The Home Office works to build a safe, fair and prosperous UK. We achieve this through our work on counter-terrorism, policing, fire, crime, drugs policy, immigration and passports.
Immigration Enforcement is responsible for enforcing the government’s immigration laws, tackling illegal migration, removing foreign national offenders and immigration offenders from the UK. It also aims to disrupt the organised criminal groups that exploit the vulnerable for their personal gain. Learn more on our careers pages.
The role of the Operations Manager is dynamic and exciting. You will manage a mix of reactive operational situations as well as the oversight of planned compliance and assurance activity. You will be responsible for leadership and setting direction to the Home Office Compliance Team, made up of compliance and operations managers and operations and compliance officers.
The Compliance Team will be based onsite and monitor a broad range of activity, from checking the quality of cleaning and catering, to monitoring use of force and removal of residents from the IRC onto chartered flights. Always ensuring that people detained are treated humanely and with care whilst being held securely.
Working within the compliance team is both interesting and challenging. The successful candidates will work on various workstreams encompassing changing priorities, making no two days the same. Maintaining high levels of co-operation with our service providers, stakeholders, and other interested parties, and communicating effectively and professionally is a key part of operating the compliance team.
Training
You will receive full training and support to do the job. Training takes place initially in the classroom and then continues on the job with a mentor who supports you until you are fully confident in the role. Even then you are never alone; you work as part of a team where there is always someone around for advice and support. Further information on what the training involves can be found on our website.
Please note: Personal Safety Training course of SPEAR must be completed and refreshed annually. You must be physically capable of training and passing the SPEAR course.
Working pattern
Due to the business requirements of this role, it is only available on a full-time basis.
Successful candidates will need to be able to attend for all shifts including early starts, late night finishes, and overnight shifts. These shifts may be outside of public transport operating hours.
Key responsibilities
* Providing oversight of a robust monitoring schedule, ensuring robust testing of the contractual compliance of the IRC service provided. This includes providing leadership and guidance on key contractual risk areas and ensuring that the site is run properly and securely in accordance with Detention Centre Rules 2001, Operating Standards, Detention Service Orders and the contract with the private IRC Supplier.
* Providing briefing and advice about the policies and procedures of the centre to senior managers as and when required in response to parliamentary questions and other official correspondence.
* Providing effective management to a team of Senior Operations Officers, whom this role line manages, and Operations Officers, ensuring work is evenly distributed and outputs monitored. Allowing team members to deliver high performance, whilst also developing a learning culture.
* Arranging and host high profile visits and inspections to the IRC establishment as well as providing out of hours on-call support for the IRC estate nationally, providing support to local teams during incidents. This includes providing “Duty Senior Manager” cover for the IRC estate nationally during evenings and weekends.
* Representing the Home Office at a range of internal and external meetings, including operational strategy meetings, internal and external stakeholder and supplier meetings, daily capacity review meetings. You will also be supporting the Service Delivery Manager with their duties - chairing monthly operational review meetings with suppliers and in other duties such as representation at senior management meetings.
* Production of monthly reports that provide essential data and statistics about contract delivery and the population in the centre, and providing oversight in the completion and implementation of action plans from 3rd parties within agreed timescales supporting the Service Delivery Manager.
* Management of information and data, such as litigation, freedom of information requests and subject access requests. This includes leading on areas of risk management, such as risk registers, data protection and trend analysis to ensure compliance from suppliers supporting the operational management of the establishment. Supplier audits and self-audits compliance and monitoring as well as ownership of various annual reports, accuracy checks action plans and tracking are also included.
* Assisting in supporting the Service Delivery Manager signing off business cases, tracking projects and have oversight of facilities management within the IRC.
You may be required to carry out other duties within the scope of the grade and within the limits of your skill, competence, and training.
Travel and subsistence allowances will be provided in line with policy.