Head of Regulatory Audit – Local Authorities

Job summary

Do you have strong analytical skills where you can weigh up different sources of information to make clear recommendations to senior officials?

Do you have experience of leading on audits to recognised standards within the regulatory environment?

If so, this is an exciting opportunity to join the Food Standards Agency (FSA) as our Head of Regulatory Audit – Local Authorities, and we’d love to hear from you!

The FSA is a non-ministerial department of over 1600 people. We play a critical role in protecting public health and consumers’ wider interests in food across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Our vision is an important one - to drive change, delivering “food you can trust” and working towards a healthier and more sustainable food system.

Job description

This post sits within the FSA’s Regulatory Compliance Division (RCD), which has responsibility to ensure that the delivery of official food and feed controls (OCs) is undertaken effectively. These checks and processes are in place to monitor compliance of food and feed businesses with the requirements of feed and food law, and where necessary to enforce those requirements.

You will lead an Official Controls Audit Team of 4 staff who will undertake audits of the FSA own operational teams on their delivery of official controls against the feed and food law enforcement standard. You’ll play a key role in ensuring effective delivery of the FSA’s audit programme against the feed and food law enforcement standards, and in accordance with strategic priorities.

Person specification

Please read the attached Candidate Pack to discover further details about the role, our organisation, who we are looking for and the criteria we will assess against during the selection process.

We look forward to receiving your application and wish you every success.

Qualifications

•A qualification or training in auditing e.g. Quality Assurance Management, ISO Lead Assessor course or HACCP auditing, IRCA Registration

And

•A Certificate of Registration of the Environmental Health Registration Board; the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health Diploma in Environmental Health or equivalent qualification.
Or
•A Diploma in Trading Standards or its antecedents; or the full Diploma in Consumer Affairs including the Food and Agriculture paper
Or
•A member of the Royal College Veterinary Surgeons (MRCVS) who holds Official Controls Qualification (Veterinary)
•RSPH Level 4 Diploma in Proficiency in Meat Inspection or equivalent qualification.

Behaviours

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

• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
• Managing a Quality Service

Technical skills

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

• Please confirm which of the following Technical Criteria you hold. You do not need to follow the instruction to provide your answer in a STAR format.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £58,279, Food Standards Agency contributes £16,883 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.Our candidate pack details the benefits that the FSA has to offer. Please also refer to the attached Terms and Conditions statement.

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, Experience and Technical skills.

Full details of the selection process are detailed in the attached candidate pack.

Application and shortlisting

You will be asked to provide personal details (not seen by the Panel) and to confirm your eligibility to apply for the role.

Technical: You will be asked a question to confirm that you meet the Technical requirements of the role.

· A qualification or training in auditing e.g. Quality Assurance Management, ISO Lead Assessor course or HACCP auditing, IRCA Registration

And

· A Certificate of Registration of the Environmental Health Registration Board; the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health Diploma in Environmental Health or equivalent qualification.

Or

· A Diploma in Trading Standards or its antecedents; or the full Diploma in Consumer Affairs including the Food and Agriculture paper

Or

· A member of the Royal College Veterinary Surgeons (MRCVS) who holds Official Controls Qualification (Veterinary)

· RSPH Level 4 Diploma in Proficiency in Meat Inspection or equivalent qualification.

If you cannot answer yes to this question – you will not be able to proceed further with your application.

You will then be asked to complete an application which will be used to assess you against the following essential criteria.

Essential criteria

Experience

· Lead criteria: Experience of undertaking or leading on the delivery of audit to recognised standards within the regulatory environment

· Strong analytical skills, weighing up different sources of information to underpin operational decisions and make clear recommendations to senior officials

· Proven experience of leading a multi-disciplinary team of professionals in a challenging and dynamic environment

· The ability to effectively communicate complex and challenging concepts to internal and external audiences, both verbally and in writing

Lead Criteria

An initial sift will take place on the Lead Criteria.

In the event that we receive a large number of applications, the minimum pass mark for the Lead Criteria may be raised at shortlisting stage. Candidates who apply under the DCS, GPTW or RIS schemes and meet the minimum requirements will be unaffected by the pass mark raise.

Interview

If successful at shortlisting stage, you will be invited to a final interview in which we will assess you against the following Experience requirements of the role and Civil Service Behaviours.

Behaviours

· Making Effective Decisions

· Communicating and Influencing

· Managing a Quality Service

Full details of the positive indicators being assessed for each Behaviour can be found in the Candidate Pack.

Experience

· Experience of undertaking or leading on the delivery of audit to recognised standards within the regulatory environment

Assessment Exercise

As part of the interview process, you will be asked to prepare an unseen presentation. Further information will be provided to you on the day / invitation to interview email.

Expected Timeline

Advert closes: 25/01/26

Sift: Expected to take place w/c 26/01/26

Final panel interview: Expected to take place w/c 09/02/26

Interviews will be held remotely via MS Teams. (If you do not have the Microsoft Teams application installed on your computer, you can join on the web without installing the application).

Please note that indicated dates may be subject to change.

Childcare Vouchers

Any move to the Food Standards Agency from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare.

Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

Reserve List

A reserve list will be held for a period of up to 12 months from which further appointment may be made.

Candidates that do not pass the interview but have demonstrated an acceptable standard may be considered for similar roles at a lower grade.

Visa Sponsorship

Please note that the FSA does not offer visa sponsorship and cannot provide advice on visa applications

Making a complaint

The law requires that selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit on the basis of fair and open competition as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles.

If you feel your application has not been treated fairly in accordance with the principles, and you wish to make a complaint, you should email the FSA’s Director of People at jo.bushnell@food.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response, you can contact the Civil Service Commission.

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.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

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).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 : Nathan Philippo
• Email : nathan.philippo@food.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : hr.recruitment.campaigns@food.gov.uk

Further information

If you wish to raise a complaint then please email hr.recruitment.campaigns@food.gov.uk in the first instance.

Attachments

Candidate Pack - Head of Regulatory Audit - Local Authorities Opens in new window (pdf, 1067kB)Terms and Conditions as at April 2020 Opens in new window (pdf, 42kB)