Role Title Private Secretary to the CEO, HMCTS
Job family
Job
Grad
For internal
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G7
Status
group
family/ies
e
use
Role Purpose The role plays a pivotal role in driving forward the CEO’s key objectives, maintaining a high-level awareness of changing
(250 words priorities and ensuring that they are communicated effectively. They drive forward the CEO’s priorities, facilitating their delivery
max) and ensuring that issues that impact on delivery can be identified and managed effectively. The role holder will play a key part
in ensuring that the CEO is sufficiently briefed and well-informed about issues which affect the running of the whole of
HMCTS.
Key Accountabilities (600 words max)
• Provide high quality, timely accurate and clear advice/briefing and support to the Chief Executive, driving their priorities. The role holder will
need to understand and be able to summarise complex policy and operational issues quickly and provide the CEO with succinct and
accurate summaries that will inform decision making or action at the highest levels in the organisation.
• Resolve complex or difficult issues and reacting to fast moving and often unexpected situations and dealing efficiently and effectively
with emerging high-profile issues.
• Build effective working relationships to provide leadership and an effective channel of communication for the CEO with wider HMCTS,
Ministry of Justice, Ministerial offices, the Judicial Office, and external stakeholders, whilst ensuring that the Chief Executive’s attention is
focused on business-critical issues.
• Use relationships, judgement and understanding of wider contexts to support the CEO in their work and to add value to the process and
substance of decision making, ensuring financial and ethical probity, including preparing priority papers and ministerial submissions.
• Demonstrate strong leadership and collaboration in the directorate and across the MoJ family and support the CEO in building and
maintaining essential strategic relationships both within and outside the organisation.
• Track and monitoring performance against work taking place across HMCTS to ensure it is delivering. Provide challenge and support
where this is not the case and ensure that issues are resolved.
• Ensure systems, practices and procedures operating within the Chief Executive’s office reflect the continuous improvement culture and the
examples of good practice learnt from others.
• Structure the CEO work programme to meet their priorities, tracking progress and delivery against this agenda.
• Ensure systems, practices and procedures operating within the CEO’s office reflect a culture of continuous improvement and examples of
good practice learnt from others.
• Communicate priorities and commissioning work on behalf of the CEO to members of the Senior Leaders Team, project teams and wider
HMCTS.
• Liaising closely with the Communications Directorate to ensure that the Director’s approach is reflected in the portfolio communications.
• Work closely with the CEO and Senior Leadership team and others to successfully deliver their priorities as a team.
• Proactively identify, manage and be accountable for minimising the risk to the organisation arising from change
• Due to the frequent level of exposure to sensitive and high-profile issues, the role holder will be expected to work professionally and
exercise discretion where necessary.
Knowledge, Skills and Experience (500 words max)
Essential
• Impeccable organisational skills, capable of managing a high volume of work at pace.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to reprioritise and keep track of multiple activities in a rapidly changing operating environment.
• Experience of building productive stakeholder relationships, often bringing together people with differing views to develop consensus and
support.
• Excellent collaboration and leadership skills capability, and the ability to inspire others to get things done.
• Excellent judgement combined with the ability to identify and manage risks.
• Ability to learn quickly, work autonomously and thrive in a dynamic fast-paced environment.
• Ability to act in a highly confidential manner and exercise discretion.
• Ability to analyse information quickly, make sound decisions and think strategically.
Desirable
• Experience of supporting senior leaders in an operational or policy environment
Problem Solving and Decision Making (300 words max)
The role holder will
• Exercise judgement and speak authoritatively on behalf of the Chief Executive and will be expected to work closely with the rest of the
team to ensure that the best use is made of the Chief Executive’s time.
• Resolve complex or difficult issues and reacting to fast moving and often unexpected situations, and analysing the potential
consequences of proposed changes or courses of action, assessing risk and advising on mitigation and ensuring the
operation and reputation of HMCTS is protected as far as possible .
• Use your relationships, judgement and understanding of wider contexts to support the CEO in their work and to add value to the process
and substance of decision making, ensuring financial and ethical probity. The role holder will engage, consult and negotiate with
colleagues, including members of the senior leadership team to help provide the CEO with the key information needed to make
decisions or take action.
• Operate in a fast-moving environment in which precedent may not be available to guide choices and options, requiring the role
holder to use a high level of personal judgment in determining the correct or most appropriate course of action, including
determining the importance and/or priority of items that may need to be escalated to the CEOs attention
Management of Resources (250 words max)
• Ensuring there is resource to support the CEO and senior team in carrying out shared priorities, using influence and persuasion to
ensure activities are delivered.
• May have responsibility for approving expenditure for Director’s [CEO’s] Office (e.g. When organising directorate events) and advise
Director [CEO] on value for money as part of their decision making.
• The role holder will be a key part of the CEO’s support structure and will be visible to employees and the wider organisation as
a leader responsible for influencing and embedding organisational vision, values and culture.
Autonomy (250 words max)
• The role is not bound by rules, regulations and precedent and is not defined in terms of legislation, guidelines, or codes (expect those
that apply to all civil servants). There is authority to make decisions without the agreement of others and work is not routinely checked or
reviewed by more senior managers
• The role holder will be presented with novel and/or complex issues and can, and will be expected to, make the decision on
what issues will come before the CEO.
Key Relationships and Contacts (300 words max)
The role holder will
• Build and maintain their own relations with key stakeholders and act as a primary contact, facilitating positive working
relationships, despite often challenging agendas and contexts.
• Ensure issues are dealt with in line with the CEO’s view, exercising judgement in their absence.
• Act as primary contact between the CEO, Senior Leadership Team, wider HMCTS, MoJ centre, Ministerial offices, Judicial Office and
external stakeholders, whilst ensuring that the CEO attention is focused on business-critical issues.