Inspection Team Leader – North

Job summary

Do you have excellent communication skills with the ability to build relationships with a wide variety of stakeholders?

Can you prioritise your workload to ensure that you meet multiple and often conflicting demands?

If so, these are exciting opportunities to join the Food Standards Agency (FSA) as an Inspection Team Leader, and we’d love to hear from you!

The FSA is a non-ministerial department of over 1300 people, with a big vision – to drive change in the food system so that it delivers “food we can trust”. Our primary goal is to continue to protect public health and consumers’ wider interest in food. As we have now exited the EU the FSA faces a significant period of change and activity.

Our inspection teams offer consistency during this time, ensuring that the UK’s food remains closely regulated and safe. Working closely with food producers and other stakeholders, the teams carry out routine and unannounced visits, allowing for the FSA to maintain its high standards across the industry.

Job description

Inspection team leaders facilitate this work by enabling the teams in the local cluster to do their best work. Effective management of personal performance and attendance allows us to ensure that the Agency’s standards and objectives are met, and that nothing slips through the gaps when our inspection teams are on the case.

The FSA’s commitment to staff wellbeing is paramount, too, and you will be excited to help your colleagues progress, identifying individual team training and development needs that will enable every team member to realise their ambitions and full potential within the Agency.

This role will also see you working closely with stakeholders such as Food Business Operators, who will occasionally seek to challenge the decisions made by the inspection teams. The ability to communicate and express the importance of the FSA’s decisions to those whose business will be directly affected by such decisions is key. From contractors to trade union representatives, you’ll work closely with a number of external parties and will need to understand how best to communicate with each on an individual basis.

You will be an effective leader, who is able to make the best decisions for the situation and enable their team to work to their full potential in order to make sure that the FSA can deliver the vital service it provides. If you are excited to take on this challenge and feel you can help bring the very best out of your colleagues, apply today.

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.

Licences

Full UK Driving Licence

Behaviours

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

• Making Effective Decisions
• Leadership
• Managing a Quality Service

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £33,481, Food Standards Agency contributes £9,699 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 and Experience.

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.

· Full UK Driving Licence

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

· Good organisational skills, skilled in prioritising workloads and dealing with competing demands

· Able to adapt their approach and message delivery style to the different audiences and circumstances

· Have the ability to converse confidently and professionally with industry and stakeholder representatives, building relationships and working collaboratively

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

· Leadership

· Managing a Quality Service

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

Experience

· Able to adapt their approach and message delivery style to the different audiences and circumstances

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

You must ensure that any evidence submitted as part of your application or used during interview, including your CV and any statements or examples, are truthful and factually accurate. Please note that plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own.

Expected Timeline

Advert closes: 12/05/26

Sift: Expected to take place from 13/05/26

Final panel interview: Expected to take place w/c 02/06/26

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 hold a licence to sponsor any visa applications and we are unable to provide any advice about visas.

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

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.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 : Nicholas Hamer
• Email : Nicholas.Hamer@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

Terms and Conditions as at April 2020 Opens in new window (pdf, 42kB)Inspection Team Leader (North) - Candidate Pack Opens in new window (pdf, 921kB)