26.139 HR Business Partner

About the Department

DBS was established under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 on 1 December 2012, working from two sites, which are Liverpool and Darlington. We operate on behalf of government delivering Disclosure functions in England, Wales, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, and Barring functions for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. We function within a framework of legal and regulatory requirements and that includes work with a range of external organisations including other government departments, regulators, and trade bodies.

We provide a service that enables organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors to make better informed, safer recruitment and other decisions. We do this by providing information to enable them to determine whether individuals are unsuitable or unable to undertake certain work, particularly with occupations involving regular contact with vulnerable groups, including children.

Our Strategy

Our current Strategy sets out our purpose, vision, and the impacts we want to achieve. Our strategy was co-created with our staff and has been supported by insight from our various partners, and throughout, you will find our ambitions to be achieved. Everything that we do within DBS, from developing our strategic intent, to the day-to-day operational delivery of our services, is underpinned by constant considerations of safeguarding, quality, sustainability, value for money, and diversity and inclusion. Our strategic objectives aim to enhance our effectiveness, influence, and customer satisfaction while fostering a supportive environment for everyone.

Equality, Diversion, and Inclusion at DBS

DBS is committed to fostering an environment that values individual differences and ensures fair treatment to unlock the full potential of staff and better support customers. Equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) are core to driving organisational success and we have developed specific equality objectives for DBS.

Every decision and activity will be considered through an EDI lens, aiming to build an inclusive culture, improve policies and practices, gain external assurances, and become a leading voice of good practice in EDI.

Read More

For further information, please see below for a collection of DBS strategies and business plans:

• DBS strategies - GOV.UK
• DBS business plans - GOV.UK

A key member of the People & Inclusion Team, HR Business Partners deliver a highly proactive partnering service to senior leaders, ensuring that people remain at the heart of DBS. The role plays a key role in building organisational and people capability, working collaboratively to deliver positive and significant change by shaping and implementing effective people strategies to help achieve our DBS strategy.

• Build and maintain strong customer relationships with key internal and external stakeholders. This includes but not limited to Directors and Directorate Management teams, external Legal providers and representing DBS in cross Government initiatives/forums.
• Partner the Senior Leadership team at Directorate Management meetings, acting as the trusted confident and key link between the directorate and the People & Inclusion team.
• Be the commissioning role within the People & Inclusion team, that act as the people expert for their business area implementing specific people approaches including but not limited to learning, development and talent interventions for business areas.
• Act as a change agent, helping to build the future in line with organisational priorities and leading initiatives with senior leaders/teams including but not limited to TUPE, restructuring and redundancy.
• Providing specialist advice on escalated complex employee relations casework and employee tribunal matters.
• Provide challenge and appropriate support and guidance on a range of areas including: workforce planning, talent management, organisation design, performance management, organisational change and leadership development
• Be the People subject matter expert on DBS projects which may extend to all DBS products and services .
• Be the critical friend to DBS, ensuring business intelligence from internal and external stakeholders is shared with Organisational Development colleagues, to ensure that DBS policies and procedures are fit for purpose and inclusive.
• Develop and analyse management information to inform business decisions around people management and achieve KPI / targets.
• People lead on workforce planning, maintaining regular engagement with senior leaders to plan and manage the effective use of resources to meet current and future operational business needs, focusing on both workforce MI to achieve the correct numbers and capability development/talent strategies to achieve the right skills.
• Provide FTE/headcount approval for the management of vacancies, working with the People Services team to ensure recruitment plans are appropriate, offer value for money, have best reach and attract a diverse candidate pool.
• Influence managers to make informed decisions in relation to the attraction and retention of candidates, through the use of Job Evaluation and labour market intelligence.
• Support union negotiations including but not limited to, implementation of change initiatives, ER agreements, terms and conditions etc in accordance with the Employee Relations Framework.
• Working collaboratively with the Academy team to develop talent management and succession planning pipelines which develop and maximise organisational capabilities.
• Use coaching skills to guide senior leaders in developing robust performance management strategies, building the capability of managers to anticipate and pre-empt organisational issues.

Corporate Duties:

• Produce reports for SLT on People & Inclusion initiatives, providing insight and making recommendations. Adhering to the relevant governance arrangements and providing reporting and information for the relevant governance groups such as People Steering Group.
• Act as a role model for our Equality and Diversity agenda, creating an inclusive environment that is safe and trusting; where people feel valued, have a voice and act with autonomy.
• Manage health and safety issues in your area of responsibility in line with the relevant section(s) of the relevant Health and Safety Policy.

Confidentiality

As a Public Servant, employees have a duty to protect official information entrusted to them. Employees must not give another person or organisation official or confidential information concerning DBS’ business affairs, internal processes or trade secrets to which they have access during the course of their employment. This restriction also applies after employees have left the organisation.

Equal Opportunities

Required to comply with the DBS’s equal opportunities policies and procedures showing an understanding of and commitment to diversity, and how it applies to this role.

Health and Safety

Required to comply with the requirements of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (and associated legislation); to take reasonable care of an employees and others health and safety.

Further Information:

Part-Time hours available = 29.6 hours per week.

To view the DBS Recruitment and On-boarding Privacy Notice, please click the link below:

DBS Recruitment and On-boarding Privacy Notice - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

This privacy notice covers personal data collected during the recruitment, security clearance and on-boarding process.

Level 7 CIPD qualification and/or Chartered status

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

To apply for this role, please provide a CV along with a Personal Statement of no more than 500 words outlining how your skills, experience and qualifications meet the requirements of the role, including all essential and desirable criteria.

Please also provide behaviour examples for:

• Working Together
• Seeing the Big Picture

If a large number of applications are received, the sift may base solely on the C.V. & Personal statement.

Candidates successful at the sift stage will be invited to attend an interview which will include a presentation and will assess the following behaviours:

• Changing and Improving

Further details on the presentation topic and the assessed behaviour will be provided to shortlisted candidates invited to interview.

The Interview will also assess the following behaviours via questions:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Managing a Quality Service

Interviews will be held virtually via MS Teams.

The following timetable outlines indicative dates. Please note, these dates may be subject to change without prior notice.

Advert closing date: Monday 2nd November at 10am.

The initial candidate sift is due to take place week commencing 2nd November 2026.

Interviews are due to take place week commencing 9th November 2026.

Whilst we will endeavour to provide some flexibility with regards to dates wherever possible, it is unlikely that we will be able to offer an alternative date once an appointment has been scheduled.

Please note, the above dates may be subject to change.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.