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 JLSP Directorate is recruiting permanently for a Grade 7 role. This campaign is an external campaign and open to all, including current civil servants on level transfer and suitable candidates on promotion.
Location:
Successful candidates will have the option to be based at one of the following locations:
- 102 Petty France, London
- 5 Wellington Place, Leeds (occasional travel between Leeds and 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 believe and promote alternative ways of working, 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 staff are currently 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, and future vacancies requiring the same skills and experience could be offered to candidates on the reserve list without a new competition.
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 Ministry of Justice (MoJ)
MOJ is one of the largest government departments, employing around 70,000 people (including those in the Probation Service), 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 Lord Chancellor (LC), who is also the Secretary of State for Justice, is responsible for determining the terms of appointment for most judicial office holders in England and Wales, and for a number of UK-wide judicial office holders. The functions that support judicial appointments, including diversity, training, deployment and welfare are shared between the LC, the Lord Chief Justice / Senior President of Tribunals and the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC). At a working level these responsibilities fall across MoJ, Judicial Office (JO), HMCTS and the JAC. These organisations work together with the aim of ensuring we have sufficient judicial office holders of the right caliber to support the business need of our courts and tribunals.
Judicial Operations: Appointment and Diversity
The post holder will lead a small team (1.5 x SEO and 2 x HEO), and work closely with other MoJ teams, JO, HMCTS and JAC colleagues. Responsibilities include:
- Judicial Diversity: Working with the Judiciary, Judicial Appointments Commission, HMCTS and the legal professions to shape ideas that will help attract, appoint, identify and develop talent with the aim of improving the diversity of the judiciary. Specifically, to include representing the MoJ/LC in Judicial Diversity Forum working level groups, using your influence to drive cross- organisation collaboration and unblock barriers on projects such as the annual judicial diversity statistics report and the Pre-Application Judicial Education (PAJE) programme.
- Judicial Appointments Policy: Develop and maintain policies in relation to Judicial Appointments (including UK Supreme Court), including identifying and addressing stakeholder and judicial interests and concerns related to new policies and procedures; working with the judiciary, HMCTS and JAC to determine when the Lord Chancellor’s policies on judicial appointment eligibility and selection criteria apply; and maintaining the LC’s terms of appointment for judges, updating them as policies are reviewed.
- Sponsorship of Judicial Arms-Length Bodies: Supporting the Lord Chancellor’s relationship with the judicial arms-length bodies – the Judicial Office, the Judicial Appointments Commission, and the Judicial Appointments and Conduct Ombudsman. This includes agreeing resources for each body, and monitoring performance against budget and the annual business plan and acting as first point of contact for matters arising.
- Data Protection Act: single point of contact in Judicial Policy for DPA issues as they relate to the judiciary.
We are looking for an individual with:
As the work is fast-paced and evolving you will be a confident self-starter that can constantly face new challenges to progress your work and with excellent communication and inter-personal skills to work with internal and external colleagues to understand and develop solutions to problems. You will understand the importance of using evidence to monitor interventions and amending approaches as required. You will be effective at working collaboratively with colleagues from across MoJ, HMCTS,Judicial Office, JAC and the legal professions; and to build effective working relationships with senior officials and members of the judiciary. A key aspect of the role will be to provide high quality advice to the Lord Chancellor, other ministers and the judiciary, reflecting their respective constitutional roles, both in writing and orally.
Knowledge of the judiciary and the justice system would be desirable for this role, however, an interest in diversity is essential. An ability to assimilate information and to quickly bring yourself and your team up to speed and to deliver at pace will be essential.
In addition, you will have:
- Good leadership skills, including the ability to manage and motivate your team to deliver complex policy objectives at pace, demonstrated with relevant experience.
- The ability to manage a varied workload, and to identify priorities proactively; using project and programme management tools to plan the work of your team to achieve both short and long-term objectives.
- Experience in leading evidence-based policy development, an understanding of using evaluation to improve policy; and keeping abreast of strategic priorities.
- Excellent stakeholder engagement and communication skills, with the ability to build and maintain relationships and influence with a range of partners.
- Experience of providing clear, evidenced briefing in both written and oral formats on complex policy areas to senior stakeholders and Ministers.
You will an active member of the Division’s senior management team, and MoJ’s Policy and Strategy Group’s G7 leadership cohort, ensuring you fully embrace and demonstrate the Ministry of Justice’s corporate leadership values.
Application process
You will be assessed against the Civil service success profiles framework.
Behaviours
Please provide examples (detail the situation, your action and results) of how you have met each one of the behaviours listed below see Annex A for more information):
- Seeing the Big Picture
- Leadership
- Communicating and Influencing
- Making Effective Decisions
- Delivering at Pace
Please also refer to the CS Behaviours framework for more details at this grade (Level 4 – Grade 6 and Grade 7 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 – Seeing the Big Picture. Successful applicants will then be invited to an interview.
Candidates invited to Interview
You will be required to give a 5-minute presentation at interview. Details of this will be sent to those candidates who are invited for interview. Please note that interviews will be carried out remotely. During the interview, we will be assessing you on Behaviours and Strengths from the success Profiles framework.
Interviews are expected to take place in May 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.
Clare Wormald clare.wormald@justice.gov.uk or 0203 545 8886
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.
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