Customer Charters

Recruitment

South Ayrshire Council is committed to providing the best possible recruitment service and is working to remove any barriers to equality of opportunity at all stages of the recruitment process.

Our commitment to you as a job applicant is:

  • We will treat you in a polite, helpful and friendly manner at all times.
  • When we write to you, we will give you the name and telephone number of the member of staff who will deal with enquiries.
  • We will treat the information you provide in confidence. Your application form will only be seen by Personnel staff and those managers in the department involved in the recruitment procedure.
  • We will normally send you an application form the day we receive your request or at the latest, the next day.
  • We will acknowledge your application in writing, on the day we receive it or the next day at the latest.
  • Every applicant must complete the standard application form. We can provide a large print or audio version and will accept a CV from visually impaired applicants which gives all the information requested on the application form.
  • Any disabled applicant who meets the minimum criteria for the job vacancy will be invited for interview.
  • We will normally advise you if you are being invited for interview within 2 weeks of the closing date for the post. (For certain posts, the timescale may be extended).
  • We will give you appropriate notice of the date of the interview. However, if you are asked to make a presentation to the interviewing panel, we will give you a minimum of 1 week's notice.
  • We will be pleased to make any particular arrangements you need to enable you to attend the interview, for example a location with a ramp access, a sign language interpreter or information in large print.
  • We ask you to provide personal details such as first name, date of birth, gender, ethnic origin on the Equalities Monitoring Form. This information is not revealed to the selection panel but used to monitor our process. When you sign the application form, you can use only your initials and surname if you so wish.
  • The information which you provide in your application form will play a vital part in deciding whether you will be called for interview, so it is important that you take your time to complete it as fully and accurately as possible. Often applicants do not give enough information about themselves and their experience.
  • If you are invited to an interview, we will contact your referees prior to the interview date.
  • After interview, we will contact the successful applicant as soon as possible and normally within 5 working days. For certain posts for example, within Education, Culture & Lifelong Learning or Social Work, Housing & Health, an offer may be subject to a Disclosure Scotland check which may result in an alteration to this timescale.
  • If you have been unsuccessful at interview, we will normally advise you within 2 weeks.

We are committed to achieving the standards we have set and to acting on feedback from our customers. If you feel dissatisfied with the service you have received, please write to me at the address below and I will investigate the matter and reply direct to you.

Service Standards

  1. Issue of Application Forms Same day as requested, or at the latest the next day.
  2. Acknowledgement of Application Forms Same day as received or at the latest, the next day.
  3. Advised of the outcome. Normally within 2 weeks of closing date of shortlisting for applications for the post.
  4. Notice of Interview. Normally no less than 7 days notice of the date of the interview.
  5. Offer of Appointment Normally within 5 working days of the interview, reply requested no later than 5 working days.
  6. Advised if unsuccessful Normally within 2 weeks of interview.

Head of Human Resources
South Ayrshire Council
County Buildings
Wellington Square
Ayr, KA7 1DR