We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging. To find out more about how we do this visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity.
This is an exciting opportunity to join an exciting cross-government programme: the Better Outcomes through Linked Data (BOLD) programme. This post will be part of a wide ranging, multi-disciplinary team responsible for transforming the use of data to drive outcomes and decision-making across government.
This role is for a Grade 7 to lead analysis within the BOLD Reducing Reoffending team in the Ministry of Justice. BOLD is a large and complex programme that consists of sharing data across government, building a linked dataset, and delivering 4 demonstrator projects that will use the linked dataset to tackle specific policy challenges across substance misuse, homelessness, victims of crime and reoffending. BOLD is an exciting cross-departmental programme funded by the Treasury’s Shared Outcomes Fund. This gives us the opportunity to truly work collaboratively across departmental boundaries, working as a single team with a single vision: deliver better outcomes for vulnerable populations through the use of linked data. If you like challenging problems, with real-world impact and an analytical platform that's the envy of the rest of the civil service, apply for this role.
We welcome applications from candidates based across the UK. Candidates will have the option of being based in the Leeds or London HQ offices (with flexible working arrangements available) or your nearest Justice Collaboration Centre or Justice Satellite Office. These are in Liverpool, Leeds, South Tyneside, Nottingham, Cardiff, Ipswich and Brighton. Periodic travel may be required for collaboration with the wider programme team.
Interviews are likely to take place in late May/early June. We will keep a merit list for a year for those who successfully pass the interview board but who are not offered a post immediately as similar posts will become available in future.
Salary Ranges are subject to inner and outer London weighting and are as follows:
Inner London: £54,274 - £63,500
National - £50,427 - £59,000
The post is open to any current civil servant, badged members of an analytical profession are preferred but we will not exclude those who identify as analysts and are un-badged. We are able to offer this role as a full-time position in MoJ and the candidate will roll back into MoJ’s Data and Analysis Directorate at the end of the programme but we are also pleased to offer this role as a loan for the duration of BOLD until March 2024 (inclusive) if preferred by the ideal candidate. If you have any questions, please contact us.
About MoJ
The Ministry of Justice is one of the largest government departments, employing around 76,000 people, with a budget of approximately £7.4 billion. The justice system is a vital public service that changes people’s lives and our work spans criminal, civil, administrative and family justice. Each year millions of people across the UK use our services - including courts, tribunals, probation and prisons in England and Wales. We are all likely to come into contact with the justice system at some point in our lives, either because we have been a witness to or victim of a crime, to protect and enforce our rights, or to settle disputes.
Why work for the Ministry of Justice?
- Flexible working arrangements – including compressed hours, flexi-time, working from home or commuter hubs outside of London
- Broad and varied opportunities for development and promotion – there are lots of interesting and highly meaningful jobs across the Ministry and great opportunities to expand experience
- Data and Analysis is at the centre of the Department’s decision making – with a ministerial team who are keen for all decisions to be evidence driven
- See the frontline and what your work is influencing – regular opportunities to visit prisons and courts to better understand the areas your work and leadership is affecting
BOLD
The BOLD programme is a cross-government initiative delivered in partnership between the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), the Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC), Office for Health improvement and Disparities (OHID), Public Health Wales (PHW) and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC) and this role offers the opportunity to deliver impact across a broad range of public services.
Public services collect a large amount of data which is used to improve the quality of services offered to the public, but it is often not shared between organisations, making it difficult to understand whether certain services have been effective.
The BOLD Programme, backed by £20 million of investment from HM Treasury, will improve the connectedness of government data so that policy-makers and those working on the frontline of UK public services have better quality evidence on what works in supporting victims, reducing homelessness and substance misuse and helping offenders turn their backs on crime. Understanding what services best help prison leavers into work could help to prevent thousands of people becoming victims each year and save some of the £18 billion annual cost of repeat crimes.
The BOLD vision is to enable better evidenced, joined-up and more effective cross-govt. services to support and protect vulnerable adults at specific touchpoints in their interactions with government funded services, supported by timely linked data and evidence. The programme is ambitious and sits across 5 government departments. A flagship initiative for collaborative, cross-department working, BOLD intends to conduct data linkage on a scale never seen before in the UK government, aiming to link key datasets to aid policy makers in doing more evidence-based policy design and prioritisation, support management to make performance decisions to better meet needs across services and to provide more targeted support for individuals - driving better outcomes for vulnerable adults.Â
The programme has 4 demonstrator pilot projects focusing on substance misuse, homelessness, victims of crime and reoffending, which aim to utilise the linked dataset when it is created. The demonstrator projects are so named because they are pilots for the ethos behind BOLD, striving to demonstrate the value of linking data across departmental boundaries, in this first iteration, to support adults who interact in different ways with the Criminal Justice System.
Robust evaluation strategies underpin BOLD, aiming to promote the successful facets of the programme into future years of funding and share lessons learned across the rest of government. BOLD aims to help other data initiatives stride forward with the collaborative mindset of BOLD, so we can achieve success together. All BOLD team members are expected to share and implement best practices across the virtual teams they work within.
The Reducing Reoffending Pilot
Reoffending is costing society approximately £18bn per year and two-fifths of adult prisoners re-offend within 12 months of release. Reducing reoffending is a key priority for the government but the current data landscape makes this challenging, as there is limited data and the data that does exist is not always shared between prison, probation and police. As a result, it is difficult to accurately sequence and target interventions based on the needs of individuals. For example, managing an offender once they have left prison is a multi-profession undertaking that requires the input of multiple criminal justice agencies, as well as service providers.
The Reducing Reoffending (RR) pilot is seeking to use the BOLD linked data sets to test ways to improve the connectedness of government data so that policy makers and those working on the frontline of the UK public services have better quality evidence on what works to tackle the factors that lead to reoffending.
This is an opportunity to take an ambitious, forward-thinking approach that utilises strong collaborative relationships to test the value in linking data at across the different departments, agencies and practitioners that deliver services that reduce reoffending.
Key Responsibilities of the Role
The reducing reoffending pilot has a strong policy team making a lot of progress but needs a capable, well-rounded analyst who can provide analytical oversight to the direction of the pilot. We are looking for an accomplished analyst who can also demonstrate their strategic and bigger-picture thinking which can be brought to bear on a complex social policy landscape, embedded in a large, complex cross-departmental programme. The successful applicant will be a confident, independent worker who thrives on delivering impactful analysis in a challenging, ambiguous landscape and can demonstrate effective stakeholder management to successfully work in a fast-moving interdisciplinary team. Â
We are looking to hire an analyst to work in partnership with the policy and data science leads of the Reducing Reoffending pilot to:
- Act as analytical lead for the Reducing Reoffending Demonstrator Pilot, including coordination and project oversight provision for all elements of relevant programmes.
- Initiate and supervise original analysis and research using existing MoJ and novel datasets including public health and provision of service datasets to address policy questions and inform the wider reducing reoffending evidence base through publication.
- Lead and direct complex analyses such as significance testing and regression modelling using specialist analytical software and skills.
- Provide briefings, advice, feedback and reports (formally and informally, written and verbal) stakeholders as required.
- Act as a translator between policy and data science teams to ensure data needs for policy development, commissioning, monitoring and evaluation are fully articulated. Ensure their priority needs are reflected in the BOLD programme of work, associated Data Strategy and other analysis commissioned across the programme and other government departments.
- Actively participate in the BOLD analytical network across government, supporting the analytical aims of the other pilots where they overlap with the reducing reoffending policy area.
- Support the central BOLD data sharing team with subject specific knowledge required for data sharing negotiations, specifically to support team members to become subject matter experts in MoJ datasets.
- Line management of two Band Bb (SEO) analysts.
Skills and Experience
- Excellent analytical skills – able to synthesise, and form judgements on, information from a variety of sources and ensure the quality and appropriateness of research methods used.
- Experience designing or delivering complex analytical projects – proven analytical project management skills
- Experience scoping analytical projects from a relatively blank slate
- Experience of delivering a range of high-quality quantitative analysis to inform policy and operational decisions based on management information data and/or survey data
- Ability to clearly explain statistical and quantitative techniques, findings and levels of uncertainty to non-analysts both verbally and through other communication channels.
- Evidence of identifying evidence gaps or data improvement opportunities and delivering improvements that make a difference to policy or operational colleagues
- Professional attitude and service orientation; team player
- Good communication and collaboration skills
- Strong work ethic; ability to work at an abstract level and gain consensus
- Able to build a sense of trust and rapport that creates a comfortable & effective workplace
- Attitude to thrive in a fast-paced environment
- Experience of setting up and implementing robust QA processes
- Understanding of existing criminal justice system data desirable
- Experience of leading a team of analysts and task managing others in technical work desirable
Details Required In Your Application
We will ask for a CV and a Statement of Suitability (i.e. cover letter) to assess your Experience and your Technical skills. Based on this, we may invite you to interview.
Experience
Please submit a CV, which must be no more than 2 sides of A4. Please specify if you are currently badged in a government analytical profession. Only applicants who submit this document will be considered for an invite to interview.
Technical
In your Statement of Suitability, please explain why you are the right candidate for this role, based on the information given in this job description. You will have up to 1000 words to use in your statement. Please try to cover as many of the bullets as possible using work you have completed to demonstrate how you meet each one. You may wish to provide 2 or 3 examples that cover off multiple requirements, or to address each in turn.
Applicants Invited for 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.
If you successfully reach the interview stage you will be assessed on a selection of the following behaviours, details of this will be sent to those candidates who are invited for interview:
- Seeing the Big Picture
- Changing & Improving
- Communicating and influencing
- Working Together
- Delivering at Pace
- Making Effective Decisions
- Leadership
Please see the CS Behaviours framework for more details at this grade (Level 4 - Grade 7 and Grade 6 or equivalent):
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/717275/CS_Behaviours_2018.pdf
For Further Information Please Contact:
Charlotte Owen (Head of Tech and Data for the BOLD Programme)
Charotte.Owen1@justice.gov.uk
07929 714235
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