Guidance for Applicants - Independent Lay Assessor Recruitment - 2021

Background to the recruitment of Independent Lay Assessors

Deloitte is the independent recruitment agent managing key stages of the recruitment process for Police Officers (Student Officers / Constables) on behalf of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). Outsourced recruitment / selection is a requirement of The Police (Recruitment) (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2001.

Regulation 9 of The Police (Recruitment) (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2001 (as amended), sets out the requirement for the PSNI’s independent recruitment agent to establish a pool of Lay Assessors. The legislative requirement follows a recommendation of lay involvement in the Report of the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland: Implementation Plan (The Patten Commission). 

A key purpose of the use of Lay Assessors is to improve community understanding of the police recruitment process. Lay Assessors, representative of the community as a whole, will contribute fully to all aspects of the recruitment process and play a decision-making role. They will work alongside professional assessors, selecting applicants to form a pool of qualified applicants for Police Officer roles. 

In keeping with the spirit of the original Patten recommendations, Deloitte is now seeking to expand its current panel, ensuring that we have a truly diverse panel of Lay Assessors, representative of all communities. 

The Role of Independent Lay Assessor 

As a Lay Assessor with Deloitte you will work alongside professional assessors to play a decision-making role selecting candidates for the role of Police Officer. Primarily, you will be involved in assessing applicants during recruitment campaigns held to recruit Student Officers who will go on to serve as Police Constables. More detail on the recruitment campaigns Lay Assessors support is available via www.joinpsni.co.uk/police-officer.

No prior experience is required. You will undergo comprehensive training in the latest recruitment and selection methodology and gain up to date skills in assessing candidates against key competencies. 

The recruitment campaigns you will work on are held intermittently, so the role is a flexible / casual one you may be able to fit in alongside your other commitments. As a guide, over recent years the Lay Assessor panel has been engaged occasionally (on approximately 3-4-month campaigns) across 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2020. The next Student Officer recruitment process is due to start in Autumn 2021 and it is expected Lay Assessors will next be required during the early months of 2022. 

As a Lay Assessor you will act as an independent assessor. It may require you to work during the day, evening or at the weekend. We will consider your availability and will aim to be as flexible as possible around scheduling you to sessions that suit you. In terms of your availability, there is no minimum commitment requirement, however we would recommend that you would have flexibility to be able to offer at least five days of your time per year. As a guide, the panel members with the highest availability can achieve up to 20 days’ engagement per year. (N.B. There is however no guarantee that you will be engaged for a specified number of days per year). You need to be willing to travel to assessment venues across Northern Ireland, with the majority of assessment sessions happening in the Belfast area. 

Your role as Lay Assessor will see you involved at a key stage in the PSNI recruitment process including: 

  • Attending Assessment Centres 
  • Working with professional assessors in assessing roleplays, marking written exercises 
  • Supporting the process of verifying candidate eligibility (e.g. checking ID and education qualifications)
  • Assisting with general administrative tasks associated with testing and assessment 

Before being deployed, Lay Assessors will go through rigorous training on the selection and assessment processes and protocols delivered by Deloitte’s qualified trainers. Training will be carried out which will expose assessors to practical examples of the assessment exercises, using the rating guides to rate actual performance and Lay Assessors will also become familiar with the five main skills of assessment; observing, note taking, classification, rating and discussing. 

Once fully trained, Lay Assessors will play a full part in the process of selecting future Student Officers. As well as having an important decision-making role in the PSNI selection process, Lay Assessors will act as ambassadors for PSNI recruitment. As one of the key interfaces between PSNI candidates and the overall recruitment process, Lay Assessors have an important role in ensuring PSNI candidates are positively impacted upon meeting them. 2 Guidance for Applicants Independent Lay Assessors Recruitment 2021 

Role Requirements 

It is crucial that assessment decisions made during future PSNI recruitment campaigns continue to be perceived as objective, consistent and based on a sound assessment methodology. To ensure that appropriate people are recruited to help achieve this, Deloitte will use a rigorous and challenging assessment and selection process for recruiting Lay Assessors. We do not seek previous experience in or knowledge of assessment, instead Lay Assessors will demonstrate an understanding of the principles of assessment and how to apply them to the assessment exercises used at Assessment Centres. Our Lay Assessor assessment and selection process will interrogate this. 

The key personal competencies that will make a successful Lay Assessor include: 

  • Professionalism 
  • Strong interpersonal skills 
  • Objectivity and consistency 
  • Excellent team working skills 
  • Strong customer orientation 
  • Impartial judgement 
  • Decision-making skills 
  • Discretion and ability to exercise complete confidentiality 

In addition, we would expect our Lay Assessors to understand and uphold the core values and behaviours outlined in the Competency Values Framework for Policing Professionals (CVF)*. 

Values: 

  • Impartiality 
  • Integrity 
  • Public Service 
  • Transparency Competencies: 
  • We analyse critically 
  • We are innovative and open-minded 
  • We are emotionally aware 
  • We take ownership 
  • We are collaborative 
  • We deliver, support and inspire 

For more information on the CVF, click here

*Source: College of Policing Ltd. 

Contains information licensed under the Non-Commercial College Licence 

Recruitment Process and Eligibility 

Recruitment Timeline 

Lay_Assessor_Recruitment_Process.JPG

Recruitment Process and Eligibility

Eligibility Criteria 

The following essential criteria will be used to screen your application to ensure you are eligible to apply: 

Date of Birth: 

  • You must confirm that you will be 18 years of age by 10th September 2021. 

Nationality: You must ensure that you are legally entitled to work in the United Kingdom and satisfy the Nationality requirements for appointment. Please note that successful applicants will be subject to a Nationality verification check before appointment. You must meet one of the following criteria: 

  • Be a National of the UK, Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland or be a National of the EEA with settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme with unrestricted entitlement to work 
  • Be a National from outside the UK/Republic of Ireland, but have limited leave to remain in the UK 

If you are unsure of your entitlement to work as a Lay Assessor we recommend that you consider information provided by the UK Visas and Immigration service - https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-visas-and-immigration 

Excluded from serving as a Lay Assessor: Please note that, as per legislation, the following are excluded from serving as a Lay Assessor: 

  • Serving Officers or Staff of the Police Service of Northern Ireland 
  • Staff or members of the Northern Ireland Policing Board 
  • Members of a Policing and Community Safety Partnership 

In addition, those who wish to apply to the Autumn 2021 Police Service of Northern Ireland Student Officer recruitment process (or a close relative of someone such) will not be permitted to serve as a Lay Assessor. 

Application Form 

You will be asked to complete an application. The application form requires your personal information, including email address and contact number. Please ONLY use the space provided to provide your response and DO NOT adjust the layout of the application form. CVs will not be accepted.

Reasonable Adjustment Needs (relating to disability) 

We welcome applications from all. For the effective operation of the recruitment process, we need you to tell us if you have any adjustment needs that may require us to make reasonable adjustments so that you can attend and participate. For example, you should make us aware of any communication or access needs that relate to a disability or condition you may have. This includes hidden disabilities such as Autism Spectrum Disorder, and specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia. Please note that you are not required to tell us of any disability or condition that you may have if you do not wish to do so. Any information declared will be used only to facilitate the scheduling and testing of candidates. 

Submitting your Application: Please note you must complete the application form fully. By submitting your application form by email you are confirming that the statements contained within it are, to the best of your knowledge, true and complete in every respect and that no material facts have been withheld, misrepresented or suppressed. You may be asked to sign your application in person if offered a role. 5 Guidance for Applicants Independent Lay Assessors Recruitment 2021 

Equality Monitoring Form

In line with best practice and to develop a community background profile of our pool of Lay Assessors, you are asked to complete and return the Equality Monitoring form. The questions in this form are in accordance with the Fair Employment & Treatment (NI) Order 1998 and the Fair Employment (Monitoring) Regulations 1999. It is a criminal offence under the legislation for a person to give false information in connection with the preparation of a monitoring form. You should email your completed Equality Monitoring Form along with your application to layassessors@deloitte.co.uk. The Equality Monitoring Form will be kept separate from your application once application emails have been processed. 

The information you provide in the Equality Monitoring form will be treated in the strictest confidence and will not be used in assessing your suitability to enter the panel of Lay Assessors, which is based entirely on merit. 

Completing and returning documents 

Please complete all sections of the Application form and Equality Monitoring form. Please do not leave any sections blank and input N/A (not applicable) where appropriate. 

The first stage of your application is to return your completed Application form and Equality Monitoring form. You should email your completed documents back to us to arrive no later than 12 Noon on Friday 10th September 2021. It is your responsibility to ensure that your application reaches us on time and Deloitte cannot take any responsibility for failure in the email transfer of your application to us. Late applications or incomplete applications will not be considered. We will not accept applications in person or by post. 

Please do not include any unrequested additional information with your application form, only the information that is stated on the application form will be considered. CVs are not accepted. Please ONLY use the space provided to provide your answers and DO NOT adjust the layout of the application form. When we receive your application, we will review it against the essential criteria and, provided that you meet these, we will contact you by email with a date and time for an initial assessment. 

Candidate Charter 

Applicants to the role of Lay Assessor are asked to consider and where applicable comply with all details and requirements as laid out in our Candidate Charter. 

Police Vetting and Deloitte On-boarding Process Given the sensitive nature of the process of recruiting Police Officers in Northern Ireland it is essential that Lay Assessors are of upstanding character and judged to be fit and proper for the role. As such candidates who are successful in the testing and assessment process will have to participate in a rigorous Police Vetting and Deloitte On-Boarding process. Full details of this stage of the process will be made available to those who are to undertake this stage. 

Training 

Once the final pool of Lay Assessors has been chosen, they will attend relevant training. This training will last approximately two days for each campaign and will likely take place online. Successful Lay Assessors must be available for training prior to each campaign. You will be paid to attend training. 6 Guidance for Applicants Independent Lay Assessors Recruitment 2021 

Remuneration / Terms 

Independent Lay Assessors will be paid a fee of £200 per full assessment or training day, and £100 per half assessment or training day, or pro-rata by mutual agreement depending on the length of the session. No additional expenses will be payable and Lay Assessors will be expected to pay for any travel, car-parking or subsistence costs associated with attendance themselves. It is anticipated that the Independent Lay Assessor will be required to submit invoices in relation to their work and payment will be on a monthly basis, however, this is currently under review. The Independent Lay Assessor is expected to bear exclusive responsibility for the payment of his / her national insurance contributions and for the discharge of any income tax and VAT liability arising out of remuneration for the work performed by him / her as an Independent Lay Assessor. Exact contracting arrangements / tenure are currently under review. The status of the terms between Deloitte and the Independent Lay Assessor are yet to be finalised. Full details will be provided when available before on-boarding. 7 Guidance for Applicants Independent Lay Assessors Recruitment 2021 

Testing and Assessment Process 

Once the essential criteria have been met, the process of recruiting Lay Assessors involves applicants completing an online test. It is anticipated that this will be conducted online via Collaborative Video call (e.g. Zoom). Participants will be expected to attend a group session online to complete the test. 

This two-part assessor test will be used to assess skills in: 

  • observing 
  • recording 
  • analysing 
  • evaluating 

This stage will take place in September 2021 and each session will last approximately one and a half to two hours. 

Should there be a high volume of applicants, we reserve the right to hold a second stage competency-based interview or alternative sift. This will be confirmed following completion of the online test and is anticipated to take place at the end of September. 

Attendees for testing / assessment will be required to show valid photographic identification. The following are accepted: 

  • Passport 
  • Driving licence (with photograph) 
  • Northern Ireland electoral identity card 
  • EU National identity card 
  • HM Forces identity card 
  • Citizen Card 

Communications

The primary and preferred means of communication between Deloitte and Lay Assessor candidates will be by email and as such you should ensure that you have a fully functioning email address. Please ensure you add our address to your contacts list and check your inbox (and just to be sure your junk mail folder) regularly. Please note that it is a condition of your application that you raise any concerns immediately (and not later than seven calendar days) after the issue happens. In the case of an issue arising during a selection event or test, you must raise the matter with the lead administrator immediately so that we can deal with it on the day. Any concerns must be submitted formally by email. Please note, any appeals lodged after results have been issued will not be considered. 

layassessors@deloitte.co.uk

Privacy

We will handle your personal information in a secure and sensitive way, in line with applicable regulations.

Please see below for further information on our privacy policy:

Lay Assessor Recruitment 2021 Privacy Policy