Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Consular Roles)
Consular
Main purpose of job:
The British Consulate General in Sydney is part of a global network providing a wide range of consular assistance and services to British people in Australia, in line with the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office’s (FCDO) published Consular Guidance and Customer Charter, Consular Services Strategy, local procedures, guidance and performance standards.
Consular Managers have the opportunity to make a direct difference to people’s lives in challenging circumstances. The job includes dealing with extremely sensitive cases and responding to crises and stressful events. The successful candidate will be working in a fast-paced and complex environment where the ability to work under pressure and provide leadership is vital.
As the Head of the Consular Team in Sydney, you will lead, motivate and provide strategic direction to a team of consular officers in the day-to-day delivery of high quality consular assistance to British nationals visiting or residing throughout New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.
You will work collaboratively at post with the B3 Senior Pro Consul / Consular Manager (PNG, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu) to ensure your team supports them in the delivery of consular services in the Pacific Islands.
This role reports directly to and works closely with, the Consular Regional Operations Manager (located in Canberra), assisting in delivering objectives under the Consular Strategy and Australia-wide business plans.
The position also works in collaboration with the Consul General Sydney and contributes to the leadership of the Sydney Consulate General.
Roles and responsibilities / what will the jobholder be expected to achieve?:
Leadership and Management
Manage and prioritise caseload within the team ensuring operational performance measures are achieved whilst maintaining timely and accurate records using the FCDO’s consular casework system.
Effective line management of a team of Pro Consuls, setting and monitoring strategically aligned objectives. Ensure that the team are kept fully informed on the Consular Strategy, business priorities and new developments. Provide regular and honest developmental feedback.
Provide direction and guidance on complex casework for NSW / ACT, including to the B3 Senior Pro Consul / Consular Manager (PNG, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu).
Recruitment, motivation and development of the team, ensuring staff are appropriately trained and supported. Provide support to colleagues, working under pressure and in a challenging environment, creating a positive, inclusive work environment, focusing on staff wellbeing. Encourage change and innovation; ensuring teams are an exemplar of modern delivery of consular services. Recognise and reward work using the consular awards process and other tools to celebrate outstanding achievements.
Lead and contribute to the APAC Consular people and wellbeing strategy. This includes participation in reviews, workshops and overseeing the delivery of network wide initiatives that support positive outcomes.
Budget management, ensuring accurate forecasting, monitoring and reporting for the delivery of services and effective outreach and prevention activities.
Partnerships / Prevention
Build and maintain a strong network of contacts and stakeholders including local officials and authorities, friendly missions, British associations, ex-patriate groups and NGOs.
Develop, oversee and actively participate in the delivery of a programme of focussed prevention events to achieve key outcomes in line with the country business plan and consular strategy.
In partnership with other Australian posts, contribute to identifying opportunities and implementing activities to reduce the number of preventable incidents and prevent incidents from getting worse, minimising the risks and impacts to British people overseas.
Assistance and services
Oversee and provide direction on high profile and complex assistance cases, ensuring that an appropriate level of assistance is provided to customers, prioritised to those most vulnerable. Undertake prison, detention centre and hospital visits as required, and liaise with bereaved families.
Lead and provide direct assistance on a number of complex cases including speaking to and meeting with, distressed families, detainees or hospitalised persons and engage with customers with welfare and/or mental health concerns.
Manage and drive improvements to customer service delivery across the Consular Section.
Business continuity and resilience
In crisis /emergency situations work as required to support post’s / mission response and in times of peak operational demand, work flexibly within the section.
Regularly update and test the consular part of Post’s Crisis Management Plan and ensure that the Crisis Consular team is fully staffed and trained. Contribute effectively to post’s Crisis Committee and to training and exercising.
Identify opportunities to support smaller posts within the Australian network to promote equality and access to opportunities for all staff.
Resources managed (staff and expenditure):
Direct line management of a team of pro consuls.
Oversight: The B3 Senior Pro Consul / Consular Manager (PNG, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu) is a 80/20 split role. The Consular Manager NSW/ACT oversees the work contributed locally but does not have direct line management responsibility.
Manage Sydney’s consular budget, providing accurate monthly forecasts and maintain an up-to-date record of actual and planned expenditure.
Essential on arrival:
- Considerable experience working in a customer-facing environment including the ability to support clients and team members through traumatic or difficult circumstances.
- Proven ability to lead a multi-skilled team providing motivation, support and development.
- Sound judgement and an analytical approach in decision making.
- Ability to drive high quality service standards and plan and prioritise for a busy team using, critical thinking and problem solving skills, applying procedures and guidance.
- Good self-management and organisational skills, with an ability to work under pressure in challenging, stressful situations, demonstrating a high level of resilience.
- A high degree of resilience and flexibility, including working unsocial hours in an emergency.
- Proven experience of managing sensitive personal information.
- Proven ability to manage internal and external stakeholder relationships.
- Experience in producing timely and accurate written information.
- IT proficiency – Using MS Office, Outlook and ability to learn FCDO systems.
- Ability to travel within NSW and Australia as required.
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Previous experience in delivery of consular type services.
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Experience living in or understanding of the United Kingdom.
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Good understanding of local systems and support organisations.
Leading and Communicating, Collaborating and Partnering, Managing a Quality Service, Demonstrating Resilience
14 February 2021
B3 (L)
Full-time, Permanent
38
Asia Pacific
Australia
Sydney
British Consulate General
1
$ 77,739 per annum + annual leave loading and 11% superannuation (paid monthly)
1 April 2021
The role:
This is a great role which provides an excellent variety of consular work, allowing the successful incumbent to gain experience in leadership and assistance, crisis and representational and project work. You will need to be an effective manager, supportive leader and able to multitask under pressure. You will have a great deal of autonomy as the role is remotely managed from Canberra.
It is therefore important that you are a self starter and can act on your own initiative in running the consular operations and keeping stakeholders informed and engaged.
Strong networking skills are integral to success in this role and it will be important to be flexible and resilient. There are over 250,000 British nationals living in NSW, and many more regularly visit each year, meaning there is a steady demand for a wide range of consular assistance and services. Cases can often be complex and challenging, calling for sensitive and considered handling.
Building and maintaining good relations with local authorities (in particular ABF and corrections) and with colleagues at post is critical.
Working at the Sydney Consulate-General
The British Consulate General Sydney represents the UK government providing consular services to British nationals in New South Wales.
In addition to consular – policy, political as well and trade and investment activities are undertaken from this location.
Learning and development opportunities (and any specific training courses to be completed):
The British Consulate General, Sydney encourages all staff to develop their skills and capabilities through formal training (courses) and informal (job shadowing, coaching, on the job training). The majority of our formal opportunities are delivered through FCDO resources.
Mandatory, Core Consular training that must be completed successfully:
- Consular mandatory training courses (e-learning)
- Essential Consular Work (ECW) Course
- Mandatory crisis training
Additional opportunities to expand/maintain professional skills/knowledge base through informal sessions (lunch & learn, coaching, mentoring and workshops).
Due to the security clearance level required for this position, this vacancy is only open to Australian, American, British, Canadian and New Zealand citizens and must have the right to work in Australia.
Appointment is subject to an AFP records check and UK security clearance.
Staff recruited locally by the British Consulate-General and its Consulates is subject to Terms and Conditions of Service according to local Australian employment law.
The British Government supports flexible working practices. Interstate applicants will be required to meet their own travel and relocation expenses.
Working patterns:
This role is suitable for some flexible working patterns, subject to operational demands.
The role must be based in the Consulate General Sydney.
Some travel may be required for regional activities, prison visits, and resilience and training purposes. This may include interstate and/or overseas.
Consulate core hours are 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.
Due to the unplanned nature of some consular work, a flexible approach to working hours and patterns is essential.
Your application must be submitted before 23:55 AEST-Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC/ GMT +10) on the day mentioned in the above field “Application deadline”
Applications must include a current CV.
Incomplete application forms will not be taken into consideration, so please ensure you provide the information requested. We regret to advise that we will only be contacting short-listed candidates. Applicants called for an interview will be assessed on the core competencies listed above.
Advertised start date is provisional and subject to completion of reference and security checks.
Kindly check your application centre or email regularly for any update on the status of your application.
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