Senior Caseworker

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

Mosley St, Manchester M2 3HQ, UK

Hybrid

Expires: Expiring in 6 days

Social Work

Full time

£47,796 per year

Job summary

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) is a modern, vibrant organisation full of passionate, committed people. We make final decisions on complaints that have not been resolved by UK Government departments and the NHS in England. We work closely with people to understand where, how and why public services sometimes fall short and fail to put people first. And we find ways to put it right.

Based in the centre of Manchester, we employ over 600 individuals, collaboratively working together to make voices heard. We have created a diverse and inclusive culture, whilst offering flexibility to give you the autonomy to work in the best way suited to you.

This is a hybrid role, with an expectation that you will work from the office at least 40% of the time.

Job description

We have an exciting opportunity to become a Senior Caseworker, working on our most difficult and complicated cases.

As a Senior Caseworker, you will undertake casework in a timely and proportionate way to meet our internal and external standards. We are looking for enthusiastic and motivated individuals to support and engage with change in their own area and within wider PHSO.

A key part of the role will be to ensure you progress all cases promptly and proportionately and look to fully resolve them at the earliest opportunity in line with our Quality Framework. Working independently in line with our delegation scheme, you will be expected to make nuanced and complex decisions which meet our quality standards.

You will have proven experience of successfully managing a varied workload, have excellent analytical skills, and the ability to make robust, evidenced-based decisions on complex material. You will be able to show appropriate empathy, whilst ensuring that you remain impartial.

Person specification

The successful candidate will have:

experience of analysing complex written material and identifying and summarising key issues
ability to make robust, independent decisions on varied and complex casework
effective, proactive relationship management skills at all levels, including ability to convey difficult messages in writing, by telephone and, where appropriate, face to face
good planning and organisational skills and casework management experience.

We recognise the value of lived experience. If you have experience of complaining about any public body, we strongly encourage you to apply.

Please do not use AI to write your answers. We need to assess your own analytical and communication skills, and applications may be rejected if answers appear AI-generated.

If your examples are very short, mostly opinion-based, or don’t describe a specific situation and outcome, you are unlikely to score well.

If you don’t have casework experience but are interested, we will be recruiting for our Caseworker role several times later in the year. You can set up job alerts on our careers page to keep up to date with new vacancies.

Benefits

Civil Service Pension scheme
32.5 days annual leave (plus bank holidays on top)
hybrid working, 40 percent office based
flexible working
access to a free, confidential Employee Assistance Programme offering 24/7 advice and support from professionals and counsellors
comprehensive learning and development programme
employee discount scheme across hundreds of retailers
bicycle loan scheme
season ticket loan
gym membership subsidy
paid for professional memberships
eye test reimbursement.

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 (and how to do well)

You will answer four scored questions at application stage. We use these to shortlist, so your answers matter.

choose real examples (from professional settings)
focus on what you did, not what “we” did as a group
explain your thinking: what you looked at, what you decided, and why
keep it clear and specific, avoid generic statements

Inclusion & Wellbeing

Equality, diversity, inclusion, and wellbeing are vital to the way we work and our culture. We want our colleagues feel included, valued, and supported at work. It is essential that we are representative and accessible for the people who work here and those who use our service.

Actions we take to embed this include:

an anonymised shortlisting process to make sure it is fair and unbiased
monitoring the demographic trends in our workforce and making measured, sustained efforts to improve our diversity at all levels
providing wellbeing support and opportunities for personal and professional development for all colleagues
creating spaces for connection and engagement through our employee network groups and social clubs
part of the disability confident scheme
providing reasonable adjustments
engaging in regular inclusion learning to enhance the cultural competency of our organisation.

We know the value of having diverse, representative teams across our organisation. Which is why we particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented within the team. These include people who are:

Asian, Black, Mixed Ethnicity or another ethnic background
disabled
LGBTQ

Contact and important information

If you would like to learn more about the role, please contact SCWRecruitment@ombudsman.org.uk and one of our Operations Managers will respond.

Interviews: held onsite
Feedback: we do not offer feedback at application stage
Right to work: we can only consider candidates with the right to work in the UK.
Sponsorship: we are unable to offer sponsorship (we do not have a licence).
Applications: we do not accept CVs—please apply via the application form (‘apply now’).
Agencies: no agencies; applications from individuals only.
Early closure: we may close the advert early if we receive a high volume of applications.
Salary: non negotiable

Important notice: fraudulent job postings

We have been made aware that some websites are falsely advertising job vacancies for the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO). We only advertise job vacancies through these official channels:

- our website

- LinkedIn

- Civil Service Jobs

- GOV.uk

- Indeed

- Ombudsman association

- BMEjobs.co.uk

- Disabilityjob.co.uk

- Neurodiversityjobs.co.uk

- LGBTjobs.co.uk

Do not share personal details with any other websites claiming to represent PHSO. Contact our recruitment team to report any concerns at recruitment@ombudsman.org.uk

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

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.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

Salary range

£47,796 per year