HMICFRS Associate Rejoiners

Job summary

Location

These roles are being advertised on a national basis and are home based. The role of Associate Inspector involves some travel and occasional overnight stays as part of inspection activities. Associates must meet Home Office policy requirements for driving on business.

Available Roles

We are recruiting Associate Inspectors.

Associate Inspectors work on short term engagements across all areas of HMICFRS inspections. They bring specialist skills and provide extra resilience to help us achieve our busy policing, fire and rescue service, national and joint inspection programmes.

Job description

Eligibility

To be eligible to apply for this Associate campaign you must have completed (or will have completed by 15th December 2026) your first term on HMICFRS’s Associate Scheme.

Successful candidates will be placed on the Scheme for a second term for up to 24 months.

Associates must serve a minimum 3-month break from the end date of their first term, and their first date of their second term, and not had more than a 12-month break off the Scheme.

The anticipated start date is 15th March 2027. Therefore, you must have left the Scheme between 10th April 2026 and 15th December 2026.

Please note the anticipated start date is indicative, and it is your responsibility to ensure you have served the required 3-month break between your first and second term on the Scheme.

If you are unsure on eligibility, please contact [email removed]

If you have been an Associate but left the Scheme more than 12 months ago or haven’t previously been placed on the Associate Scheme you will need to apply via a future generic Associate recruitment campaign.

If you were an Associate for a total of 4 years when you left the Scheme (i.e., you had completed your second term), you will not be eligible to apply for this campaign. 12 months must have passed before you can apply for any future, generic Associate campaigns.

In addition, if you currently work for HMICFRS or have previously worked for us as a secondee, you must have a minimum break of two weeks between leaving HMICFRS and starting as an Associate.

If you currently work for HMICFRS or have previously worked for us as a permanent member of staff or on a fixed-term appointment (FTA) in a role with similar duties, you must have a minimum break of three months between leaving HMICFRS and starting as an Associate.

If, however you currently work for HMICFRS or have previously worked for us as a permanent member of staff or on a FTA in a role that involves different duties, a minimum break of 6 weeks is required.

Conflicts of interests

As part of our pre-employment checks, we will conduct a Conflict of Interest (COI) review. Our aim in collecting COI information is to ensure transparency and to manage any perceived, potential, or actual conflicts fairly and proportionately.

Declaring a conflict does not mean you will be excluded from joining the Associate Scheme. Instead, it allows us to apply appropriate mitigations, so that you can contribute effectively while maintaining the integrity of our inspections.

Please note the following criteria on eligibility for joining the Associate Scheme:

• If you are a current police officer (irrespective of full time or part time), you are not eligible to join the Associate Scheme.
• If you are employed full time in any capacity, including within a police force, a fire and rescue service, or any of our inspected sectors, you are not eligible to join the Associate Scheme, as an Associate inspector. For Associate editors and proofreaders, you are eligible to apply, however, your eligibility will be considered on a case-by-case basis as part of our COI process.

If you are working in any of the following your eligibility will be considered on a case-by-case basis as part of our COI process:

Special Constables or on-call firefighters.

• Part time in a police or fire staff role, part time firefighter, or part‑time in any of our inspected sectors.
• In a consultancy capacity within any of our inspected sectors.

If it is determined that you are not deployable due to identified actual or perceived conflicts, your application will be withdrawn.

In line with the Home Office multiple assignment policy, you cannot hold two Home Office contracts. Therefore, if you are successful but already hold a Home Office contract, you cannot be added to the Associate Scheme. You will need to decide whether to withdraw your application for the Associate Scheme, or cease your current Home Office employment.

Please be aware that we reserve the right to withdraw your application at any stage of the recruitment process if it is determined that you do not meet the eligibility criteria outlined in this advert.By submitting your application, you confirm that you understand all details set out in this advert.

Our Associate Scheme

Whilst on engagement with HMICFRS, Associates are classed as “workers”, not employees or Civil Servants. If you are successful, you will be added to the Associate Scheme for a period of up to 24 months.

An engagement is an agreement between HMICFRS and the Associate that requires the Associate to perform the role personally.

While we endeavour to make sure Associates are offered engagements while on the Scheme, there is no guarantee of receiving an offer of engagement as a worker in HMICFRS.

During your time on the Scheme, you may be allocated short-term engagements for inspection or other project-based work. The engagement you will be offered depends on business need, skillset and/or level of role and leadership required.

The agreement sets out the terms and conditions upon which the Associate is required to carry out duties, and specifies the responsibilities, timing, duration and remuneration for the work to be carried out.

The engagement you will be offered depends on business need, skillset and/or level of role and leadership required.

Being placed on the Associate Scheme is not a guarantee of receiving an offer of engagement as a worker in HMICFRS.

HMICFRS reserve the right to withdraw you from the Associate Scheme at any point.

Job description: Associate inspectors

Associate inspectors work on short-term engagements across all areas of HMICFRS’s inspections. They bring specialist skills and provide extra resilience to help us achieve our busy policing, fire and rescue service, national and joint inspection programmes.

Responsibilities of an Associate inspector

As an Associate inspector, you will be required to help support with inspections across HMICFRS. The main responsibilities will be as follows:

• Act as an ambassador for HMICFRS, observing the organisation’s standards and values at all times.
• Provide advice and guidance to HMICFRS on the subject matter within your specialist area of expertise, based on your knowledge and experience.
• Work with colleagues across the organisation to promote HMICFRS’s objectives and purpose.
• Collaborate with inspection teams to prepare inspections.
• Carry out inspection fieldwork and evidence gathering (e.g., focus groups, interviews, reality testing) to a consistently high standard and record the evidence gathered in line with organisational processes and standards.
• Support inspection leads and make sure that the right type of evidence is gathered, including briefing inspection teams before inspection, analysing data, drawing conclusions and drafting reports.