Job application form - guidance

All advertised roles have information provided to support your application. This includes:

• The job advert
• The job description and person specification
• Information about working with us at Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council

We will shortlist all applicants, only using the submitted application form, matching your knowledge, skills, and behaviours to the post.

Please use the application form guidance notes to help you complete your application form successfully.

Quick advice

• Read the application form guidance notes and all supporting information before starting your application
• Complete all the application form 
• Draft your application form before submitting it
• Proofread your application form
• Ask a friend to proof read your application form
• Keep a copy of your application form
• Submit your completed application form before the closing date
• We do not make assumptions about your abilities and do not consider previous applications or prior knowledge of you
• For this reason, it’s important to provide as much information as you can in support of the requirements described in the advert, job description and person specification, with examples supporting what you have done before

Should you have any queries or questions about a post, please contact Human Resources on 01455 255750 or 01455 255836.

Privacy notice

Your personal information will be processed for our legitimate interests. These include the prevention of fraud, administrative purposes or reporting potential crimes. We will consider and balance any potential impact on you and your rights under data protection and any other relevant law. Our legitimate business interests do not automatically override your interests; we will not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law).

More about how we use personal data: our data protection privacy notice

Equal opportunities

Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council is committed to achieving a workforce that reflects the diversity of our local community. 

We are committed to the fair treatment of our staff, potential staff, regardless of race, gender, religion/belief, sexual orientation, age, pregnancy/maternity, marital or civil partnership status, physical/mental disability, responsibilities for dependants or offending background.

The information you give on your application form will help us ensure equality in our services to you. We recognise that you may regard some of this information as personal and we have, therefore, included an option in most questions for ‘prefer not to say’.

We are a Disability Confident Employer. This means we work to make sure that disabled people and those with long term health conditions have opportunities to fulfil their potential and realise their aspirations.

We are committed to interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum essential criteria for the job as defined by Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council.

The Equality Act 2010 defines disability as: A physical or mental impairment that has a 'substantial' and 'long-term' negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities.

What ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ mean:

• ‘Substantial’ is more than minor or trivial, for example, it takes much longer than it usually would to complete a daily task like getting dressed
• ‘Long-term’ means 12 months or more, for example, a breathing condition that develops as a result of a lung infection

If you feel that you can carry out the requirements set out in the advert, job description and person specification, we will welcome an application to work with us.

Where possible we will make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to a job where appropriate under the Equality Act 2010.

Care Leaver Friendly Employer Charter

As a care leaver friendly employer, we offer a guaranteed interview (and constructive feedback) to applicants who identify as care experienced and meet the minimum essential criteria for the job as defined by Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council. To administer this scheme, the recruiting manager(s) will be able to see your response to this question.

Care leaver covenant FAQs

All information that we collect in relation to equality and diversity will be treated confidentially in accordance with the Data Protection Act and will be stored within the applicant tracking system. Access to this information will be restricted to staff involved in the processing and monitoring of this data. It will be used to provide statistical information only, except to meet our commitments for Disability Confident Employer and the Care Leaver Friendly Employer Charter. 

In completing your application, you consent to us using your data for this purpose.

Job application form 

These guidance notes are split into the sections which are on the application form.

A question marked with * is a required field.

Post details

Please give us details of the post that you are applying for and the post reference number. This is available on the job advert.

CV attachment

Please enclose an up-to-date CV. 

Please anonymise and remove any personal identifiers such as your name and contact details from your CV. This is to try and ensure unbiased recruitment and selection. If you decide not to anonymise your CV, you are agreeing that the recruiting managers(s) will see these personal details when assessing your application.

On your CV include details of your work experience, education, qualifications, training, professional memberships and two employment references including your most recent employer. 

Examples of the type of information we are looking for on a CV are outlined below:

Work experience

Please provide details of your current and previous employments. This does not only apply to paid work, so tell us about any voluntary work or work experience as well.

Please tell us about any gaps in your experience, and reasons for these gaps. Don’t be worried about telling us about these reasons. This is a confidential document and will only be seen by the recruiting manager(s) 

Education 

Please advise any schools, colleges, or universities you have attended.

Qualifications/training and Professional memberships

Please tell us about any qualifications, training, certificates, awards, or professional memberships you have.

Employment references

When providing your references include, the name, address, contact number and a professional or verifiable independent email address. 

If you are not currently in employment and /or your last employer cannot give you a reference because the organisation no longer exists, you should provide a reference from a professional person. 

If you have just left school, college, university, or recruitment/skills agency you should use your contact there as a referee. 

If you are self-employed, please provide recent customers details as a reference. 

References should not be provided by relatives, partners, or close friends. If you have any problems with providing references, please discuss this with Human Resources. 

If the post is to work in regulated activity with children and vulnerable adults, at least one reference should be associated with former work with children or vulnerable adults. 

Personal details

Please complete this section. Only answer yes to 'Do you work for Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council' now if you currently work with us.

Address information 

Please complete this section.

Equal opportunities 

Please complete this section. If you feel an appropriate answer is not listed, please add your preferred response under the 'any other please specify' option when available.

We are committed to interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum essential criteria for the job as defined by Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council.

Care Leaver Friendly Employer Charter

Please complete this section.

As a care leaver friendly employer, we offer a guaranteed interview (and constructive feedback) to applicants who identify as care experienced and meet the minimum essential criteria for the job as defined by Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council.

Criminal convictions and cautions

Please answer the question about criminal convictions, cautions and reprimands. 

Please be assured that declaring your offence will not necessarily bar you from employment. This will depend on the nature of the position, the nature of the offence, how long ago and at what age the offence was committed, and any factors which may be relevant. Failure to declare a conviction, caution, or pending police action, will disqualify you from appointment or result in summary dismissal if the discrepancy comes to light. 

If your conviction has become ‘spent’ under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, you need not tell us about it, unless you are applying for a job which is exempt, in which case you must tell us about it. If you have any convictions which are ‘unspent’, please tell us about them, however minor. 
The panel will then decide if it is relevant when short listing for interview.

Exceptions - Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)

There are some exceptions relating to employment and these are listed in the exceptions order to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act. If the post you are applying for involves working in regulated activity with children or vulnerable adults, you are required to reveal all convictions, both spent and unspent. This will be done with a DBS check. 

In accordance with guidance from the DBS, all posts that meet the criteria of regulated activity for work with children and vulnerable adults will require an enhanced disclosure. These checks will be completed by Human Resources on successful appointment to the post. Prior to you becoming operationally active in a post, we will have to be in receipt of a satisfactory criminal record check at the appropriate level.

If a DBS check highlights a conviction, a risk assessment will be carried out to assess the suitability of the applicant to work with children or vulnerable adults. This will be carried out by the line manager, our Health and Safety Officer and the outcome agreed by a designated safeguarding officer.

More information: 

• Check if you need to tell someone about your criminal record (GOV.UK)
• Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council Policy on the recruitment of ex-offenders (DOCX)

Further information

Please complete this section. 

Date of birth will be handled the same as other equalities opportunities data.

You must be eligible to work in the United Kingdom (UK). Your proof of eligibility to work in the UK under the Asylum and Immigration Act will be confirmed on appointment to the post. 

Candidates who apply for roles within the council must disclose any relationship (family or friendship) with a council member or a current employee when making an application.

To help us identify the most effective type of advertising please give a specific answer when confirming where you first saw the job advert.

Driving qualifications

Please complete this section.

This will only be considered as part of the recruitment process where use of a vehicle is required of the job role. Please refer to the job description and person specification to confirm if driving is required of the post.

Alternative means of transport will also be considered where reasonable adjustments can be made.

Supporting statement

This is your opportunity to show how you best fit the requirements of the post set out in the advert, job description and person specification. If too many applicants meet all the essential criteria, the shortlist will be reduced by selection of those who meet some or all the desirable criteria.

When describing your experience, please provide examples of real-life situations which demonstrate your knowledge, skills and behaviours from previous employments or transferable skills which you have developed that are relevant to the post.

It can also be a good idea to review each requirement on the person specification as you go along so that you don’t miss any essential requirements when completing your application form.

Declaration

Please complete this section to say that you have given us a true and accurate application form and that you have read all the guidance notes which are relevant to you in applying for the post.

Last updated: 01/11/2023 15:40