View Vacancy - Consular Officer A2, Las Palmas (ESP18.696)
The British Consular Network in Spain is part of a world-wide network, representing British political, economic and consular interests overseas and is now looking for a Consular Officer.
This job is also available in Alicante, Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Berne, Bordeaux, Bratislava, Brussels, Budapest, Copenhagen, Dusseldorf, Helsinki, Las Palmas, Lisbon, Luxembourg, Malaga, Marseille, Munich, Oslo, Palma, Paris, Prague, Reykjavik, Rome, Stockholm, Tallinn, Tenerife, Vienna and Warsaw as well. If you are interested in applying to more than one location (s), you should submit an application for each by searching the name of the location you are interested in and click on “Apply”.
The main purpose of the job is to help provide resilience to our consular networks across Europe. We need dynamic, well-organised people with a passion for customer service to offer clear guidance and assistance to UK nationals as the UK leaves the EU. The roles will cover many aspects of consular and the work that the Embassy leads on. Candidates should note that the functions of these will need to adapt to shifting priorities and operational objectives. The sort of responsibilities that these roles will cover will include:
- Giving UK nationals information to help them follow procedures necessary after the UK leaves the EU;
- Be a point of contact for internal and external stakeholders and colleagues;
- Receive and appropriately escalate enquiries relating to consular assistance cases;
- Notarising documents for UK nationals required by Member States;
- Providing consular support to UK nationals in hospital;
- Assisting victims of crime providing help, support and guidance;
- Providing support to British nationals arrested or detained;
- Providing a critical support function for consular and other Embassy teams;
- Ability to travel to neighbouring countries (where necessary) to offer resilience to other consular teams in the one or both of the European consular networks;
- Other tasks that support UK nationals as the UK leaves the EU.
Roles and Responsibilities:
Provide a high level of consular assistance and support to British Nationals in a range of situations including hospitalisations, death, arrest, rape and sexual assault, financial difficulties, missing persons and child custody;
Liaison with local contacts such as funeral directors, police, courts, prisons, hospital and town hall social workers as well as key stakeholders, charities and support organisations in order to provide assistance to British Nationals;
Process appointments for consular services and update information on case management received from customers and via escalated cases from the Consular Contact Centre.
- Proven customer service experience of at least three years and a strong sense of customer service delivery, including an ability to support customers in difficult or traumatic situations.
- Knowledge of the local system;
- Excellent communication and customer service skills;
- Fluency in oral and written English and in local language;
- Excellent interpersonal skills, ability to work collaboratively with colleagues throughout Europe and the UK;
- Attention to detail, strong analytical perspective and problem solving skills;
- Ability to work at pace and prioritise, managing an often heavy workload;
- IT skills (Outlook, PowerPoint, Word and Excel);
- Valid passport.
- Experience of assisting British nationals overseas;
- Experience of influencing and engaging key stakeholders and local authorities;
- An understanding of the issues that British nationals (tourists and residents) may face;
- Driving licence;
- Available to work out of hours and to travel abroad when required.
As flexibility with this role is crucial, some of the functions and tasks of the role may be reviewed and the end dates may be amended to a shorter or longer contract period - in line with local considerations.
This is a part-time position for a 6 months contract and the working hours are 18.75 hours per week. 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.
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 Spanish 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 / passport requirements: 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 be advised that Consular positions at the FCO entail dealing with casework in situations that may involve death, detention, rape, assault, post-mortems, prison visits and highly distressed customers.
Candidates should therefore have a high level of resilience to trauma
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.
FCO does not pay for travel related expense incurred in interviews (including Security Check) or accept any financial risk, including cancelation or reschedule costs. The FCO will not meet the costs connected with relocation if offered a position.
This opportunity is closed to applications.
