Civil service fast stream 2014/2015

I can confirm I have been contacted by a department about my assignment and I requested that my current employer not be contacted yet. All I have had is an email to confirm my department (Welsh Assembly- Social Research stream), with no formal offer or details. It says to expect contact within the next 4 weeks by the department to discuss specific role and offer. So, don't worry!

Hi Ailss - it depends on the volume of allocations they are dealing with and how quickly the department responds once your file is passed onto them. I just had my allocation (from the statistician's stream) last week.

Parity told me that once all of the pre-appointment paperwork is complete, they contact the organisation handling your allocation (for me this was the ONS). Nothing will happen before the checks are satisfactorily completed. The person handling your allocation then looks at the available postings, against your preferred department/location and once they have selected a posting they will contact that department with your file. Once a department accepts your file, you will be contacted by the allocations officer to inform you of where you are going.

Once my checks were complete it took from the week before Christmas until last week to hear which department I had been allocated to and which location I would be in (I imagine the Christmas break slowed things down a bit). I found out in an email. The email wasn't very detailed, it didn't have any info on a start date or salary. It just told me that I would be contacted directly by the department to arrange a meeting in advance of them issuing a formal offer of employment. I think the pre-offer meeting is common throughout the Fast Stream and is just a chance to discuss the role on offer, start date and any particulars.

Hope this helps - I know the feeling of waiting for news - but it shouldn't take too long. The best way to speed things along is to gently prod your employers to send in their reference ASAP (it is done by email, so Parity will process it pretty much as soon as it comes in).

They don't force you to have a reference from your current employer. When you pass the FSAC, they give you the option of putting your current employer reference on hold as they understand it does not look good to ask your employer for a reference when you are not 100% sure you have the job.

I am pretty sure as long as it's on hold, and you can provide previous employment references, it does not stop you from being given a firm offer of employment or start date. As long as all other references are ok, and everything is successful, you should hear from your department at some point.

I am in the same boat, I have asked them to put my current employer reference on hold. The annoying thing is everything is ok and successful except for 1 of my 2 previous employment references, which is now being chased. There's only so many times I can e-mail them asking to do it!

I am suprised Parity gave you that information, as from my experience the pre-appointment checks are not a requirement for receiving a department allocation - only for the receipt of the formal offer of employment. I was told where I would be placed without even touching the checks.

I can understand why you might want to avoid that for personal reasons but you're under no obligation to give notice just because you ask for a reference. I was an in-service candidate so my managers were aware of the process all the way through and that I would be giving formal notice as early as I could.

Hi , I have got my assessment on 26th Jan. Just wanted to clarify if we would be allowed to write on the reading material we will get particularly for the leadership exercise. Also do we get any breaks ? and is there a designated area for smoking? Thanks
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Hi chaps. Anybody who did FSAC on 15th January got their results yet? I'm in DaT and Central Depts and haven't heard anything. I see from other posts that a lot of people are still waiting - just wondering because someone earlier on posted that they had results from the FSAC on the 14th Jan already. Cheers

What are you applying to? I did mine on the 13th and it only changed to `Awaiting Results' yesterday. Today will be one week since the FSAC so I guess if it's not updated today then I'm on the amber band.

Best of luck to you!
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Hey all,

I was just wondering if anyone knows at what stage you give your preferences for which department(s) you would prefer to work in on the Central Departments GFS Scheme...?

I've got the FSAC coming up soon and haven't heard or read anything about it yet... I'm guessing maybe it is at the FSAC itself or soon after if you are successful?

Thanks and good luck to everyone!

Thanks so much! How long is the lunch break - is there enough time to go for a walk?! x

Best of luck for the FSAC. There is plenty of break time set aside, about 20 mins in the morning, at least 45 mins lunch (which is provided as a buffet) and another 20 min in the afternoon. You are given pens, pencils, rulers and lots of scrap paper to write on. You can write directly on the reading material if you want and you can bring your notes with you to the leadership briefing. Just treat the day as normally as you can and you'll do great.

Hello everyone

Well done to all those who have passed their FSAC, and good luck to those still waiting!

I have mine on the 2nd Feb, and was wondering if anyone wants to share their experiences of the day?
In particular, how was the interview? I know its competency based, but do they ask about all the competencies or just a couple (want to prep some good examples!)

Any advice much appreciated!

I won't list mine incase they are different for you or your scheme.

Remember that lots of the competencies overlap, so it's fine to point out where an example is evidence for more than one competency. Hope this helps and best of luck!

The competencies are all the same, listed clearly in the FSAC guide on the candidate website. You can find a breakdown of what is required for them by googling 'civil service competencies'... the frameworks are all the same, I think it's around Level 4?


Yes, and no. I had my interview today and my interviewer said to me that my first example could also have been used for the second question, but asked me it anyway. They need a different example for each question.