HR consultancy fororganisations that answer to the public.

Public sector HR is not harder than private sector HR because the law is different — it is largely the same law. It is harder because the decisions sit inside pay frameworks you cannot unilaterally change, consultation duties you cannot shortcut, governance layers that have to approve things, and a level of public accountability that means a badly run process becomes a reputational problem as well as a legal one.

Civitas HR exists to handle exactly that combination. We are a consultancy, not a helpline: we take the matter, run it, document it, and hand you something defensible at the end. Where you need a person on the ground rather than an adviser on the phone, our contractor supply arm covers that from the same relationship.

Performance, capability and absence

These are the cases that quietly consume the most management time. A capability process that has drifted for eighteen months, a long-term absence where nobody has commissioned occupational health, a performance concern that was never documented and has now become a grievance. We pick these up mid-flight, work out whether the existing process can be salvaged or has to be restarted, and take it to a defensible conclusion.

Manager training

Most avoidable employment risk in the public sector comes from line managers acting reasonably but procedurally incorrectly. Our sessions are built around the situations they actually face — running an investigation meeting, writing a note that will be disclosed later, handling a return-to-work conversation, chairing a hearing without pre-judging it. Sessions are practical, scenario-based and sector-specific.

HR audit and review

A fixed-scope review of your employment documentation and practice. We look at contracts, policies, live casework, record keeping and manager capability, then return a prioritised list of what to fix, in what order, and what the exposure is if you do not. It is deliberately short. Auditors who produce 90 pages are usually charging by the page.

Recruitment, selection and unions

On recruitment we cover job design, advertising, safer recruitment practice and selection panels — with particular attention where roles involve regulated activity or enhanced DBS requirements. On trade union matters we support recognised relationships, collective consultation and formal negotiation, including where a relationship has become adversarial and needs resetting rather than litigating.