Official Receiver

Job summary

This post is for the Official Receiver of Insolvency North East, based in our North East Regional Centre, Newcastle.

The Official Receiver acts as trustee in bankruptcies, the liquidator in compulsory liquidations and investigates the cause of failure.

The Insolvency Service is a leading Government agency which plays a crucial role in providing essential services to the public and to business. The work we do is important to the proper functioning of markets, the economy in general and support for thousands of people each year who are in financial difficulty.

Inclusive and diverse teams are important to us. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including groups underrepresented in our workforce. The Insolvency Service strives to ensure that the agency is a safe, inclusive, and welcoming place for everybody to bring their true self to work and to help the agency to achieve its diversity objectives. We have 9 active employee network groups available to join or become an ally, these include, Carers Network, Disability network group, Employee Assistance, Representatives, FACES Network Group, LGBT+, Mind Matters, Part Time Workers, The Shed - Men’s Network Group and Women’s Network Group.

We offer full-time, part-time, job share and flexible ways of working. We value capability, technical skills and experience and we place great emphasis on lifetime development to support our people. We encourage our employees to become more involved in areas they feel strongly about, whether it be for the benefit of the agency, through our Engagement network or in their own local communities via volunteering opportunities.

The Insolvency Service is a great place to work, learn and grow your career!

Job description

An overview of the job requirements include:

• working to the Head of Operational Delivery and with the wider Insolvency senior leadership team
• applying the Directorate and Agency standards, policies and protocols to the effective application of staff resource to handling insolvency cases and contributing towards agency targets and forecast expectations
• senior leadership of Insolvency North East, including any directorate-wide function attached to the post, and playing key part of the Directorate and agency senior leadership cadre
• operational planning; risk management and problem solving within the local environment to assure and improve upon appropriate levels of performance
• building, maintaining, and working to improve the local working environment, including the application of effective change; welfare; capability and staff engagement methodologies; and
• local business and courts stakeholder engagement and relationship management

The Official Receiver is an officer of the court with insolvency jurisdiction to which they are appointed, and they are accountable to the court for carrying out the courts’ orders and for fulfilling their statutory obligations.

The responsibilities of the Official Receiver include responsibility for acts of their predecessors and personal liability for actions taken as Official Receiver and the actions of staff performed in discharging the Official Receiver’s duties.

Responsibilities

Leadership:

The successful candidate will be a strong leader, able to exercise sound judgement and discretion; be able to respond quickly, flexibly and effectively to a wide range of demands and challenges; deliver to tight deadlines; have a high level of planning and risk management skills; and be able to manage responsibilities over multiple sites when necessary.

People Management:

The successful candidate will have well developed skills in business performance and staff management, recognising and rewarding success, dealing with performance issues, absence management and ensuring that health and safety, well-being and diversity issues are effectively managed with the staff.

Communications:

The successful candidate will have excellent interpersonal, representational and presentational skills, including the ability to communicate with staff appropriately, reinforcing messages and encouraging feedback role modelling while actively promoting our values, helping teams embrace change/innovation and building and maintaining employee engagement.

Insolvency Specialism:

The successful candidate will have an excellent understanding of, and ability to apply, the insolvency legal framework and associated rules, procedures and policies of the Directorate and agency; will be able to work with and through the Deputy Official Receivers to assure a high- performing and technically proficient staff at all levels.

The Official Receiver, as an officer of the court, is responsible for advocacy, and may have to present variously in the High Court, its District Registries and the county courts. This will involve a range of applications by the Official Receiver, by third parties, public examinations and applications for bankruptcy restriction orders.

Operational Delivery:

The successful candidate will have excellent business and resource planning abilities; being able to operate within a dynamic planning environment, developing solutions to ensure the optimum achievements by available resource. A good understanding of risk appetites will be needed to operate within a sound corporate governance environment that is assured by management information and audit rather than direct supervision. The ability to build confidence and trust in staff to achieve an optimum level of empowerment is essential.

Person specification

The ideal candidate will:

• have current knowledge of insolvency, court procedure and associated legislation, operational and agency policies and processes
• have strong advocacy skill
• have strong leadership qualities – being able to provide a common sense of purpose to, and stability within, their teams
• be positive and inspirational in leading and supporting others through change
• have the ability to adapt to variations in work without impact on their effectiveness
• have excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• be able to see the big picture and consider the wider factors and long-term implications of decisions
• be able to respond quickly, flexibly and effectively to a wide range of demands
• be able to deliver to deadlines
• demonstrate strong critical analysis, audit and evaluation skills
• have a high level of planning skills
• take ownership for their decisions and hold themselves accountable for what they have promised to deliver
• use evidence and knowledge to support accurate, expert decisions and advice, which take into consideration all known implications and risks
• use judgement and take considered approach to situations and tasks when making decisions

Qualifications

Eligible applicants will hold an appropriate level insolvency qualification e.g. the full Insolvency Service examiner qualification or both JIEB examinations, and have material practical experience in dealing with insolvencies

Behaviours

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

• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions
• Seeing the Big Picture

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £57,367, Insolvency Service contributes £16,619 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

We want you to have a good work-life balance and want to support you in all that you do, so we offer a great benefits package including:

• flexible working arrangements and flexi-time
• full time new entrants to the Civil Service and those Civil Servants on modernised terms and conditions will be entitled to 25 days leave increasing on a sliding scale to 30 days after 5 years’ service
• in addition to this you are entitled to 8 public/bank holidays plus an additional day of privilege leave
• competitive maternity, paternity and parental leave
• 5 days paid leave for learning and development
• 5 days paid for volunteering
• a Cycle to work scheme
• staff have access to an employee assistance programme, Workplace Wellness, for confidential, independent support and advice during difficult times in either their professional or personal life

Your pension is a valuable part of your total reward package where the employer makes a significant contribution to the cost of your pension. Your contributions come out of your salary before any tax is taken. This means, if you pay tax, your take-home pay will not be reduced by the full amount of your contribution; and your pension will continue to provide valuable benefits for you and your family if you are too ill to continue to work or die before you retire. For more information, visit www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk

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, Strengths and Experience.

As part of the sift process, you will be asked to complete:

Personal Statement

Personal Statement Guidance

The personal statement is your chance to demonstrate how you meet the criteria outlined in the person specification. You should include examples of how you have tackled similar tasks or demonstrated the skills and behaviours outlined in the job advertisement. This is your opportunity to highlight what you can bring to the role – your expertise, achievements and attributes. The information you provide will be assessed during the sift process to determine your suitability for the position.

If successful at the sift stage, at interview, you will be assessed on the following:

Behavioural Competencies - assessed through:

• Behaviour 1 - Leadership
• Behaviour 2 - Communicating and Influencing
• Behaviour 3 - Making Effective Decisions
• Behaviour 4 - Seeing the Bigger Picture

Strengths

Expected timeline (subject to change)

Sift – w/c 29 June 2026

Interview – w/c 06 July 2026

Location - MS Teams

Your interview will be conducted by video. Candidates are asked to note the above timetable, exercising flexibility through the recruitment and selection process.

Visa Applicants

To sponsor a candidate under the Skilled Worker visa, a sponsorship licence is required. The Insolvency Service does not currently hold this licence and therefore, cannot legally sponsor Skilled Worker visa applicants.

This post is advertised with Part-time working hours, a minimum of 32 hours per week is required due to the operational and leadership requirements of the role.

Furtherinformation

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

Any move to Insolvency 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; for further information visit the Childcare Choices website.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

Reasonable Adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

Contact Government Recruitment Service via insolvencyrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the ‘Assistance required’ section in the ‘Additional requirements’ page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at an interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

Feedback

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 : Sarah Forster
• Email : Sarah.Forster@insolvency.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : InsolvencyRecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel there have been procedural irregularities at any stage of the recruitment process or that your application has not been treated in accordance with the Civil Service Recruitment Principles, and wish to make a complaint, then in the first instance you should contact hr.recruitment@insolvency.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive you can then contact the Civil Service Commission.

Attachments

Applying for a Job - A Candidate Guide Opens in new window (pdf, 3061kB)Insolvency Candidate Information Pack Opens in new window (pdf, 6509kB)