Guidance for applicants

Thanks for considering applying to work at National Star.

You can submit a CV and covering letter as part of our short application form. For help, please contact the Recruitment team on 01242 504300 or recruitment@nationalstar.org

When submitting a CV please:

• Provide your full employment history, starting with your current employer. If you are currently unemployed, please state this and then work backwards. Include part-time work, work experience and voluntary work.
• Tell us about any gaps in your work history, including dates and the reason. For example, if you were unemployed, travelling or caring for someone.
• It would be helpful to know the salary for each of your jobs.
• Please give details of all education and qualifications. If you cannot remember your grades, please state ‘pass,’ ‘fail,’ or ‘did not complete.’
• Please detail any professional courses.  Also let us know of any professional bodies that you are a member of and your level of membership.
• Tell us about any training that you think is relevant to the job you are applying for.

In your covering letter this is your chance to shine and tell us why you are the best person for the job. Highlight your strengths and how your skills and abilities meet the job requirements. No-one will meet every single desired qualification.

If your experience looks a little different from what we’ve identified and you think you can bring value to the role, we’d love to learn more about you!

Please provide the notice period you need to give your employer or the date that you would be available to begin or start working for us. It takes around 10 weeks for us to carry out all our referencing and pre-employment checks.

The recruitment process

We screen all candidates over the telephone before inviting you to a face-to-face interview or assessment day. During that call we will tell you more about the job you have applied for. We will also provide more information about the job, salary and working hours.

We will keep in touch with you via email throughout the recruitment process.

We will give you the name of a dedicated member of our HR team who will stay connected with you in the run up to your first day.

Equal opportunities

We are an equal opportunities employer and are proud to be a Disability Confident employer. We collect sensitive equal opportunities data for monitoring purposes only. If you do have a disability, please tell us. This information is not used in the shortlisting process.

Candidate checks

Safeguarding is central to the charity’s staff recruitment process.

We undertake Disclosure and Barring Service checks on all staff. You must disclose any convictions or cautions (including any final warnings or reprimands). A criminal record will not automatically debar you from a job unless the selection panels think the conviction makes you unsuitable.

If you disclose an offence, we will discuss it with you. We will consider its seriousness and nature, when it happened and how old you were when you committed the offence.

We check the adult and child barred lists and do not employ anyone who appears on either of those registers. These checks will be undertaken at regular intervals on all staff.

Find information in the DBS Code of Practice and Recruitment of Ex-offenders Policy

Discover more about our Safeguarding policy and Safeguarding procedures

Read our privacy notice for applicants

References

All job offers are subject to satisfactory references.

We take up references for paid or voluntary jobs in the past five years and any previous work with adults at risk or children. This includes work in care or nursing homes, hospitals, childcare and educational settings.

Overseas police checks

You may need to get an overseas police check if you have lived or worked abroad (paid or voluntary). It will be your responsibility to get the relevant check(s) and cover any costs incurred.

Right to work in the UK checks

We undertake checks to ensure that potential staff are eligible to work in the UK.

When we invite you for interview, we will ask for proof of your eligibility to work in the UK. This could be an in-date passport or National Identity Card.

Other pre-employment checks

We also undertake occupational health checks to ensure you are able to carry out the job you are applying for. We can then recommend any support or training you may need.