Quality Officer (Forensics) 5 views

Salary: Band 7, £31,548 – £34,329 per annum

Location: Agile, Forth Banks Police Station and homeworking 

Hours/Contract:  37 hours per week, fixed term / secondment until 31/03/2026

The role

Here at Northumbria Police, we think our region is amazing! It takes a great deal of people from different backgrounds, with diverse skills and experience to serve our force area effectively, think you have what it takes to help us make a difference? This could be the perfect time for you to join us in our Forensic Services Department as a Quality Officer.

Forensic Services is a diverse department providing a broad range of services to the force to support investigations at Crime and Incident Scenes and within the Forensic Units in Traditional and Digital Forensic services.

As a Quality Officer you will assist in the maintenance of the Quality Management Systems (QMS) to ensure processes and technical standards comply with the Forensic Science Regulator’s Code of Practice and internationally recognised International Organisation of Standardisation (ISO) standards (ISO17025 & ISO17020) to support forensic accreditation activities within Forensic Services and the wider organisation.

What you’ll do

• Maintain quality management system frameworks to ensure compliance to the Forensic Science Regulator’s Code of Practice and International Organisation of Standardisation (ISO) forensic quality standards.
• With support from the Quality Manager, provide guidance and advice on all matters related to forensic quality and accreditation systems, in order to support the Force and ensure quality standards are maintained and mandatory timescales are met.
• Attend quality meetings identifying non-compliance issues and make recommendations in order to identify improvement opportunities and address areas of risk to departmental performance or integrity.
• Produce, control and carry out administration of quality management system policies and procedures in order to ensure compliance with forensic quality standards and other relevant regulatory codes of practice.
• Maintain the audit systems and schedules (internal and external); undertake a variety of audits in both quality standards and technical areas in order to embed best practice and identify risk areas for improvement.

What you’ll bring

• An excellent knowledge and understanding of the principles of quality standards and commitment to undertake relevant accredited quality standards training courses.
• Experience of working in an environment where quality standards are operational.
• Ability to plan effectively; to manage tasks received, setting deadlines to take into account unit workload, to identify and mitigate risks to delivery.
• Demonstrable experience of information gathering and problem solving.
• The ability to perform effectively as part of a team.
• Able to utilise a range of methods to communicate and influence effective change across a wide range of customers and stakeholders.
• Full UK driving licence.

We know it’s important for you to feel that you’re not only part of a great team, but part of a community. We welcome applications from suitably qualified people from all sections of the community, regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.

Harnessing these differences creates a productive environment in which everyone feels valued, and their talents are fully utilised. Appointments are based on merit alone.

Just so you know

Our application form will help us understand how your work, education and life experience has prepared you for the role of a Quality Manager with #TeamNP. To help support your application research what makes us tick here at Northumbria, the role you’re applying for and the values and behaviours that contribute.

The recruitment process will consist of the initial application form followed by a face-to-face interview.  The interviews are planned to take place week commencing 9th December.   Just so you know, you can save your application and come back to it any time prior to the closing date on the advert.

We are proud members of the Business Disability Forum, with whom we collaborate with to improve the lives of disabled employees.  We are also a Disability Confident Employer, therefore if you demonstrate that you meet the minimum criteria for this role as stated in the advert, we will progress your application and offer you an interview.

If you tell us that you have a disability, we can make adjustments to support you through the recruitment process (for example we can arrange extra time for tests or provide a sign language interpreter) You can get in touch with us via careers@northumbria.police.uk for any support regarding the application process. Please provide us with plenty of notice so we can ensure your visit goes smoothly.

If your application is successful, we’ll ask you to complete a Recruitment Vetting (RV) form, therefore you must be a resident of the UK for a minimum period of 3 years to ensure vetting checks can be successfully performed.  A job offer will be dependent upon vetting clearance, medical information and references.

Terms of appointment

This is a fixed term role subject to a six-month probationary period.

If you are successful in your application, you will have a six-month probation period with us where you will be unable to apply for any other post advertised internally or externally.

Please note if you are interested in applying for this secondment opportunity, please discuss this with your Line Manager and gain agreement prior to applying.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.