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We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce and pride ourselves as being an employer of choice. To find out more about how we champion diversity and inclusion in the workplace, visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity

The Vulnerable Offenders Policy Team is recruiting for two policy officers (in Offender Health and Female Offenders) at Band D (EO equivalent level). This campaign is being run externally and so is open to all eligible individuals who wish to apply.

Location:

Successful candidates will have the option to be based at either:

• 102 Petty France, London
• 5 Wellington Place, Leeds (occasional travel to London may be required post Covid-19)

Current circumstances require everyone to work from home for all or the majority of the time depending on local restrictions and individual circumstances.

Ways of Working

At the MoJ, we promote alternative ways of working and these roles are available as:

• Full-time, part-time or the option to job share
• Flexible working patterns
• Flexible working arrangements between base locations, MoJ Hubs and home.

At the moment, the majority of our policy staff are working from home due to Covid-19

If we receive applications from more suitable candidates than we have vacancies for at this time, we may hold suitable applicants on a reserve list for 12 months. Future vacancies requiring the same skills and experience could be offered to candidates on the reserve list without a new competition.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ)

MOJ is one of the largest government departments, employing around 70,000 people, with a budget of approximately �£9 billion. Each year, millions of people use our services across the UK - including at 500 courts and tribunals, and 133 prisons in England and Wales.

Further information can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice

What we do

The Vulnerable Offender’s Team leads on a number of policy areas addressing the needs of vulnerable individuals in contact with the justice system. We are responsible for policy on female offenders; work to improve healthcare outcomes across the criminal justice system; work on race disproportionality in the criminal justice system including the Government’s response to the Lammy Review; co-ordination of the justice elements of the Government’s response to the independent Mental Health Act Review; work on early intervention and out of court disposals; and policy on a number of vulnerable cohorts of offenders, including transgender offenders, young adults, older prisoners and veterans. Our aim is to improve outcomes for individuals and make society safer by designing policy interventions which support people to address the underlying causes of their offending behavior and make a productive contribution to society.

These are high-profile and fast-paced policy areas with a great deal of public, Parliamentary and Ministerial interest, making it a great place to learn about working in Government.

We are a friendly team with a strong emphasis on providing support and opportunities for development, and we include people from a wide range of backgrounds and experience. We will be keen to work with you to understand your interests, skills and areas for development. Alongside your core role, you will have the opportunity to get involved in corporate projects across the wider team and Directorate, to support how we work as a team and contribute to the MoJ as a whole.

Offender Health:

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) Offender Health team is recruiting a Band D policy officer to assist the team to develop and support policy relating to offender health and young adults. These diverse topics cover a range of health issues including substance misuse, physical health and mental health and includes offenders in the community and in prisons. The team is part of the Vulnerable Offenders team in the Youth Justice and Offender Policy Directorate, contributing to the MoJ’s objective to reduce reoffending rates and see offenders effectively rehabilitated back into the community at the end of their sentence.

This exciting role provides the opportunity to work in a dynamic policy team, helping to develop and deliver innovative and cross-cutting policies in one of MoJ’s highest profile areas, making a real difference to meeting the health needs of offenders. You will work closely with analysts and policy professionals in a range of areas, as well as working with other government departments and agencies to support the team in delivering critical Ministerial priorities.

The Offender Health Team works in close collaboration with our health and justice partners, which includes HMPPS, NHS England, Department for Health and Social Care and Public Health England, National Probation Service (NPS), to ensure effective health care provision for offenders. The team also engages with a range of stakeholders across government and the third sector. It is a very busy team with some challenging and high-profile objectives. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to support policy development and projects across a range of topics and will play a pivotal role in collating and disseminating best practice and new policies. It is a unique opportunity to develop an understanding of a variety of offender health topic areas and to build knowledge and expertise on subjects that are relevant across a number of government departments.

At the centre of one of Whitehall’s most interesting and challenging areas of work, this post will regularly contribute towards briefing and correspondence for ministers and senior stakeholders. It offers an excellent opportunity to develop a range of policy skills.

Female Offenders:

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) Female Offender team is recruiting a Band D policy officer to assist the team to develop and support policy relating to female offenders. The team is part of the Vulnerable Offenders team in the Youth Justice and Offender Policy Directorate, contributing to the MoJ’s objective to reduce reoffending rates and see offenders effectively rehabilitated back into the community at the end of their sentence.

Women are a minority in the justice system. We know that many offenders are amongst the most vulnerable people in society and that these vulnerabilities can often contribute to their offending behaviours or how they engage and respond to interventions. Female offenders can be amongst the most vulnerable of all, in both the prevalence and complexity of their needs. There is growing evidence that a gender and trauma responsive approach is most effective in supporting female offenders turn their lives around.

This is a high-profile and fast-paced policy area with a great deal of public, Parliamentary and Ministerial interest, making it a great place to learn about working in Government. The role provides the opportunity to develop policies to deliver the aims of the Female Offender Strategy (2018) and to make a real difference by supporting women to address the needs that often underlie their offending behaviour.

The Female Offender team is small and friendly. It works closely with a wide range of stakeholders across government and the third sector, and with analysts and policy professionals in a range of areas.

The successful candidate will have the opportunity to support policy development and projects across a range of topics in support of delivering the female offender strategy. This could include work on early intervention, developing pilots of residential women’s centres, taking forward a National Concordat, working with local areas on developing whole systems approaches, and administration of grants designed to build community provision for women. It is an opportunity to develop an understanding of offender management and their needs across a range of health and social care areas, and to build knowledge and expertise on subjects that are relevant across a number of government departments.

At the centre of one of Whitehall’s most interesting and challenging areas of work, this post will regularly contribute towards briefing and correspondence for ministers and senior stakeholders and offers an excellent opportunity to develop a range of policy skills.

Policy advisors – the role

Key responsibilities will include (but are not limited to):

Offender Health

• Assisting in the drafting of a range of documents on Offender Health and Young Adults policy, including ministerial briefings, Parliamentary Questions, and ministerial correspondence amongst others.
• Developing and maintaining oversight of the team’s work areas, providing regular updates of the team’s progress to the wider group.
• Undertaking research and providing written input to submissions and policy proposals.
• Building good working relationships with a wide range of stakeholders - particularly NHS England, Public Health England, Department of Health and Social Care, HMPPS, the Mayor for London’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) and the third sector.
• Communicating regularly with senior leaders, external stakeholders or user groups – presenting ideas and gathering feedback to help develop policy work.
• Developing an understanding of the range of areas covered across Health, Justice and Well-being and Vulnerable Offenders. Co-ordinating work which requires input from across teams.
• Providing effective support to the wider Health, Justice and Well-being team through administrative duties.
• Providing Secretariat support to Governance Boards when appropriate.

Female Offenders:

• Assisting in the drafting of a range of documents on female offender policy, including ministerial briefings, Parliamentary Questions, and ministerial and other correspondence amongst others.
• Developing an understanding of the range of areas covered across the Female Offender programme; co-ordinating work which requires input from across teams; and providing regular updates of the team’s progress to the wider group.
• Undertaking research and providing written input to submissions and policy proposals.
• Building good working relationships with a wide range of stakeholders across Government, the voluntary sector and others.
• Communicating regularly with senior leaders, external stakeholders or lived experience groups – presenting ideas and gathering feedback to help develop policy work.
• Providing effective support to the wider Female Offender team through administrative duties.
• Providing Secretariat support to Governance Boards when appropriate.

Skills and Experience

• Very good written and verbal communication skills.
• The ability to make sound judgements and to articulate these persuasively.
• Good IT skills.
• Strong interpersonal and relationship-building skills, tact and diplomacy and experience in dealing with senior figures.
• Good political awareness and the proven ability to communicate effectively to a wide range of audiences and to negotiate solutions to problems.

Application process

You will be assessed against the Civil service success profiles framework

Experience

You will be asked to provide a CV during the application process in order to assess any demonstrable experience, career history and achievements that are relevant to the role.

Behaviours

Please provide examples of how you have met each one of the behaviours listed below (see Annex A for more information):

Delivering at Pace

• Take responsibility for delivering timely and quality results with focus and drive.
• Regularly review the success of activities in the team to identify barriers to progress or challenging objectives.

Seeing the Big Picture

• Understand how your work and the work of your team supports wider objectives and meets the diverse needs of stakeholders.

Working Together

• Develop a range of contacts outside own team and identify opportunities to share knowledge, information and learning.
• Offer support and help to colleagues when in need, including consideration of your own and their wellbeing.

Changing and Improving

• Regularly review own and team’s work and take the initiative to suggest ideas to make improvements.

Please also refer to the CS Behaviours framework for more details at this grade (Level 2 – EO or equivalent)

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/717275/CS_Behaviours_2018.pdf

Should we receive a large number of applications, we will sift primarily on the lead behaviour of Delivering at Pace. Successful applicants will then be invited to an interview to test both behaviours and strengths.

Candidates invited to interview

During the interview, we will assess you on behaviours and strengths from the Success Profiles framework. Strengths questions are asked “blind” (so we will not tell you the specific strengths being tested before or during the interview process).

Interviews are expected to take place at the end of March or in early April 2021.

The MoJ is proud to be Level 3 Disability Confident. Disability Confident is the approach through which we offer guaranteed interviews for all people with disabilities meeting the minimum criteria for the advertised role as set out in the job description.

Contact information  

Please do get in touch if you would like to know more about the role or what it is like working in our team:

For Offender Health, Bola Fabunmi – adebola.fabunmi@justice.gov.uk

for Female Offenders, Izzy Goodman – Isabel.Goodman@justice.gov.uk

Annex A - The STAR method

Using the STAR method can help you give examples of relevant experience that you have. It allows you to set the scene, show what you did, and how you did it, and explain the overall outcome.

Situation - Describe the situation you found yourself in. You must describe a specific event or situation. Be sure to give enough detail for the job holder to understand.

• Where are you?
• Who was there with you?
• What had happened?

Task - The job holder will want to understand what you tried to achieve from the situation you found yourself in.

• What was the task that you had to complete and why?
• What did you have to achieve?

Actions - What did you do? The job holder will be looking for information on what you did, how you did it and why. Keep the focus on you. What specific steps did you take and what was your contribution? Remember to include how you did it, and the behaviours you used. Try to use “I” rather than “we” to explain your actions that lead to the result. Be careful not to take credit for something that you did not do.

Results - Don’t be shy about taking credit for your behaviour. Quote specific facts and figures. Explain how the outcome benefitted the organisation or your area. Make the outcomes easily understandable.

• What results did the actions produce?
• What did you achieve through your actions and did you meet your goals?
• Was it a successful outcome? If not, what did you learn from the experience?

Keep the situation and task parts brief. Concentrate on the action and the result. If the result was not entirely successful describe what you learned from this and what you would do differently next time. Make sure you focus on your strengths.