Tips and advice

How to complete your application form

Take the time to familiarise yourself with the post by reading the advertisement, job description and person specification.  If you have any queries, the Appointing Officer will be happy to discuss the post with you. Their contact details are contained in the advertisement.

You are advised to submit your application as soon as possible as we reserve the right to close posts at any time, once we have received sufficient applications.  We advise you to submit your application as early as possible to prevent disappointment.

Job Description - The job description contains details about the duties that you will be expected to undertake.

Person Specification - The person specification identifies the essential and desirable skills, knowledge and experience that you will need to have to undertake the role.  The shortlisting panel will study your application and look for evidence that you meet each criteria.  If you do not demonstrate that you meet all of the essential criteria in your application form, then unfortunately you will not be shortlisted for interview. 

The panel cannot make assumptions about your or your qualifications, and will only base their decision upon factual information that you have submitted.  Don’t be put off if you do not hold modern educational qualifications  (e.g. Business Administration Degree) as you may have the equivalent in evidenced work experience.  However, some roles do require formal qualifications, such as being a registered nurse and there is no equivalent experience for that, if in doubt please contact the Appointing Officer to discuss.

The person specification also provides details of how the essential and desirable criteria will be measured:

A         –          Application form                    I           –          Interview

R         –          Reference                             T          –          Test

Application Form 

The application must provide all the required information about your skills, qualifications, and career history.  The information contained within personal details and monitoring information of the form is confidential and will not be disclosed to the shortlisting panel.

Applicants must complete all sections of the form as fully as possible and declare if there is a requirement for you to have a work permit, or if you have any spent/unspent criminal convictions as required by the post, or if you have a disability.

We do not accept cv’s; either in application for or in addition to the application form so please do not copy and paste information from your cv into the supporting statement section of the application form.

If the post requires a professional registration (e.g. NMC, HPC, GMC etc) please ensure that you state on your application that you posses the required registration and give your registration number. If you do not specify this your application will not be sent for shortlisting.

When providing details of your referees, it is essential that the first referee is your current, or most recent employer.  You must ensure that you provide full contact details (postal, telephone, fax and email where available) for each referee and you should indicate whether your referees may or may not be contacted prior to interview.  Your references should cover as a minimum three years of employment, starting from your current or most recent employer.

Once submitted, you will not be able to amend your application form so please ensure that you have checked the content thoroughly.  Once you have submitted your online application you will receive an email from NHS Jobs confirming that it has been received. 

All correspondence regarding your application will be via email for those who apply online so it is essential that you check your email account regularly.  For those who complete a handwritten application form all correspondence will be via letter.

If you have any queries about completing your application form please contact the Human Resources department on 01623 673697.