Head of National Returns Progression Command - SCS PB1

Home Office

Hybrid

Expires: Expiring in less than 3 weeks

Policy

Full time

£86,000 - £96,000 per year

Job summary

Why this role matters

The National Returns Progression Command (NRPC) is the pivotal Home Office capability whose mission is to maximise the return of immigration offenders (illegal entrants, overstayers, failed asylum seekers) whilst ensuring individuals are dealt with in a dignified manner, utilising a strong set of safeguards to identify and manage vulnerabilities.

This work includes leadership of 4 strands of work to maximise returns for immigration offenders.

The on-going and core elements of the role involve the following:

Leading on detained returns – ensuring that return is progressed for individuals from point of detention through to removal, effectively clearing barriers to removal, and identifying and managing any vulnerabilities.

Leading on the detained asylum casework process – ensuring the progression of individuals who claim asylum whilst in detention, including consideration of their asylum claim.

Leading on Non-Detained case progression – ensuring the progression of individuals without permission to stay in the UK to an appropriate conclusion, either by removing barriers to return or by signposting to other parts of the Home Office to regularise their status.

Leading on third country returns, returning individuals to a country other than their country of origin.

Job description

Key accountabilities

You will:

Managing and building relationships with a wide range of delivery partners including uniformed enforcement teams, Returns Assistance and Engagement Operations, Foreign National Offender Returns Command, Commnity Harm Prevention Command, International Returns Services Command, Detention Services, Migration and Borders Policy, Asylum and Human Rights Operations and Customer Services.
Line management of three Grade 6s and leadership and management of approximately 500 staff within the command, over 12 different locations.
Providing wider leadership support to Immigration Enforcement and Returns Directorate as a whole and contributing to wider Home Office objectives.
Managing a budget of just under £22m.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

The successful candidate will need to demonstrate:

Strong track record of leading large and complex operations at scale.
Working with Ministers and political stakeholders or similar to drive and deliver public service transformation under intense political scrutiny; operating at pace in a relentless delivery environment; leading from the front amid uncertainty; and using strong communication skills to frame realistic, tangible proposals in the highly complex asylum and returns landscape.
Excellent written and oral communication skills, with confidence engaging Ministers and senior officials when clearly framing transformation plans, remaining persuasive where further rationale is required, and being responsive to feedback at all levels.
The ability to plan, implement and monitor the delivery of stretching goals; identifying innovative utilisation of resource to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
Possess the ability to deliver results in a highly contentious environment; balancing delivery of hard-edged results with a wider set of equally important criteria (for example, managing vulnerability and wider reputational factors), as is the case where individuals are detained for removal

Desirable Criteria

Experience of leading work within the migration and borders and international cooperation landscape is desirable but not essential.
Familiarity with complexities of managing individuals in the detained environment.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £86,000, Home Office contributes £24,914 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).

Learning and development tailored to your role
An environment with flexible working options
A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

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

How to Apply

Please follow the Job Advert instructions on the Civil Service Jobs website to apply online by 23:55hrs on 5th October 2026.

You will be asked to provide:

A CV– (3 pages max) setting out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role. Please provide reasons for any gaps within the last two years.

A Statement of Suitability – (limited to 1250 words) providing examples of how your experience meets the essential criteria. This is your opportunity to give examples and show how your skills and experience fit the job requirements.

When writing a supporting statement, it is important that you:

Read the job specification so you are clear about the job requirements. Structure your personal statement to reflect the essential criteria listed in the advert.
Make sure you provide evidence against each of the listed criteria - i.e. ‘experienced in leading high performing and diverse teams and promoting inclusivity.’ When have you led a team, how large, what did you do to promote inclusivity, how did you handle diversity?
Ensure any evidence you provide demonstrates the impact of your actions in that situation, provide statistical evidence where relevant.

For more information on how to write a personal statement, click here.

Guidance on the use of AI

Please review the guidance Artificial intelligence and recruitment to understand the acceptable use of AI for your application.

Before you submit an application, we will ask you to confirm the information you provide is true and accurate. More details about this will be provided in the application form and we may reject applications where AI is used inappropriately at any stage of the process.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).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.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

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

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.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

Salary range

£86,000 - £96,000 per year