Information for applicants

To ensure you're well-prepared before applying to work at CCW, we've laid out everything you need to know

Creating your application

We aim to treat everyone fairly and in our selection process will assess you based only on what you tell us in your application. Your application determines whether you’ll be invited for an interview, so please take care to match it to the job description and person specification. This helps us find the best candidates.

Please make sure to submit your application by the deadline mentioned in the job advert. We are unlikely to accept applications after that, unless there are special circumstances.

We are committed to the employment of disabled people. We guarantee an interview to anyone with a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post.

To be eligible for the guaranteed interview you must have a disability or long term health condition.

The disability or condition could be physical, sensory or mental and must be expected to last for at least 12 months. You do not have to be registered as a disabled person to apply under the scheme.

Please complete and return the relevant forms available within the vacancy.

After the deadline, we’ll review all submissions and invite the best-suited candidates for interviews based on the information in their application. So it’s really important that you clearly demonstrate your skills, the nature, extent and level of responsibilities you’ve held and how these relate to the role.

The selection panel will recommend suitable candidates and we’ll reach out to those we wish to invite for an interview.

If we make you a job offer, we’ll conduct pre-employment checks to confirm that you’re qualified and eligible for the role. Once these are satisfactory, we’ll make a formal job offer, expecting you to start as soon as possible.

Summary of terms and conditions

Our terms and conditions lay out what you can expect while applying to work at CCW.

To get more details about the qualifications and experience needed for the job you’re interested in, please refer to the person specification.

This job is open to various groups, including:

  • 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)
  • 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

Candidates must be free from any restrictions that prevent them from taking up employment in the UK.

In customer-facing roles at CCW, it’s important to communicate effectively and comfortably with the public and provide accurate advice in spoken English and/or Welsh, when necessary.

If this skill is essential for the job, we’ll assess it during the selection process.

Our standard full time working pattern is a 5-day week of 37 hours, excluding lunch breaks.

CCW operates a system of flexible working hours (FWH), which is available for most employees but may vary slightly.

Terms related to FWH include:

  • Bandwidth: 07:00 to 19:00 hours – the times between which the office is open for work.
  • Flexible lunch break: A minimum break of 30 minutes is required.

Your annual leave allowance will be 25 days plus 10½ days’ public and privilege holidays.

If you’re working part-time, this will be adjusted proportionally based on your hours worked (pro rata).

All new employees will have an induction training programme specifically prepared for them by Human Resources and their line manager. This may include working specific set hours and attending training in the office.

Due to the sensitive nature of the information you’ll handle and the need for complete independence from the water industry, you’re prohibited from owning or trading stocks or shares in any privatised or existing statutory water company.

This includes any financial interest—such as shares, debt securities (like debentures, bonds, and gilts), options, or rights to future shares or securities.

This restriction also applies to your spouse, partner, and dependent children, who are not allowed to hold any active financial interest in these companies.

Once you start your new job, you can join the Civil Service pension scheme. You’ll have a choice between two types of pensions:

Partnership:

This is a stakeholder pension with a contribution from us based on your age. We pay this regardless of whether you choose to contribute. If you do contribute, we’ll match it up to 3% of your pensionable earnings.

These contributions are in addition to the age-related contribution mentioned earlier.

Alpha:

This pension plan works on a Career Average basis, meaning your pension grows based on a percentage of your yearly earnings.

More details can be found at Civil Service Pensions.

Where appropriate, we’ll refund your travel costs for your interview at the rate of a standard rail fare or motor mileage. For cars, it’s 25p per mile (the exact mileage will be needed on the expense form). We’ll need proof of purchase for any public transport expenses.

Unfortunately, we can’t refund travel expenses into the UK.

If you need to stay overnight, accommodation expenses will also be considered. But before you book any travel that you want to claim, you will need to get written approval from the HR Manager.

Under the General Data Protection Regulations (2016), your application will solely inform our selection process unless you’re successful, in which case it becomes part of your record with us, and will be stored securely in manual and electronic files. Your data is kept in secure conditions with restricted access.

Statistical information about current and former employees may be shared with appropriate external entities for legitimate purposes.

Information that you provide on the Equal Opportunities Monitoring form will be included in a recruitment database, for statistical monitoring purposes only enabling us to monitor the effectiveness of our policy on equal opportunities in employment. You will not be identified by name.

We use a third party organisation to carry out background screening on all applicants that are successful at interview and given a formal offer of employment. We do this as a legitimate interest to ensure the suitability of applicants. Provided on your application, we share;

  • your name,
  • telephone number,
  • address; and
  • email address.

They will keep the information that you share with them for six months.

By submitting your application, you consent to your data being processed as outlined above.

We want everyone to have a fair chance, no matter their gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, beliefs, age, or family status. All applications are considered fairly based on merit.

We’ve provided diversity training for all of our employees. It helps us understand how diversity works with equal opportunities and the laws involved, so we can work well with each other and our customers.

If you think your application wasn’t handled as per the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles and you want to make a complaint, please get in touch with Zoe Phillips, Human Resources Manager at CCW, 23 Stephenson St, Birmingham, B2 4BH.

How we help water consumers

We support thousands of customers with complaints they were unable to resolve with their water company. We also carry out research on a wide range of water issues and share what we've learnt to help make the water industry better for everyone. This includes talking to the government, regulators, and water companies to make sure they think about what's best for people.
Find out more about what we do

Interested in working at CCW?

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