Civil Service Behaviours Framework: All 9, Level by Level

EO: Seeing the Big Picture, worked application (110 words)

I run the events programme at a borough library service. Our team measure was attendance. The council's corporate plan named digital exclusion as a priority, so I asked our data officer which wards had the lowest online claim rates. Two of them had no library session at all. I moved two of my four monthly sessions to those wards. I swapped the format from craft to form-filling help, after asking three regular users what they struggled with. Attendance dipped by 12 in month one, then rose. In six months the two new sessions supported 214 residents with online claims, and adult social care now sends its clients to us directly.

AO: Changing and Improving, worked application (112 words)

I work on reception at a GP practice with 9,400 patients. Our repeat prescription slips were handwritten and came back unreadable, so we were ringing patients to check them. I counted the callbacks for two weeks and logged 63. I drafted a tick-box slip with the practice pharmacist and tested it with twenty patients at the desk. I changed the layout twice after they told me the boxes were too small. I asked the two receptionists who dislike new forms what would make it worse, and fixed both points before we printed it. Callbacks fell to 11 a fortnight, and the slip is now on the practice website as a printable form.

HEO: Making Effective Decisions, worked application (124 words)

I manage a housing benefit assessment team of eight at a unitary council. In March 2026 we found that a supported housing provider had been billing an ineligible service charge across 46 claims. Recovering it in full would have forced arrears on tenants who had done nothing wrong. I set out three options with costs: full recovery, write-off, and recovery from the provider with a phased tenant element. I took legal advice on the second, and asked the provider for its own figures before deciding. I recommended the third, wrote the reasoning in one page for our head of revenues, and flagged the risk that other providers would ask for the same treatment. It was accepted, and two providers have since corrected charges voluntarily.

SEO: Leadership, worked application (120 words)

I run a waste and recycling depot with 64 operatives and four supervisors. After a round change in 2025, two crews began refusing to work with a new colleague, and the language used about him in the yard was racist. I dealt with it the same morning. I spoke to him first and asked what he wanted to happen, then held a toolbox talk naming the behaviour rather than hinting at it. I started disciplinary action on two operatives and told the supervisors plainly that ignoring it was a management failure, including mine. I then changed how new starters are introduced, pairing each one with a named buddy for four weeks. He is still with us and now buddies others.

Grade 7: Communicating and Influencing, worked application (121 words)

I lead development management at a district planning authority. In 2026 we had to tell a parish that a scheme it had opposed for two years would be approved. The case officer was being abused at meetings. I went to the parish hall myself rather than sending a letter. I set out the three tests the decision turned on in plain language. I showed which of their objections had changed the conditions, and named the two that carried no planning weight. I did not soften that part. I offered the parish council a pre-application briefing on the next two sites in return. Attendance at the follow-up session doubled, and the parish now submits comments against the tests rather than around them.

EO: Working Together, worked application (114 words)

I process payroll for 2,300 staff in a shared service covering three academy trusts. Each trust sent starter data in its own format, and October is the month we always get wrong. I asked for thirty minutes with the school business manager at each trust, which nobody in my team had done before. Two of them did not know we needed a start date before the cut-off, because our guidance never said so. We agreed one shared spreadsheet and I wrote a one-page note in their language, not ours. I also told my manager I could not run this alongside year end without dropping the arrears report. October errors fell from 38 to 6.

HEO: Developing Self and Others, worked application (116 words)

I lead a customer contact team of fourteen at a water company. Two team leaders were due to retire within a year and nobody was ready to replace them. I mapped the skills each role actually needed, then asked all fourteen what they wanted, rather than picking the two obvious candidates. Three people wanted the route, including an adviser working part time who assumed it was closed to her. I built a rota so each of the three chaired one shift a week. I coached them for an hour a fortnight, and swapped my own coaching for feedback on my briefings. Two are now team leaders, one of them part time, which is a first here.

SEO: Managing a Quality Service, worked application (111 words)

I manage the register office for a county council: births, deaths, marriages and citizenship. Death registration appointments were running at eleven days, which is past the legal window families are asked to meet. I rebuilt the week around the statutory duty first, protecting four death appointments every morning before anything else was booked. I added a Saturday ceremony slot to pay for the extra cover, and asked two funeral directors to tell me when our slots did not fit their families. I published the wait on our website so nobody had to ring to ask. The wait fell to three days inside two months and has held there for a year.

Grade 7: Delivering at Pace, worked application (116 words)

I led a household support grant programme worth 4.1 million pounds, with a nine-week window and eleven delivery partners. Two partners told me in week two that they could not spend their allocation. I did not wait for the mid-point review. I reallocated to the four partners with waiting lists. I set a weekly spend return of three lines rather than a report, and bought in two agency assessors for six weeks. I told the partners which measure I would judge them on and published the running total to all eleven. We paid 9,700 households inside the window, returned nothing to the department, and the three-line return is now the standard format for the next round.