Checked 14 October 2026. From GOV.UK Success Profiles: Civil Service behaviours (updated 29 January 2025), Success Profiles: Candidate overview, Using the Civil Service Jobs website as a candidate (last updated 27 January 2026), A brief guide to competencies (12 April 2016) and Civil Service Careers pages, read on 14 October 2026. The behaviour examples are quoted word for word and reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. The interview questions are written by us from those examples.
Managing a quality service is usually answered with a story about a satisfied customer. The GOV.UK examples have a second subject that such answers tend to miss: money. The AA and AO list already asks for a service “which gives taxpayers a good return for their money”, and a line about cost or value appears at every band above it. This guide prints the GOV.UK examples for Managing a quality service at all six grade bands, word for word, shows what changes from one band to the next, gives six interview questions that we wrote from those examples, and sets out how to structure a written example. It contains no sample statements and no model answers: an example only counts if it is yours.
What Managing a quality service means: the official definition
GOV.UK defines the behaviour in these words: “Deliver service objectives with professional excellence, expertise and efficiency, taking account of diverse customer needs.” Civil Service Careers prints the same definition on its Behaviours page. Everything else on this page builds on that definition and on the grade-band examples that follow it.
Our count of the bullet points under each band in Success Profiles: Civil Service behaviours (updated 29 January 2025): 38 examples in all for this behaviour. The number of bullets is not a measure of how hard a band is.
Managing a Quality Service at each grade band: the GOV.UK examples in full
On GOV.UK each list completes a sentence that ends “are when you:”, which is why the examples begin with a verb in lower case. They are reproduced exactly, including GOV.UK’s own punctuation. Find the band that matches the grade in your advert; the headings are GOV.UK’s.
Administrative Assistant (AA) and Administrative Officer (AO) grade or equivalent
| No. | GOV.UK example of Managing a quality service at AA and AO (verbatim) |
|---|---|
| 1 | gain a clear understanding of customers’ needs and expectations |
| 2 | plan, organise and manage your own time to deliver a high quality service which gives taxpayers a good return for their money |
| 3 | act to prevent problems by identifying issues, reporting them and providing solutions |
| 4 | keep customers and all colleagues up to date with progress |
| 5 | show customers where to access relevant information and support that will help them to use services more effectively |
Executive Officer (EO) grade or equivalent
| No. | GOV.UK example of Managing a quality service at EO (verbatim) |
|---|---|
| 1 | work with customers to understand their needs and expectations |
| 2 | create clear plans and set priorities which meet the needs of both the customer and the business |
| 3 | clearly explain to customers what can be done |
| 4 | keep colleagues and stakeholders fully informed of plans, possibilities and progress |
| 5 | identify common problems that affect service, report them and find possible solutions |
| 6 | deliver good customer service which balances quality and cost effectiveness |
Higher Executive Officer (HEO) and Senior Executive Officer (SEO) grades or equivalent
| No. | GOV.UK example of Managing a quality service at HEO and SEO (verbatim) |
|---|---|
| 1 | develop, implement, maintain and review systems and services to ensure delivery of professional excellence |
| 2 | work with stakeholders to set priorities, objectives and timescales |
| 3 | successfully deliver high quality outcomes that meet the customers’ needs and gives value for money |
| 4 | identify risks and resolve issues efficiently |
| 5 | involve a diverse range of colleagues, stakeholders and delivery partners in developing suggestions for improvements |
| 6 | establish ways to find and respond to feedback from customers about the services provided |
Grade 7 and Grade 6 or equivalent
| No. | GOV.UK example of Managing a quality service at Grade 7 and Grade 6 (verbatim) |
|---|---|
| 1 | demonstrate positive customer service by understanding the complexity and diversity of customer needs and expectations |
| 2 | deliver a high quality, efficient and cost effective service by considering a broad range of methods for delivery |
| 3 | ensure full consideration of new technologies, accessibility and costings |
| 4 | make clear, practical and manageable plans for service delivery |
| 5 | ensure adherence to legal, regulatory and security requirements in service delivery |
| 6 | proactively manage risks and identify solutions |
| 7 | establish how the business area compares to industry best practice |
| 8 | create regular opportunities for colleagues, stakeholders, delivery partners and customers to help improve the quality of service |
Deputy Director or equivalent
| No. | GOV.UK example of Managing a quality service at Deputy Director (verbatim) |
|---|---|
| 1 | clarify and articulate the diverse requirements of customers and delivery partners |
| 2 | use customer insight to drive high quality and efficient service delivery which is a good investment of taxpayers money |
| 3 | work collaboratively with customers and delivery partners to manage, monitor and deliver agreed outcomes |
| 4 | identify areas for improvement and make appropriate changes to reach professional excellence |
| 5 | break down complex aims into clear, practical and manageable plans |
| 6 | identify the resource requirements to support implementation |
| 7 | ensure risks are monitored and managed to prevent issues with service delivery wherever possible |
Director and Director General
| No. | GOV.UK example of Managing a quality service at Director and Director General (verbatim) |
|---|---|
| 1 | work across government to ensure delivery of professional excellence and expertise to customers |
| 2 | ensure the department has an in-depth and evolving understanding of the broad range of customers’ requirements |
| 3 | establish and negotiate service levels and deliverables with delivery partners at a broad strategic level |
| 4 | promote delivering value for money, emphasising a good return on tax payers money |
| 5 | ensure all parts of the delivery chain fully understand the required outcomes for the customer |
| 6 | ensure all colleagues and stakeholders involved in delivery are clear about the impacts of poor service and communication on the customer |
One dated detail for Grade 7 and Grade 6. The Success Profiles page on GOV.UK records this change on 29 January 2025: “In the behaviour examples for G6 and G7 grades, restored the number of bullet points in the leadership, managing a quality service, and communicating and influencing examples.” Managing a Quality Service is one of the three. If you are working from a copy saved before that date, compare its Grade 7 and Grade 6 list with the one above.
What changes from band to band
The lists move from serving a customer well, to planning the service, to running the systems behind it, to setting service levels across government. The middle column quotes the wording that first appears, or matters most, at that band. The right-hand column is our reading of it and is not official guidance.
| Grade band | Wording from the GOV.UK examples (verbatim) | Our reading |
|---|---|---|
| AA and AO | “customers’ needs and expectations” · “manage your own time” · “identifying issues, reporting them and providing solutions” | Understand the customer, organise yourself, and stop problems early. Reporting an issue is paired with offering a solution. |
| EO | “work with customers” · “clearly explain to customers what can be done” · “common problems that affect service” | You work with customers, not only for them, set priorities, and look for the problems that keep recurring. |
| HEO and SEO | “systems and services” · “work with stakeholders to set priorities, objectives and timescales” · “feedback from customers” | The object is now the system that delivers the service, and you set up the means of hearing from customers. |
| Grade 7 and Grade 6 | “legal, regulatory and security requirements” · “proactively manage risks” · “industry best practice” | Compliance, risk and comparison with practice elsewhere are added to quality and cost. |
| Deputy Director | “customers and delivery partners” · “customer insight” · “resource requirements” | Delivery partners enter the wording, and customer need is established through insight, not individual contact. |
| Director and Director General | “work across government” · “service levels and deliverables” · “all parts of the delivery chain” | Service levels are negotiated at a strategic level and the whole delivery chain is your concern. |
One line that runs through every band: value for money
The definition says “efficiency”, and each band’s list turns that into a line about cost.
| Grade band | GOV.UK example (verbatim) |
|---|---|
| AA and AO | plan, organise and manage your own time to deliver a high quality service which gives taxpayers a good return for their money |
| EO | deliver good customer service which balances quality and cost effectiveness |
| HEO and SEO | successfully deliver high quality outcomes that meet the customers’ needs and gives value for money |
| Grade 7 and Grade 6 | deliver a high quality, efficient and cost effective service by considering a broad range of methods for delivery |
| Deputy Director | use customer insight to drive high quality and efficient service delivery which is a good investment of taxpayers money |
| Director and Director General | promote delivering value for money, emphasising a good return on tax payers money |
Our reading: quality alone is half of this behaviour at every grade. An example needs a sentence on what the service cost in time, effort or money, or on how you kept that down while keeping the standard. At AA and AO the resource in question is your own time; from EO it is the balance of “quality and cost effectiveness”.
Six Managing a quality service interview questions, built from the GOV.UK examples
We looked for official example interview questions for this behaviour on GOV.UK and on Civil Service Careers and found none. What the official pages do say is short. GOV.UK says you “may be asked to give examples of when you have demonstrated a particular behaviour”, or “how you would behave in a given situation”. A Defra recruiter writing on the department’s GOV.UK blog says behaviour questions “may start with ‘Tell me about a time when…’”.
The six questions below are example questions we wrote from the descriptors, one for each grade band. Each is built from a single GOV.UK example, shown beside it so that you can see where the wording comes from. We do not claim that any department asks them. Use them to rehearse, and expect your panel to word its own.
| Grade band | Example question (written by us) | The GOV.UK example it is built from (verbatim) |
|---|---|---|
| AA and AO | Tell me about a time when you prevented a problem by identifying an issue, reporting it and providing a solution. | act to prevent problems by identifying issues, reporting them and providing solutions |
| EO | Describe a time when you had to explain clearly to a customer what could be done for them. | clearly explain to customers what can be done |
| HEO and SEO | Give an example of a way you established to find and respond to feedback from customers about a service. | establish ways to find and respond to feedback from customers about the services provided |
| Grade 7 and Grade 6 | Tell me about a time when you considered a broad range of delivery methods in order to deliver a high quality, efficient and cost effective service. | deliver a high quality, efficient and cost effective service by considering a broad range of methods for delivery |
| Deputy Director | Describe a time when you broke down a complex aim into clear, practical and manageable plans. | break down complex aims into clear, practical and manageable plans |
| Director and Director General | Give an example of how you ensured that all parts of a delivery chain fully understood the outcomes required for the customer. | ensure all parts of the delivery chain fully understand the required outcomes for the customer |
Two points on using them. First, a panel can turn any of these into a hypothetical (“How would you…”), which GOV.UK expressly allows for. Second, each question is narrower than the behaviour. A good answer to one of them shows that line of the list clearly and touches others on the way; it does not try to recite the whole list.
How to structure a Managing a quality service example
The rules are the same for all nine behaviours. The short version is in the table; the full version, with the STAR method in the words of the official guide, the four official statements on word limits and how examples are scored at sift, is in our guide to Seeing the big picture, which holds the full explanation.
| Point | What the official page says |
|---|---|
| Who picks the behaviours | Recruiting managers “will choose a selection of behaviours which are best suited to the specific job role”, and “You will not be asked to demonstrate all Civil Service Behaviours for one role.” (GOV.UK) |
| Length of a written example | “The online application form will automatically delete any words which exceed the 250 allowed for each example.” (GOV.UK, Using the Civil Service Jobs website). Follow the limit shown in your own advert and form. |
| Structure | “In your own examples, consider using the STAR method which allows you to set the scene, show what and how you did and the overall outcome.” (GOV.UK) |
| Covering every line | “There is no expectation that you need to demonstrate every part of each example to be successful.” (GOV.UK) |
| Where an example can come from | Work, “or somewhere else such as”: work experience, volunteering, in connection with a hobby (GOV.UK) |
| Score needed at sift | “Generally to progress to the next stage a candidate should score at least 4 for each example.” Rating scales “can vary across recruiting organisations but the standard is the same.” (GOV.UK) |
GOV.UK’s advice on structure is one sentence: “In your own examples, consider using the STAR method which allows you to set the scene, show what and how you did and the overall outcome.” The table below is our suggestion for what each part should carry when the behaviour is Managing a quality service. It is drawn from the definition and the examples above, and it is ours, not an official template.
| Part of STAR | What to put there for Managing a quality service (our suggestion) |
|---|---|
| Situation | The service, who used it, and the standard it was expected to meet. |
| Task | What you had to deliver, to what standard, and with what time or resources. |
| Action | How you found out what the customer needed, planned the work, dealt with a problem or risk, and kept customers and colleagues informed. |
| Result | The quality of what was delivered and what it cost, with any feedback from the people who used it. |
Then check the draft against your band. Take the list for your grade from the tables above, or use the tool, and go line by line. Mark a line as shown only when you can point to the sentence that shows it. Lines with no sentence behind them are either gaps to fill or parts you have chosen not to cover, which GOV.UK allows.
If the tool does not load, the six tables under “the GOV.UK examples in full” carry exactly the same lines.
Where Managing a quality service is assessed
GOV.UK lists six ways a behaviour can be assessed: an application form requiring written examples, the Civil Service judgement test, a personality test, an interview, an assessment centre and job related simulations. Your advert says which apply.
On the online test, GOV.UK says the Civil Service Judgement Test “measures your ability to demonstrate judgement and decision-making regarding specific Civil Service Behaviours, which have been selected as important for success in your chosen job.” It does not list which behaviours a given test covers, so we cannot tell you whether Managing a quality service will be in yours. For the test itself see CSJT pass mark and scoring, what a CSJT score means and CSJT tips from the behaviours. Our practice scenarios guide has scenarios that are our own teaching exercises, not official test items.
What we could not find
Not on any official page we read
- A definition of “customer”. The behaviours page does not say whether colleagues inside the Civil Service count as customers for the purpose of an example.
- An official list of example interview questions for Managing a quality service, or for any behaviour.
- An official sample or model behaviour example at any grade.
- Whether the Civil Service Judgement Test for a given job includes Managing a quality service.
Read on 14 October 2026: the pages listed under Sources. Departmental candidate packs attached to individual adverts were not read; your own advert may say more.
The other eight behaviours, each with its own examples by band and its own six questions: Seeing the big picture, Changing and improving, Making effective decisions, Leadership, Communicating and influencing, Working together, Developing self and others, Delivering at pace.
Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions
What does Managing a quality service mean in the Civil Service?
GOV.UK defines it as: Deliver service objectives with professional excellence, expertise and efficiency, taking account of diverse customer needs. The examples expected differ by grade band, and GOV.UK publishes a separate list for each of six bands.
What is Managing a quality service at AO level?
GOV.UK lists five examples at AA and AO grade or equivalent. The first is to gain a clear understanding of customers’ needs and expectations. Another is to act to prevent problems by identifying issues, reporting them and providing solutions.
What is Managing a quality service at EO level?
GOV.UK lists six examples at Executive Officer (EO) grade or equivalent. The first is to work with customers to understand their needs and expectations. The second is to create clear plans and set priorities which meet the needs of both the customer and the business.
What is Managing a quality service at HEO and SEO level?
GOV.UK lists six examples at Higher Executive Officer (HEO) and Senior Executive Officer (SEO) grades or equivalent. The first is to develop, implement, maintain and review systems and services to ensure delivery of professional excellence. The second is to work with stakeholders to set priorities, objectives and timescales.
How long should a Managing a quality service behaviour example be?
GOV.UK’s guide to the Civil Service Jobs website says the online application form automatically deletes any words beyond the 250 allowed for each example. A Civil Service Careers page says short written examples are usually 250 words each. Follow the limit in your own advert.
Is Managing a quality service tested in the Civil Service Judgement Test?
GOV.UK says the test measures judgement and decision-making regarding specific Civil Service Behaviours selected as important for the job. It does not publish which behaviours a given test covers.
More in this series
- CSJT pass mark and scoring
- What a CSJT score means
- CSJT tips from the behaviours
- Seeing the Big Picture: examples by grade
- Changing and Improving: examples by grade
- Making Effective Decisions: examples by grade
- Leadership: examples by grade
- Communicating and Influencing: examples by grade
- Working Together: examples by grade
- Developing Self and Others: examples by grade
- Delivering at Pace: examples by grade
- Civil Service Judgement Test: 8 original practice scenarios
- Fast Stream online tests: a different test with a different scale
- Fast Stream vs direct entry and the other routes
Sources
- official — GOV.UK: Success Profiles, Civil Service behaviours (updated 29 January 2025)
- official — Civil Service Careers: Behaviours
- official — GOV.UK: Success Profiles (collection page, last updated 29 January 2025)
- official — GOV.UK: Success Profiles, candidate overview
- official — GOV.UK: Using the Civil Service Jobs website as a candidate (last updated 27 January 2026)
- official — GOV.UK: A brief guide to competencies (Civil Service Resourcing, published 12 April 2016; the STAR and CAR methods)
- official — Civil Service Careers: GOS, Tips and guidance for applying (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology pages; tips for external scientists, engineers and researchers)
- official — Defra Digital, Data and Technology blog on GOV.UK: How to improve Civil Service job applications and ace your interviews (a Defra recruiter, 14 April 2023)
- official — GOV.UK: Preparing for the Civil Service Judgement Test (last updated 24 May 2024)
- official — GOV.UK: Preparing for the Civil Service Styles Assessment (published 27 January 2026)
official = a document published by the conducting body. reported = a news or coaching site we could not check against an original. Where sources disagree this page says so rather than picking one.
