The STAR method for supporting statements and Civil Service examples

Updated · By the Tick the Spec team

STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action and Result. It is a simple way to turn a memory from work into evidence a shortlister can score. The Civil Service has long recommended it for behaviour examples, and it works just as well in NHS supporting information, council and university statements, and interviews. The key is balance: keep the situation and task short, spend most of your words on what you personally did, and finish with a clear result. This guide shows how to do that within tight word limits, with fictional examples at two lengths.

What each letter means

  • Situation: the context in one or two sentences. Where were you, what was happening?
  • Task: what you needed to achieve or the problem you had to solve. Often one sentence; it can be merged with the situation.
  • Action: what you did, step by step, and why. This is where the marks are.
  • Result: what happened as a result, ideally with a number or a concrete change, and what you learned if you have space.

A useful rule of thumb is roughly 10–15% situation and task, 60–70% action, and 15–20% result. Many weak examples are the other way round: a long story about the problem and one line about what the writer did.

STAR in 250 words

Civil Service behaviour statements have often had a limit of 250 words each. That is about four short paragraphs. A workable split:

  • Situation and task: about 40 words
  • Action: about 150 words
  • Result: about 60 words

Use "I" throughout. If others were involved, say what they did in a few words and then return to your own actions. Note that the Civil Service announced in July 2026 that it will replace Success Profiles with a model focused on skills and expertise; at the time of writing, adverts still say what they assess, and STAR remains a sound way to structure an example. See what the end of Success Profiles means for applicants.

Worked example: 250 words (fictional)

Invented applicant, organisation and figures. Written for a Civil Service EO post, behaviour: Making Effective Decisions.

Situation and task. As a team leader in a housing association's repairs centre, I was asked to decide how to clear a backlog of 180 non-urgent repair requests after a storm, without delaying urgent jobs.

Action. I first exported the backlog and sorted it by type, age and whether the tenant was flagged as vulnerable. I found 40 requests were duplicates or already fixed, which I confirmed by phoning a sample of tenants. I set out three options for my manager: overtime for our own operatives, bringing in a contractor for roofing jobs only, or extending target times for low-risk jobs. I estimated cost and time for each using last year's contractor rates and our average job times. I recommended the contractor option for roofing combined with overtime for internal jobs, because roofing was the largest group and needed specialist kit. I flagged the risk that contractor quality would be harder to check, and proposed a photo sign-off for every completed job. I then wrote a short message for tenants explaining the new timescales.

Result. My manager approved the plan. The backlog was cleared in five weeks against a forecast of ten, no urgent job missed its target, and complaints about repair delays fell from 22 to 6 the following month. The photo sign-off was later adopted for all contractor work.

That example is about 245 words. Notice that the action section shows evidence gathering, options, a recommendation, risk and communication: the things the behaviour asks for.

Worked example: short NHS version (fictional)

Invented applicant. For an NHS Band 3 ward clerk post, criterion: "Ability to prioritise a varied workload".

On a busy Monday in my current GP reception role, I was covering phones alone for the first hour while also preparing the day's clinic lists. I dealt with urgent calls first using the practice triage questions, put routine calls into a call-back list, and printed clinic lists during quieter moments so the first clinic started on time. I told the practice manager when the call-back list passed 15 so she could add cover. Every call was returned by noon.

Short STAR examples like this suit NHS supporting information, where you may need to cover many criteria within the character limit.

Choosing a good example

  1. Match the criterion or behaviour. Read the indicators for the grade or band and pick an example where you did those things.
  2. Make it recent. Roughly the last two or three years, unless the advert says otherwise.
  3. Make it yours. You need enough personal action to fill the "A".
  4. Have a result. If the outcome was mixed, say so and say what you learned. Honest learning still scores.
  5. Use different examples across different behaviours or criteria where you can.

Common mistakes

  • Too much situation. The panel does not need the history of your organisation.
  • "We" throughout. The assessor cannot score what the team did.
  • No result, or a vague one like "it went well".
  • Inventing numbers. Use honest estimates ("about", "roughly") or describe the change in words.
  • Using STAR labels as filler. Headings are optional; clarity is not.
  • Writing one generic example and pasting it under several behaviours.

If you are not sure which of your experiences fit which criteria, Tick the Spec's free shortlisting sheet maps your CV to each line of the person specification and suggests where you need a stronger example. For more on the whole statement, see how to write a supporting statement.

Sources

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