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This is an exciting opportunity to join a high-profile and fast-paced team which sits at the heart of both MoJ and HMCTS to set the strategic approach to recovery across the justice system. 

We are recruiting for up to four permanent Band Bs and one temporary Band B to cover a period of up to 12 months maternity leave for which a fixed term contract will be offered. 

Location:

Successful candidates will have the option to be based at one of the following locations:

1. 102 Petty France, London
2. 5 Wellington Place, Leeds 

Salary

The salary range at the point of advertising for the post is £30.989 - £47,591 however, new entrants to the civil service are expected to join at the relevant geographical salary starting point - £30.989 national and £36,798 inner London. 

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 although in future there will be a requirement for regular travel to 102 Petty France, London 

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. 

Courts and Tribunals Recovery Unit

The Court and Tribunals Recovery Unit (CTRU) is a high-profile, friendly and supportive team, established in December 2020 to lead the MoJ and HMCTS strategic approach to recovery across all our court jurisdictions. 

The pandemic has created a once in a generation challenge for the courts, with significant implications for the administration of justice in England and Wales and the experience of all users of the justice system, not least victims, vulnerable groups and all those who need swift access to justice.  Ensuring that our courts can continue to hear the cases coming in is essential to maintaining the rule of law and public confidence in the justice system. 

This work is a ministerial and No.10 priority and is subject to significant interest from partners in the justice system from across government. It is our role to ensure ministers across government receive the best possible advice on a range of important operational and policy issues, to help the department make better and more coordinated decisions, plan for the long-term and set out a clear ambition and plan for delivering recovery. 

Our work focuses on three key areas: 

1. Providing coherence and coordination across the department. As a joint unit that sits across both the operational and policy side of the MoJ’s approach to recovery, we set the strategic direction on recovery for all jurisdictions in line with ministerial priorities. We ensure there is join-up across the department wherever teams are working on issues that may impact on our ability to recover and provide support and constructive challenge as needed as we build a coherent plan for recovery across the courts and tribunals.
2. Supporting ministers to make quality decisions. We work closely with policy, operational, and analytical colleagues to ensure ministers are seeing the best quality advice and evidence possible, to allow them to make informed, evidence-based decisions on the overall approach to recovery across the department. We share the quality advice and evidence-based insights we have gathered with other government departments and agencies involved in the justice system to ensure we are taking a cross-Whitehall approach to recovery.
3. A strategic focus on future resilience. As we recover, it is critical that we continue to hold on to innovation where new ideas have emerged as a result of the pandemic, and that we continue to closely monitor and assess the impacts of the actions we are already taking. We want to allow the justice system to build back better and more resilient than before, to allow us to work more flexibly and efficiently in future and safeguard the ability of the system to respond flexibly to future pressures. 

We are looking for motivated, resilient and adaptable individuals who can get to grips with new subject areas quickly, have strong analytical and problem-solving skills, are able to communicate complex ideas clearly and can provide supportive leadership to those they line-manage.  You will need to be confident working independently and comfortable working with ambiguity, leading the delivery of the complex and challenging recovery agenda. 

The team has a wide range of experience and is comprised of people with a mix of backgrounds in both policy and operational roles. We work closely with other teams at both a working and senior level across the department and the wider government to deliver the strategic approach to recovery. 

The Role 

The individual will:

• co-ordinate and draft regular advice to ministers and senior officials on various recovery related topics, often responding at speed to high priority complex commissions
• proactively create and maintain positive, professional and trusting working relationships with a wide range of people within and outside the organisation, identifying effective connections and reaching out to bring people together to develop and deliver recovery
• work well as part of a team and strive to ensure the team works together to deliver. the individual will be expected to provide leadership across the team to ensure an inclusive, collaborative and driven environment.
• maintain and review CTRU processes to ensure quality delivery at pace.
• be line managed by a Senior Strategy Lead within CTRU. 

Personal Attributes & Skills  

The individual will:

• have impeccable organisational skills and be capable of managing a high volume of work at pace
• have excellent judgement, combined with the ingenuity and independent ability to spot and manage risk and bring solutions to problems to CTRU SMT and other senior officials.
• have strong communication and collaboration skills, particularly the ability to drive progress to get things done within CTRU and through external teams, ensuring high performance.
• Have excellent writing skills, critically engage with and challenge information provided to ensure the highest quality advice with relative information is provided to ministers, senior officials, stakeholders and the wider public.
• be able to quickly build positive relationships with colleagues across HMCTS and MOJ as well as other key stakeholders in a complex and sensitive environment.
• be confident in absorbing and making sense of high volumes of complex information at pace
• be engaging, trustworthy and unafraid to challenge peers and senior colleagues. 

Application process

You will be assessed against the Civil service success profiles framework. 

Experience

You will be asked to provide a CV and a Statement of Suitability of no more than 250 words 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): 

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Leadership
• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and influencing 

Please also refer to the CS Behaviours framework for more details at this grade (Level 3 – Band B 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 seeing the bigger picture. Successful applicants will then be invited to an interview, testing both behaviours and strengths. 

Candidates invited to Interview

You will be required to carry out a short task 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 July 2021. 

At interview stage, if candidates do not score high enough to be appointed to a Band B role, but have passed the minimal requirements, they could be offered a role at the more junior level of Band C. 

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 with Jane Wignall if you would like to know more about the role or what it is like working in our team - jane.wignall1@justice.gov.uk or 07951 328 729