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About the Parole Board
The Parole Board is an independent court-like body that carries out risk assessments on prisoners to determine whether they can be safely released into the community. We do that with great care and public safety is our number one priority.
All Parole Board decisions are solely focused on whether a prisoner would represent a significant risk to the public after release. Not all decisions members make are popular, but they make these decisions fairly and objectively.
The Board is made up of about 130 secretariat staff based in our London Head Office and approximately 300 members who make decisions on risk and hold hearings at prisons around the country.
The Parole Board is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Ministry of Justice. Staff who work for the Parole Board Secretariat are Public Servants and not Civil Servants.
About the role
The secretariat staff at the Parole Board are organised into hubs covering Policy, Governance, Operations, People, Transformation and Legal.
This is an Executive Officer (EO) role which sits within the Policy Hub and provides support with policy development, practice advice and the Board’s research programme.
You will report to the Policy and Practice Advisor.
You will develop an understanding of parole policy and support the development of new policy, in addition to improving existing policy. A major part of this role will be to support the Policy and Practice Advisor with practice advice and to assist with the revision of member guidance.
You will also support the research function, which includes developing an understanding of how research shapes policy and practice, and sign-posting members and staff to relevant research that may be helpful in their work.
This role provides excellent opportunities to:
- Work collaboratively on a variety of interesting policy and research areas.
- Work closely with senior stakeholders, judicial, independent and specialist (psychologist/psychiatrist) Parole Board members, and colleagues at all levels.
- Work with external stakeholders, such as Criminal Justice agencies.
- Gain experience in an environment of continuous improvement.
Person specification
The job holder will need:
- Excellent interpersonal skills to deal with complex situations and build relationships with key stakeholders
- Excellent communication (oral and written) skills
- Excellent organisational skills, with the ability to plan ahead and effectively manage a workload with competing priorities
- The ability to accurately record information
- The ability to analyse and summarise information in a relevant way for different audiences
Main Duties
- Ensure that internal logging systems are kept up to date and are in line with the Board’s retention policies
- Provide support with practice advice to members and staff by reading guidance, referring to case management systems, liaising with other hubs where necessary and preparing draft responses to less complex queries
- Help to facilitate and set up meetings for the Policy Hub, and attend where necessary
- Liaise with members, staff and stakeholders to communicate about guidance changes and source updated content
- Assist with developing digital guidance, including planning, testing, consultation with members, preparation and migration of content, and supporting members to use digital guidance
- Contribute to the processing of internal and external research applications
- Ensure the content of research sections of both the internal and external platforms are updated as needed
- To provide support with the various projects undertaken by the Policy Hub
General
- Contribute to the Policy Hub’s business objectives and appropriate organisational and corporate policies
- Other tasks appropriate to the role as assigned from time to time by the Head of Policy and other members of the team
- Attend national and regional meetings and events which may require occasional travel and overnight stays
- Contribute and support the continuing development of equality and diversity aims, reflected across staff, members and our work
Experience and skills required for the post
- Experience of planning and organising work
- Experience in communicating with internal and external audiences
- Experience of developing good working relationships and networks with internal and external contacts
- Good IT skills including good knowledge of Excel, Word and Outlook
Desirable Experience
- Understanding of the parole process
- Experience of supporting policy and research functions
- Experience supporting committees or formal meetings
Behaviours
We will assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Changing and Improving
- Seeing the Big Picture
- Managing a Quality Service
- Working Together
Security
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is Basic Check.
Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Strengths. At the sift stage you will be assessed against Behaviours and Experience.
Should a large number of applications be received, the initial sift may be conducted using a lead behaviour. This will be the behaviour which is listed first in the job advert.
If you are part of the Civil Service and are applying for a job in a non-departmental public body (NDPB) (or vice versa) by moving jobs this will involve a change of employer and you may break the statutory rules on continuity of employment.
In the current climate, face to face interviews may be conducted virtually. If you are successful and invited to a virtual interview, please see attached the ‘Candidate guide for virtual interviews’ document that will help you prepare. If you have any issues with attending your virtual interview, please contact us in regard to this. Please ensure the contact details you provide to us are up to date and correct, as if successful, all communication for your interview will be sent to you through the email address provided.
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