Job Application Guidance Notes
If you need any help in completing this form, please contact the Training and Recruitment Section of Corporate and Legal Services Department on 0191 3833902. They can provide information and application forms in other formats. They can also help you to complete your form and provide details of access to County Council buildings.
Complaints
The aim of the recruitment and selection procedure is to afford every candidate a fair and appropriate process which accommodates individual needs and gives the opportunity to compete on a level playing field. We welcome any feedback on the procedure. If you feel you were not afforded this provision, then you should contact the Lead Officer, responsible for the appointment. This must be done within 5 working days of the end of the time you were told that if you hadn't heard from the council you had to assume you had been unsuccessful, or within 5 working days of being told you had been unsuccessful, or alternatively within 5 working days of receiving feedback. You should state clearly why you believe you were not given this opportunity. Should you require advice with regard to making a complaint, please contact the training and recruitment section as above.
Please read this information before completing the enclosed application form.
These notes are intended to help you complete the application form section by section. The person specification provided with the details of the post, lists the criteria against which each candidate will be assessed. Invitation for interview is based on the information contained in the Application Form - complete it in a well planned and positive way, use words such as I plan, I am responsible for. The candidates long-listed will be the ones who most closely meet the criteria. Applicants who do not meet the essential criteria on the Person Specification will not be long listed.
1. General Points
i) Please complete the form using type or black ink so that it can be photocopied (if printing the PDF).ii) Please check that the form is for the correct post and take note of the closing date, no late applications will be considered.
iii) Please ensure that you include as much relevant information as possible on the actual application form. Any information provided on CVs will not normally be considered for long-listing purposes. If little or no information is provided on the application form it will be impossible to assess your suitability and therefore progression to the short-list for interview will be unlikely.
iv) If you do not have enough space on the printed form at any point you may continue on a separate sheet of paper, however, personal details, e.g. name, should not be included on any supplementary sheets.
v) The Word document contains Rich Text fields and as a precaution is locked to stop the layout from being accidentally changed. Unfortunately, locking this document also disables the spell checker in Word. In order to use the spell checker you must first unlock the document. Click on View > Toolbars > Forms and then click on the padlock icon when it appears.
Important Note - before making any changes to text that the spell checker picks out you must lock the document again otherwise your text will be lost.
2. Front Page
The first section asks for some basic details about yourself. Please provide all the details as requested and sign the form. Please note that if you e-mail the completed form back to us, on appointment you will be asked to sign a copy of the form.i) National Insurance Number - Right to Work in the UK
The Asylum and Immigration Act of 1996 requires employers to ensure that anyone who is taken on as an employee has the right to work in the UK. The successful candidate will be asked to provide documentary proof of their right to work here. Acceptable documentary evidence is detailed below. The most usual form of proof is a document giving your NI number and name. E.g. a P45, National Insurance card or letter from a Government Agency or previous employer. However, the following are acceptable and proof will be required prior to appointment.- A document showing that you can stay indefinitely in the UK, or you have no restrictions preventing you from taking employment. This might be an endorsement in a passport or Home Office letter.
- A work permit or other approval to take employment from the Department for Education and Employment.
- A document showing that they are a UK citizen, or have the right of abode in the UK. This may be a passport, an endorsement in a passport, a birth certificate, a registration or naturalisation document or a letter from the Home Office.
- A document showing you are a national of European Economic Area country. This may be a passport or a national identity card.
- A document showing that you will be a student in the UK for more than 6 months.
ii) The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974
This enables criminal convictions to become 'spent' or ignored after a 'rehabilitation period'. A rehabilitation period is a set length of time from the date of conviction. After this period, with certain exceptions, an ex-offender is not normally obliged to mention the conviction when applying for a job or obtaining insurance, or when involved in criminal or civil proceedings. Cautions, reprimands and final warnings are considered 'spent' immediately they are given. Some jobs are exempted from this Act. If this post requires an Enhanced or Standard Disclosure (refer to advert and job description) then you should provide details of All convictions, cautions, reprimands and final warnings. Where the post is subject to an Enhanced Disclosure, other relevant non-conviction information, such as police enquiries and pending prosecutions should also be declared. If this post does not require an Enhanced or Standard Disclosure then details of 'unspent' convictions only are required. Relevant criminal convictions and other associated information will be discussed at the interview to assess job related risk.
The length of the rehabilitation period depends on the sentence given - not the offence committed. For a custodial sentence, the length of time actually served is irrelevant : the rehabilitation period is decided by the original sentence. Custodial sentences of more than two and a half years can never become spent.
| Sentence | Rehabilitation Period |
 | People aged 18 or over when convicted (People aged under 18 when convicted) |
| Prison sentences of 6 months or less | 7 years (3 ½ years) |
| Prison sentences of more than 6 months to 2 ½ years | 10 years (5 years) |
| Borstal ( abolished in 1983 ) | 7 years (7 years) |
| Detention centres ( abolished in 1988 ) | 3 years (3 years) |
| Fines Community rehabilitation order Compensation Community punishment order Community punishment & rehabilitation order Curfew orders Drug treatment and testing | 5 years (2 ½ years) |
| Absolute discharge | 6 months (6 months) |
1) Including suspended sentences, youth custody (abolished in 1988) and detention in a young offender institute.
2) Even if subsequently imprisoned for fine default. With some sentences the period varies:
| Sentence | Rehabilitation Period |
| Probation, supervision, care order, conditional discharge or bind over | 1 year or until the order expires (whichever is longer) |
| Attendance centre orders | 1 year after the order expires |
| Hospital orders (with or without a restriction order) | 5 years or 2 years after the order expires (whichever is longer) |
3. Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form
Please complete this section to enable us to monitor our recruitment process in relation to our Equal Opportunities Policy. The information you provide will be treated with the utmost confidence and will be used only for statistical purposes and to help those who are disabled. This part of the application form will be detached before the selection process begins.4. Section A
Education
Please provide full and accurate details about your education and training, paying particular attention to the grade achieved in each examination. All qualifications must be supported by relevant certificates, but please do not attach certificates, if appointed, these will be requested at a later date.5. Section B
Employment Details
Please provide details of your present post as requested. You should start by inserting the title of your present post immediately to the right of 'Present Post' and then continue with name and address of employer, grade etc. Please ensure you give us your current salary. This is followed by details of your employment. The next section asks you to explain the duties and responsibilities you currently undertake in your present post. You should clearly detail how your experience, skills and knowledge matches the requirements of the Person Specification. Please give full details as this will enable us to assess your suitability for the post for which you now apply.Additional Work
'Young Workers' (those over the minimum school leaving age but under 18) are:1) Entitled to 12 consecutive hours rest between each working day.
2) Two days' weekly rest.
3) A 30 minute in-work rest break when working longer than four and a half hours.
4) Limited to working 8 hours per day/40 hours per week.
5) Prohibited from night work between 10.00pm and 6.00am or between 11.00pm and 7.00am.
If you are successful in gaining an appointment and already have additional ongoing employment, it may be necessary to ask you to sign a waiver clause, signifying your consent to work an average of no more than 48 hours per week in your combined employment. This agreement is sought in compliance with the Working Time Regulations 1998.
6. Section C
Full Employment History
You must provide full details of all previous posts you have held, including any periods of unemployment, starting with the most recent first.7. Section D
Referees
If you do not want us to approach your referees before your interview, please indicate and we will comply with this request but you must note that appointment will be subject to satisfactory references. However, for positions in contact with children and vulnerable adults, the Council has the right to seek references from any or all previous employers and line managers prior to interview.Please note that:
1) No member of the Council will provide any testimonial for a candidate in support of an application for appointment with the Council.
2) No officer of the Council will provide any testimonial for an external candidate in support of an application for appointment with the Council.
8. Section E
Additional Information
This section is for you to provide any additional information about yourself which you feel is relevant to the post for which you now apply and which has not already been mentioned. You may wish to include your particular skills and qualities which will help us assess your suitability for the post. The skills and qualities may be demonstrated at work, on work experience or in a voluntary setting.In completing the section regarding your relationship with any Councillor or Officer of the County Council, bear in mind that failure to give this information may disqualify you from the appointment and if appointment may render you liable to dismissal without notice.
Please remember that only candidates who fulfil the requirements on the Person Specification will be considered for the vacancy. Have you checked that you match these requirements and told us how you match them?
Finally, please check that you have completed your personal details on the front cover of the application form and that you have signed it. Good luck!
Thank you for your interest in Durham County Council.
