Civil Service behaviour: Delivering at Pace (with STAR example)

Updated · By the Tick the Spec team

Delivering at Pace is about taking ownership of getting quality results on time. In the official Success Profiles wording, it means taking responsibility for delivering timely and quality results with focus and drive. A strong Delivering at Pace statement describes one piece of work with a real deadline or pressure, shows how you planned and prioritised, how you kept going when something got in the way, and what was delivered. The detail expected depends on the grade, so read the indicators for your level.

A note on changes (November 2026)

In July 2026 the Civil Service announced it will scrap Success Profiles in favour of a model that emphasises skills and expertise. At the time of writing we could not find a published replacement on GOV.UK, and many adverts still ask for behaviours. Follow the advert you are applying for.

What assessors look for, by grade

  • AA/AO (Level 1): taking responsibility for your own work, completing it to time and quality, staying positive when things change.
  • EO (Level 2): reviewing the team's work to spot barriers, setting clear goals and responsibilities, making sure colleagues have what they need, checking progress against objectives, staying positive through setbacks.
  • HEO/SEO (Level 3): keeping the team focused on top priorities, monitoring against milestones, quickly reassessing workloads when demands conflict, and giving people authority with support.
  • G7/G6 (Level 4) and above: leading delivery across teams, setting direction and managing risk at a wider level.

These are summaries; read the full behaviour indicators for your grade on GOV.UK.

Using STAR in 250 words

Behaviour statements are often limited to 250 words, though adverts vary. A useful split:

  • Situation (about 30 words): the work and why time mattered.
  • Task (about 20 words): your responsibility.
  • Action (about 150 words): what you did, step by step, using "I".
  • Result (about 50 words): what was delivered, on what timescale, and any learning.

Step by step

  1. Choose an example with a genuine deadline or surge in demand.
  2. Check it matches your target grade. For EO and above, show how you organised others, not only yourself.
  3. Show planning: how you broke down the work and set priorities.
  4. Show an obstacle and what you did about it.
  5. Show quality as well as speed: how you made sure the result was right.
  6. End with a concrete result.

Worked example (fictional, EO level)

Invented for illustration. The person, team and figures are fictional.

Situation: I supervise a team of five processing grant applications in a regional office. A policy change meant 400 applications received in March had to be decided within four weeks instead of eight.

Task: I was asked to make sure every application was decided by the new deadline without lowering quality.

Action: I split the applications into simple and complex cases using the checklist we already had, so the experienced caseworkers took the complex ones. I set each person a weekly target and shared a simple tracker so everyone could see progress. When two colleagues were off sick in week two, I asked a neighbouring team for one person for five days, trained her on the simple cases myself in a morning, and took on some decisions personally. I kept our usual quality check of one in ten decisions, and added a quick daily huddle to deal with common queries so people were not stuck waiting for answers. I updated my manager each Friday on progress and risks.

Result: All 400 applications were decided two days before the deadline. Our quality check error rate stayed in line with normal levels. The case split and tracker are now our standard approach for peak periods.

About 230 words. It shows EO-level indicators: clear goals, removing barriers, making sure people have what they need, and checking progress.

How behaviour statements are scored

Many departments score each behaviour on a 1 to 7 scale, and a Defra Digital blog post describes needing at least 4 on each assessment to move on; the candidate pack will say if different rules apply. When there are many applications, some campaigns sift first on a "lead" behaviour, usually the first one listed, so make that statement especially strong. Statements are usually read without your name, and text over the word limit may be ignored, so check the limit on the advert.

Other examples that can work

  • clearing a backlog against a fixed date
  • delivering an event, launch or system change on time
  • covering a gap in the team during a busy period without dropping quality
  • re-planning work when priorities changed suddenly
  • organising your own competing deadlines in study or volunteering (at lower grades)

Pick the one where your own actions are clearest and the result is real.

Common mistakes

  • Describing working hard or long hours rather than planning and prioritising.
  • "We did..." throughout. Assessors need your actions.
  • No obstacle. Pace shows most when something goes wrong.
  • No result, or a result with no timescale.
  • Wrong level: an EO applicant describing only their own task list.
  • Invented figures. Use real numbers or describe the scale honestly.

Tick the Spec can help you check that your example covers the indicators for your grade, using your own experience; it will not make examples up.

Read next: STAR method examples for supporting statements (250 words) · Civil Service grades explained: AA to Grade 7 (what each expects) · Success Profiles scrapped: what it means for Civil Service jobs

Sources

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