The application form is the first stage of the recruitment process.
Why it is important to follow these guidance notes:
South Wales Police wishes to make sure that the people it interviews are the most suitable for the job, so we have used a specially designed application form for this purpose. Reading these guidance notes will help you complete the application form correctly.
Please note if this form is not completed correctly your application may be rejected.
The following points should always be taken into consideration as they are particularly important:
- We do not accept Curriculum Vitaes (CVs) and we will not consider any received.
- Please do not send references or other prepared material as these will not be accepted at this stage.
- Please complete all sections of the application form in black ink or you may, if you wish complete the form in typed format. If you require additional space you may use A4 sized continuation sheets.
Each vacancy has specific selection criteria, which has been agreed to reflect the exact types and ranges of skills required to perform the role. These are identified in the Person Specification. You must identify and detail how you meet each criterion separately. We explain more about this below under section 4 ‘Evidencing the Skills and Qualities Required for the Job’
Please complete each section of the application form as follows:
1. Present or Most Recent Employment
In this section please detail your current or last employer. This includes the name of their business and their address. Please state the exact post held with this employer, and also provide a brief outline of the duties you perform or performed whilst employed in that post.
2. Past Employment
Please include here your last 3 years of employment history, including periods of unemployment and your current employer, starting with the most recent. This information is used to complete reference checks should you be successful in your application. In the absence of the above requirement, you can provide an educational reference or refer to any unpaid voluntary work that you may have undertaken to cover the period required.
South Wales Police reserves the right to contact any previous employer to verify information and also reject applications due to unsatisfactory references.
3. Relatives Who Work for South Wales Police
If you are related to any police officer or member of staff or member of the South Wales Police Authority you will need to declare what the relationship is and the role that they undertake within South Wales Police.
4. Evidencing the Skills and Qualities Required for the Job
This is an extremely important section. Please observe the following instructions very carefully. Failure on your part to do so may result in the rejection of your application.
The Person Specification is a list of the essential and where appropriate desirable criteria that you will need to be able to do the job. Some examples are listed below:
- Particular skills e.g. keyboard, IT
- Experience gained through work, education or voluntary work e.g. dealing with people, team working
- Knowledge e.g. educational standard, particular computer software, specific legislation
You must convince the shortlisting panel that you meet each of the selection criteria under the headings (both essential and desirable where applicable), ideally by evidencing examples of work/tasks/events you have undertaken.
Importantly, the shortlisting panel will not be given your personal details at the initial selection stage but will make a decision based upon the evidence provided in this section.
When completing this section of the form please explain how you believe you meet each specific criterion separately, as detailed in Person Specification.
For example
Must be able to demonstrate verbal and written skills
“In my previous job I was responsible answering the telephone and dealing with customer enquiries. This involved…..”
Must be IT literate and have good keyboard skills
“I use IT in my current role to …… or I use IT in education to….
Attainments - Educational Details
It is not necessary to include all qualifications attained. Only include those academic and professional qualifications that you feel are relevant to the application. However, you will be asked to produce original certificates for the qualifications listed, copies of which will be retained on file.
You may find that you repeat information when saying how you meet the different criteria. This does not matter. It is important that you show how you meet each criterion separately, regardless of what you may have said elsewhere on the form.
It would help the selection panel if you head each answer with the criteria heading like we have illustrated above, but in any case you must clearly show your answer(s) to each criterion separately. If you do not do this, your application form may not be scored against that particular criteria and may therefore be rejected. If in your evidence you make specific references to individuals, complimentary letters, relevant project work/assignments, job descriptions etc please avoid wherever possible photocopying and attaching such documents as these will not be forwarded to the shortlisting panel.
Please remember - you can also draw on skills/experience that you have gained as a result of doing voluntary work, work in your own home, or work at school/college/university, as well as in paid work, to show how you meet the selection criteria.
If you do require more space, please include this on an A4 attachment sheet, indicating clearly the relevant section you are referring to. However, please avoid inserting personal Information e.g. Name or address as such detail will be removed before the shortlisting panel conducts their initial selection.
5. Disclosure of convictions/cautions or bind-overs
The declaration on the form should also be read very carefully. Additionally, if you have been convicted or cautioned for an offence in any country or been involved in police investigations not necessarily leading to conviction/caution (including road traffic matters), please ensure you attach any relevant background information. Please note disclosure under this section is not an automatic bar to appointment and each case is assessed on an individual basis. However failure to disclose a criminal conviction/caution or involvement in a criminal investigation will result in your application being rejected on the grounds of integrity regardless of the offence. When making our decisions we are guided by NPIA Circular 1/2010 and the Association of Chief Police Officers’ National Vetting Policy for the Police Community.
Due to the level of access and sensitivity of some roles/ posts within South Wales Police, they are designated as requiring an enhanced level of vetting. If appropriate, you will be notified of this requirement during the recruitment process.
6. Financial Status
Applicants will have their financial status checked. These checks are carried out because police officers have access to privileged information, which may make them vulnerable to corruption. Applicants with outstanding County Court judgements, who have been registered bankrupt with outstanding debts, will be rejected. If you have discharged bankruptcy debts (after three years) then you will need to provide a Certificate of Satisfaction with your application. Applicants who are the subject of a current Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) will not be considered.
7. Attendance Record
You are required to declare the number of days and periods of sickness absence over the past three years. Please note that a poor attendance record is not an automatic bar to appointment, but each case is considered and assessed on an individual basis.
8. Availability for Interview
If you are unable to attend on the dates allocated for interview for a position with South Wales Police will try, where practicable to rearrange another date/time, however, please note that this is not always possible due to the exigencies of the service and panel availability.
9. Personal Details and Monitoring Information Form
This form, which contains all your personal details, should be completed in block letters. As referred to earlier, this form is not given to the shortlisting panel, so that no assumptions are made about you based on the personal information you have provided. It is simply used to monitor our recruitment procedures in terms of equal opportunities.
10. Disability
South Wales Police welcomes applications from disabled people and guarantees to interview disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria of the post applied for. For this purpose ‘disability’ means any physical or mental impairment, which has a substantial and long-term (over 12 months) adverse effect on your ability to carry out normal day to day activities.
Please note that all applicants are required to complete a comprehensive pre-employment medical questionnaire.
11. Adjustments for Applicants
Applicants who experience problems in completing the application form due to a disability are encouraged to contact the Employee Resourcing Team to discuss other methods of completion. Additionally, applicants who may require adjustments to the interview or interview location, again due to a disability, should also contact the Employee Resourcing Team as soon as possible, to enable adjustments to be made if required.
12. Acknowledgement
Receipt of completed application forms is not automatically acknowledged. If you would like acknowledgement of receipt of your application form, please enclose a stamped addressed envelope with your application.
If unsuccessful at the first attempt, please do not be deterred from applying again.
We do, however notify all applicants of the outcome of the selection process, whether or not their application is successful.
Data Protection Act 1998
The information you provide in your application form will be entered into a manual filing system and onto a computerised recruitment system and as such is covered by the rules set out by the Data Protection Act 1998. The data, including that contained in associated documents i.e. Health, Supplementary Vetting/Financial forms etc will be used to assess your suitability for employment with South Wales Police and may also involve checks against personal data held on Credit Reference Systems and Police Systems from other forces in the United Kingdom and possibly overseas.