruitment and On-boarding Privacy Notice - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Leadership
• Delivering at Pace
• Developing Self and Others

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £30,993, Disclosure & Barring Service contributes £8,978 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

The DBS offers a number of excellent benefits for its employees. These can include:

• Generous annual leave entitlement
• Excellent maternity, paternity and adoption schemes (after a qualifying period)
• Commitment to the health and wellbeing of our employees
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Flexible working opportunities
• Eyecare voucher scheme
• Occupational Health Service including referrals for counselling and physiotherapy
• 24/7 Counselling and Wellbeing Service
• A Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

The DBS vision and purpose is to make people safer by being a visible, trusted and influential organisation, providing an outstanding quality of service to all our customers and partners, where our people understand the important safeguarding contributions they make and feel proud to work here. To do this, the DBS is committed to being an employer that is able to attract, develop, retain and engage diverse talent that is representative of the communities we serve, and to be an organisation providing outstanding service to all our existing and new customers, who are diverse and have a range of different needs. We want all our staff to be able to bring their ‘whole self’ to work.

Things you need to know

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.

To apply for this post, please provide a 250 word suitability statement outlining how your skills, experience and qualifications meet the requirements of the role, including all essential and desirable criteria.

In addition, you will be assessed on the following behaviours:

• Leadership
• Delivering at Pace
• Developing Self and Others

If a large number of applications are received, an initial sift based on the suitability statement and lead behaviour " Leadership" will be conducted.

Following the initial sift successful candidates will be invited to attend an interview in Shannon Court. All three behaviours listed above will tested as part of the interview.

Panel interview:
When providing your examples the STAR (Situation, Task, Action and Result) technique is a useful method to help structure your answer:

• Situation - provide some brief details about the situation.
• Task - outline what your objective or purpose was during that situation.
• Action - describe what you did in that situation and how you approached it.
• Result - state the outcome, for example: Were the objectives met? What did you learn/gain from being in that situation?

Recruitment Timeline:

The following timetable outlines indicative dates. Please note, these dates may be subject to change without prior notice.

Advert live: 6th February 2026

Advert Closes: 23rd February 2026 at 10am

Sift to take place: w/c 23rd February 2026

Interviews: w/c 9th March 2026

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

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) (opens in a new window)
• 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 (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : People Support Team
• Email : DBSpeoplesupportteam@dbs.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : DBSPeopleSupportTeam@dbs.gov.uk

Attachments

EO Team Leader Job Description Opens in new window (pdf, 270kB)Success Profiles - Behaviours Opens in new window (pdf, 1043kB)DBS Candidate Privacy Policy Opens in new window (pdf, 161kB)