Advice for candidates

Role Profile and Application

Before completing your application form, please ensure you read our 'Information for Applicants' guidance. This guide will provide you with information on how to complete the application form, ensuring that your skills, knowledge and experience are aligned to the requirements of the role. Our shortlisting process involves cross referencing the skills, knowledge and experience detailed in your application form against the criteria for the role. Without this important information, your application will not progress to the interview stage.

Vetting 

If the role you are applying for requires Vetting, please ensure you read this guidance before applying.

Disability Confident Scheme

The Combined Authority is accredited under the Disability Confident Scheme. This means that as an organisation we are committed to offering a guaranteed interview to disabled applicants who demonstrate they meet the minimum essential criteria for a job role, and who indicate on their application form that they wish to be considered under the scheme. The minimum essential criteria are the criteria entered under ‘About You’ on the job advert.

If you consider yourself to be disabled as defined by the Equality Act 2010 and wish your application to be considered under the Disability Confident Scheme, please ensure you indicate this during the ‘screening’ section of the application form. Please be aware, that if you do not answer this question, but add a disability to your personal details, you will not be considered under the scheme. To protect candidate’s privacy, Recruiting Managers will only see that candidates wish to be considered under the scheme, and will not see details of the candidate’s disability that is entered into the ‘details’ section of your application.

The Disability Confident Scheme forms part of our positive action towards disabled candidates. It is important to note that there may be occasions where it is not practicable or appropriate to interview all disabled people who meet the minimum criteria for the job. In certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, employers may have the discretion to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. In these circumstances employers could select the disabled candidates who best meet the minimum criteria for the job rather than all of those that meet the minimum criteria, as they would do for non-disabled applicants. The Disability Confident website provides further details on the scheme.

If you require reasonable adjustments at any point during the recruitment process, please contact the Recruiting Manager or recruitment@westyorks-ca.gov.uk with details of the request.

Preparing for your interview

We’re keen that both you and your interviewers get the best out of the interview and have a positive experience. 

Depending on the type of role you are interviewing for, you may be asked to prepare a presentation, assessment, or simulation exercise as part of the interview. If this is the case, your ‘invite to interview’ letter will normally state this.

Before your interview, we recommend reviewing the Role Profile carefully and reflecting on how your experience aligns with the requirements of the role. Be prepared to discuss specific examples that demonstrate your suitability.

We use a competency-based recruitment and selection process. The interview focuses on different aspects of the role and typically includes a combination of questions around:

• Technical or role-specific skills.
• Behavioural competencies aligned to our organisational values.
• Situational or scenario-based questions to assess problem-solving and judgement.

Finally, prepare some questions of your own to ask the interview panel. This is your opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the role, the team and the culture at the Combined Authority – and to ensure the position is right for you. 

Visiting Wellington House 

If your interview is scheduled to take place at the offices in Wellington House, Leeds, this Visitors Guide may help you to locate and visualise the building before you arrive.  

If your interview is due to take place at another of the Combined Authority sites, for example at a Bus Station, please discuss with the recruiting manager if you require assistance with locating the site and/or any information regarding available facilities.

Our grading structure

Our roles are organised against a range of grades that go from 1 - 16. Roles at Grade 3 and above have a salary scale. We show the starting salary within the adverts only.

For ease, we have divided them up into groups: