Consular Assistant A2 (27/20 NR) at British High Commission Nairobi

Job Description (Roles and Responsibilities)  

Main Purpose of Job

Supporting the Vice Consul Somalia and South Sudan providing consular assistance.  Manage document services, such as emergency travel documents for customers in Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan and Citizenship Ceremonies in Kenya.  Contributing to consular initiatives on prevention and crisis management.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

Services:  Manage document services including emergency travel documents and the administration of citizenship ceremonies in Kenya. Support the operational ‘cutover’ of emergency travel document processing to the ETD Centre in Madrid in November 2020.  Embed the new service thereafter, leading on printing travel documents and facilitating travel document interviews from Kenya, for the ETD Centre. 

Assistance:  Support the Vice Consul to provide remote assistance from Nairobi to vulnerable British people in difficulty in Somalia and South Sudan.  Lead on a small number of complex cases, under the supervision of the Vice Consul.   The cases are triaged and escalated as vulnerable/complex from our Consular Contact Centre by phone and email.  Vulnerable and complex cases include but are not limited to victims of forced marriage, held against will cases (mostly in Somalia), arrests/detentions, hospitalisation, victims of serious crime (including rape and sexual assault), deaths (including in suspicious circumstances) and bereavement.  

Prevention: Help British people avoid getting into difficulty through effective initiatives led by the Vice Consul Somalia and South Sudan. Monitor developments in local laws, procedures and practices (engaging both our Embassies in Juba and Mogadishu) and assist with building/maintaining key relationships remotely with relevant local authorities in country.  Support regional consular campaigns, tailoring to local circumstances where suitable.

Crisis Management:  Contribute to testing, training of crisis volunteers and tailoring the consular sections of the Crisis Management Plans for Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan. The Consular assistant will need to lean in to a crisis response, working flexibly as required, as part of the whole of mission effort.

Professionalism: Lead on a small amount of Consular procurement of goods and services.

The successful candidate will receive support from colleagues in the Nairobi Consular Team and wider Sub Saharan Consular network.  Full training is provided but the successful candidate will be capable of operating independently within the team and beyond.

The successful candidate will take a flexible approach to the challenges of consular work. Customer service skills are important for this role and previous experience in a customer-facing role will be essential.  They will need to handle distressing and upsetting situations with empathy, calm and provide clarity about what we can offer.

Core working hours are consistent and predictable but there will be the occasional out of hours requests, for which a cold call allowance is payable.

Essential qualifications, skills and experience  

• Customer service and counselling type skills.
• Experienced at self-starting on tasks and working unsupervised while keeping managers and stakeholders updated on progress regularly. 
• Relationship and network building skills and experience.

Desirable qualifications, skills and experience  

Knowledge of Kenyan, Somali and South Sudanese government regulations on immigration, law enforcement and resident services. 

Starting monthly salary ()  

Other benefits and conditions of employment  

Learning and development opportunities:

•  Essential Consular Workshop (ECW) course completed within 3 months.
• Consular development pathway e.g. consular services, prevention and customer insight.
• Consular operating systems – Casebook/BRIDGE/DVA/Crisis Hub
• Crisis response training.

Working patterns:

Monday to Thursday 7.30am-15.30pm

Friday 7.30am-12.30pm

Full-time hours required. However, flexible working arrangements welcome and can be discussed during the recruitment process.

Leave:

Members of staff are entitled to paid annual leave, which is earned, from the day they commence employment. Entitlements are as follows:

Grades A2 (L) 25 days

In addition to annual leave, the BHC normally observes no fewer than 9 and no more than 14 Kenyan and British public and religious holidays in a year. These vary from year to year and are at the discretion of the High Commissioner. A list of holidays is published each year.