Vetting Officer (Home-based/Headquarters, Maidstone)

Location of Role: Maidstone/Home Working

Advert Closing Date: 12/08/2025

Starting Salary: £26,385.00 (pro-rata for part-time vacancies)

Part/Full Time: Full Time

Contract Type: Secondment/fixed-term

Working Pattern: Mon-Fri

Weekend/Evening Working: No

Following a restructure of the Central Vetting Unit exciting opportunities have arisen for two fixed term contracts for the Vetting Officer role. Working Monday to Friday within the Central Vetting Unit of the Professional Standards Department based at Headquarters, Sutton Road, Maidstone with the opportunity to become a home worker after training.

Vetting Officer Job Description:

Process applications in respect of all types of vetting by initiating enquiries using the Police systems and other local systems.
Assess the information gathered from results of checks conducted and make a recommendation for vetting clearance or refusal. You will receive full support, training and the skills to ensure that you can be the best you can be. The role can be challenging but it also creates a sense of achievement and satisfaction to know that you will be providing a first class service to the Public by conducting a thorough and effective vetting regime on new and existing members of the Organisation.
This role requires excellent interpersonal skills and high levels of integrity, as well as highly developed levels of confidentiality, and a heightened awareness of the sensitivity with which you will be required to handle all personal data and information that you will have access to or may come across in the course of your duties. This will include ensuring that all such information obtained is safely and securely stored, and only used in accordance with all relevant legislation and Force Policy.
Ensure consistent application of guidance, policies, and procedures in a performance management regime, demonstrating the flexibility to juggle constantly changing demands, to meet predetermined service level agreements.

Essential skills required:

Excellent verbal and written communication skills are required with an eye of detail, to ensure accuracy of information and data contained in reports and correspondence.
Be competent in the use of Police systems (following training), and Microsoft computer packages such as email, Word and Excel.
This post is subject to Security Check Vetting clearance.

Vetting Officer are required to:

Work as an individual or part of a team
Cope with fluctuating demand and be able to remain effective whilst working under varying deadlines.
Possess the ability to analyse information gained and use own initiative to make decisions.
Work alongside the recommendations in the Vetting Authorised Professional Practise in conjunction with the National Decision Making Model.

The Vetting Officer role will officer flexibility in terms of place of work, including the potential to work for home for those who would like to do so. In the event that home working is agreed for the successful candidate, there will be a requirement to attend the designated Team Zone location on average one or two days a week as agreed with the line manager. The designated Team Zone for this role will be located at Sutton Road, Maidstone.

Training will take place in person at Sutton Road – please note depending on your progression and continued development this will be your place of work until signed off remotely which is likely to take up to three weeks (subject to change).

Kent Police offer incremental increases within this salary band, therefore the salary for this position will rise to a maximum of £30,453.00.

For the full job description please click here.

Your pplication for this role will be shortlisted on the content you provide within the “reason for application” question, within the application form itself. CV’s, covering letters or attachments are not included in the shortlist. Within your “reason for application” answer, please refer to any experience, skills, and abilities you feel you have that will make you suitable for this role, based on the role criteria stated in the job advert or job description. Please provide as much detail as possible as insufficient content may mean you do not meet the shortlisting criteria, however please note this question is limited to 9000 characters and this system will count spaces and blank lines as characters. This count may differ from the Microsoft Word word count function therefore you may wish to use a different online character counter to check the characters used.

All of our posts require a level of vetting and security clearance. During the recruitment process you will be sent vetting information forms to complete.

Kent Police and Essex Police welcomes applications regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, sex, or employment status.

Please let us know if you require extra support at any stage of the application process, or for further information regarding this position, please email us at recruitment.business.services@ecis.police.uk stating ‘Application Support and Adjustments’ in the title of your email. Alternatively, you can call us on 01245 452833.

Where appropriate we will make adjustments to the selection process, working arrangements and/or the working environment provided it is reasonable in all the circumstances to do so.

If you’re not from the UK, you must be a resident in the UK and have lived here continuously for the last three years. You must also be free from restrictions with indefinite leave to remain.

If you’re from the UK you must have lived here continuously for the last three years. This doesn’t apply to those serving abroad in the British Armed Forces.

Essex Police and Kent Police are an equal opportunities employer. Communications may be recorded for monitoring purposes.