Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Consular Roles)
Consular
The British Embassy in Spain is part of a global network representing British political, economic and consular interests overseas and is now recruiting for a Consular Officer position in Palma.
With over 300,000 British residents and 15 million British tourists annually, Spain is the Foreign & Commonwealth Office’s busiest consular operation globally. The selected candidate will assist the dynamic and professional team based in Palma, in providing a high quality consular service to vulnerable British nationals abroad.
Full induction and training will be provided to the successful candidate.
Main Duties and Responsibilities:
- Deliver first class consular assistance to vulnerable British Nationals, with a high volume of often complex casework including hospitalisations, deaths, detentions and cases of rape or sexual assault. Examples of the support required may include:
– Visiting patients and providing support to emotional families in cases of serious hospitalisation;
– Providing advice and support to bereaved families, including in cases of murder, suicide or violent/accidental deaths, accompanying to the funeral director/mortuary as required;
– Providing advice to detainees, visiting prisoners;
– Accompanying victims of sexual assault to court, police or hospital;
- Liaise with local Spanish stakeholders, such as funeral directors, police, courts and social services, as well as town halls and charities providing support and assistance to British nationals;
- Support the delivery of the Balearic prevention strategy. Activities may include engaging with a variety of local stakeholders, promoting prevention within the team and assisting in the evaluation of prevention activity at post. This may require some statistics collection, writing summary reports, delivering presentations or attending meetings with other team members;
- Set-up and co-ordinate travel, visits and meetings across the Spain North East region. Support the organisation of both face-to-face and virtual events;
- Assist in the preparation/response to a crisis situation involving large numbers of British nationals, such as forest fires, flooding, large scale accidents etc. This may require out of hours working;
- Provide office support as required, including issuing Emergency Travel Documents and dealing with customer enquiries.
- Full professional proficiency in English and Spanish, including excellent writing skills (written and spoken, minimum of C1 level for CEFR framework*);
- Excellent communication and customer service skills, including a proven ability to support customers in traumatic or difficult circumstances;
- Excellent interpersonal skills, ability to work collaboratively with colleagues in Spain, Wider Europe Network and the UK;
- Ability to liaise with and manage external stakeholder relationships;
- Attention to detail, strong analytical perspective and problem solving skills;
- Ability to work at pace and prioritise, managing an often heavy workload; excellent organisational skills;
- Good IT skills (use of Outlook, PowerPoint, Word and Excel essential);
- Key qualities are flexibility, empathy and resilience.
- University degree;
- Experience in a social work or welfare support setting;
- Experience in statistics gathering and analysis;
- Knowledge of the tourist industry in the Balearic Islands;
- An understanding of the issues that British nationals in Spain may face, both tourists and residents;
- Project and event coordination experience;
- Full driving licence;
- Based in Mallorca.
Changing and Improving, Collaborating and Partnering, Managing a Quality Service, Delivering at Pace
18 July 2021
A2 (L)
Full-time, Fixed term, with possibility of renewal
37.5
Europe, Eastern Europe & Central Asia
Spain
Palma de Mallorca
British Consulate
1
29,632.14
9 August 2021
This is a full-time fixed-term position for a duration of a maternity cover. The working hours are 37.5 hours per week (Monday to Friday; 8:00 – 16:00). Please note that in the event of a crisis there may be the need to work outside of normal working hours.
The successful candidate is subject to a confirmation of a background check, security clearance and the successful completion of a probationary period.
The successful candidate will be enrolled in the Spanish Social Security Scheme and will therefore not be entitled to any gratuity from the Embassy based on gross annual salary.
Regarding taxation, the Consulate in Mallorca is part of the British Mission in Spain, and as such supervised by the British Embassy. The Embassy is a Diplomatic Mission with tax-exempt status and does not collect taxes for other States. Employees are fully responsible for payment of income tax at the legally required rate. Staff recruited locally by the British Embassy in Spain are subject to terms and conditions of service according to local Spanish employment law
Visa/work permit requirements: Candidates must currently hold the independent right to live and work in Spain and be prepared to ensure that right remains throughout the scope of the contract.
Please note that it is your responsibility to ensure you meet the legal requirements to live and work in this country.
It is important to note that the consular caseworker role is very demanding and will entail dealing with casework in situations that may involve death, detention, rape and sexual assault and prison visits. You will be required to deal face to face with highly distressed customers who may be in shock, grieving and in a crisis situation. Candidates should therefore have a high level of resilience to trauma.
Information due to COVID-19:
- You may experience some delay in the progress of this recruitment campaign and we are working hard to minimise any disruption;
- Interviews will be done remotely if the existing situation determines this to be the right course of action;
- Starting date may be delayed depending on circumstances at the time and it will be agreed with the selected candidate.
Please note that the deadline for applications is 23:55 on the day mentioned in the above field “Application deadline”. We advise you to allow enough time to complete and submit your full application, since only applications completed and submitted before the deadline will be considered.
Please be aware that the deadline for submitting applications is considered to be the time zone for the country where the vacancy has arisen.
Please be advised that the British Consulate General will not be able to meet the travel costs incurred when travelling to the interview, nor the costs connected with relocation if offered a job.
*Please note Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment indicates Level C1 as Mastery or proficiency Level which comprehends that a person can understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts, and recognise implicit meaning; can express fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions; can use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes; can produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, showing controlled use of organisational patterns, connectors and cohesive devices. For more information please click on the following link CEFR. Please bear in mind in case you are invited for an interview your language skill is going to be assessed.
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