Why join the Home Office?

Colleagues have shared their insights and experiences based on their Project Support Officer journey.

“I joined the Civil Service in 2019, working in administration for Government Legal Department, but I was quickly drawn to the operational and strategic side of the work, which naturally led me down the path of Project Management and Portfolio.

In 2020 I joined the Home Office as part of a PMO team, and then in 2021 I was given the opportunity to work in the Portfolio Management Office (PMO) of the Police Uplift Programme (PUP) and I leapt at the chance to work on a major government project with huge national benefits that affected citizens of England and Wales.

The Programme is responsible for overseeing the Manifesto commitment to recruit 20,000 additional officers by March 2023. I am responsible for the reporting cycles and programme updates we forward to all our partners and interested external parties, including the Prime Minister’s Office about our progress, and to ensure we are reporting honestly at all times while reassuring them that we are delivering to the best of our capabilities.

This role requires a lot of stakeholder engagement, especially with other project departments, project leads, and auditors, along with attending police strategy meetings and planning sessions. You will need the ability to keep on top of your deadlines, there will always be another commission round the corner so it’s important not to let anything slide, but once you fall into the rhythm it’s easy to know what’s next on the list and how to proceed. Within the PMO, I am also the point of contact for review queries and assist with all departmental audits.

Working on a major programme allows me to put my project management qualifications, gained through the Home Office, into context and see how my skills can be applied even to a multi-million-pound programme. The role also offers a view into the world of policing less seen by the public, with direct engagement with staff ranging from front line officers to chief constables all across the country."

As a PSO:

• You will need a good attention to detail as lots of information flows around in a programme and you will need to work out what is usable.
• There is such a wide variety of roles available that will not only use your current skills but give you opportunities to acquire new ones.
• You will be provided with opportunities to develop your skills both through professional courses and through simply learning on the job.
• The Department has one of the most flexible hybrid working arrangements in the Civil Service so you will have a healthy work life balance.
• Everyone is extremely friendly and your colleagues will always be there for you.
• You will get the chance to join the project delivery community, networking with professionals from across the Civil Service and take advantage of unique learning opportunities.

 

James Clayton, Project Support Officer

“My interests have always been to continue my project delivery roadmap, add value and learn new things so I joined Home Office DDAT team to expand my opportunities to develop. It’s been over 2 years working for the Home Office PMO HUB supporting a Project Delivery Portfolio within DDAT. I first enjoyed leading a procurement team supporting the demands for project spending, commercial transactions within the Network & Infrastructure Portfolio as a Financial Transactions Management Lead under Capita. This role was varied and offered interesting opportunities to setup, improve processes, reduce age debt and stakeholders engagement.

During the Covid 19 Pandemic, I progressed into a new role as a Portfolio Support Lead, leading a team that supports multiple service improvements projects that is focused on IT Infrastructure and Cloud Projects including Data Centres Transfers, Password Management, Cloud Automation, Network encryption connections between Cloud & virtual networks. Each opportunity I experienced was certainly face paced, challenging and pushed my abilities to build upon my technical knowledge, digital skills and further develop my project profession in each area. The diverse teams and stakeholders I engage with on a regular basis always offered a collaborative and supportive environment and showed dedication in delivering quality in everything we supported, or products delivered.

The flexible working, training opportunities and being able to support objectives and events that you are passionate about are enormous here at the Home Office. The multiple career pathways, the support from management and my co-workers made it an interesting and easy decision to transition to a Civil Servant having previous worked in a Home Office assignment through Capita."

 

Narissa Nelson, Project Support Officer

“I joined the Project world 5 years ago as a Project Support Officer based in Southport from my previous role as a System Manager in Durham office where I had worked for 14 years. I was looking to relocate for family reasons and when I read the PSO application I thought it sounded really interesting and part of my role in Durham was supporting IT Changes so I felt the step up would be seamless.

The advert for the role does not do it justice because being a PSO is so much more depending on the Project you are supporting and your line manager. The PSO role require the individual to support and maintain finance budget, risk register, issue logs as standard but each Project brings new challengers and a lot of working out of your “comfort zone”.

I have supported some really interesting, rewarding and diverse Projects such as: 2MS move to Globe House: this was to move all HMPO staff from 2 Marsham Street into Globe House dealing with lots of different stakeholders and external contractors which was a quick way to learn more about stakeholder management. My role in this Project involved me creating desk plans and making sure all accessibility equipment was logged and installed in correct desks, ensuring all teams had correct storage and also remove and decommission redundant IT equipment making the PSO role very varied.

VIS upgrade to all the remote interview offices: This was to upgrade remote interview office laptops from windows XP to Skype for Business, this meant building the laptops in Globe House and Glasgow and in most cases physically delivering to these remote offices in the Outer Hebrides and coaching staff with new log in procedure. This included having to remove all old laptops and have them securely decommissioned along with old user accounts and learning new processes all the time, so again more varied work.

Most recent Project is the Ezri Project: our new guidance and knowledge based tool. This was an in-house project with all IT development processed by Home Office instead of outsourcing and this has been a collaboration of works which sees all updated guidance transformed into an easier user format with the added functionality of a search bar. Ezri is an exciting addition to our modern digital business and will make a significant difference in capabilities, providing examination and customer services staff a helping hand when utilising guidance. I have been lucky enough to be involved in working with new Live services for this Project, fully supported by my line manager as well as the standard PSO tasks and I have also embraced new digital learning.

Because I joined the Civil Service in my forties with little academia, I look at my PSO role as being at school and every day is different with so much diverse work to get involved in. I have worked in roles that are well out of my comfort zone but HMPO have a really good PSO community that there is always someone available to assist in any new processes. The Home Office offers really good opportunities to develop and progress into Project management if that’s a career path you’re interested in."

 

Dave Collins, Project Support Officer

I joined the Home Office in October 2020 as an Apprentice within PPD (Portfolio and Project Delivery Directorate), which operates at the heart of the Project Delivery Profession. In the past 18 months I have mainly worked in resource Contract Management and Bulk Recruitment Campaigns

Whilst working in this role I have gained an opportunity to work with the broader portfolio of Programmes across the Home Office, which gave me confidence to build up my rapport with key Stakeholders at all levels. The role also requires a lot of attention to detail especially in contract management and also requires the ability to deliver on time as well as meet deadlines.

In this role I have been provided with a great opportunity to support in filling the short/medium term Project Delivery resourcing gaps across the profession, with many of our Stakeholders being high profile programmes that are imperative to delivering the Home Office’s aims and objectives. The support that we provide to the profession is a massive source of cost avoidance for programmes – I find this very rewarding as the saved funds are spent elsewhere for the benefit of the country and its people.

In the Home Office I am provided with an opportunity to utilise hybrid working arrangements which is very helpful in achieving a healthy work life balance. My work is acknowledged and appreciated at every step which is a big motivation for me, and it also helped in boosting up my confidence levels.

I have recently finished my Apprenticeship studies and I am very excited to explore the wide array of Home Office learning and development opportunities to allow me to flourish going forward in my career.

 

Lewis Carlo, Project Support Officer