OFFICIAL - SENSITIVE




JOB DESCRIPTION



Job Title

Head of Operations (BAU)

Department

Operations

Team

Operations BAU

Job Grade

Grade 7

Number of Posts

1

Reports to

Director of Operations

Job Purpose

As the Head of Operations (Business as Usual) your overarching responsibility is ensuring parole reviews are progressed effectively, in a timely manner.


You will work with a wide range of colleagues and stakeholders both internally and externally, managing staff at SEO grade, team leaders and multiple staff across up to 11 distinct teams including; the centralised work allocations team, regional case management team, 3rd party direction and operational MI.


You will provide leadership with a strong and clear steer to operations staff to ensure quality, efficiency and effectiveness are maintained. This role also includes supporting any significant operational change at the Parole Board ensuring new processes are being implemented effectively and staff affected are engaged with these.


As Head of Operations, you will deputise for the Director of Operations.

Main Duties and Scope of Responsibilities:

  • Part of the Senior Leadership Team.

  • Actively participate in internal and external stakeholder engagement as required.

  • Working in accordance with the Operational objectives in the Parole Board business plan.

  • Responsibility for supporting Operations teams to deliver business activities in line with the Parole Board business plan and BAU Operations hub plan.

  • Continuously supporting the members in concluding parole reviews and producing high quality Parole Board decisions in line with statutory timescales.

  • Manage operational performance and delivery ensuring that effective secretariat support is provided to Parole Board members, to comply with business plan targets whilst maintaining the prisoner’s right to a fair hearing.

  • Develop positive relationships with Parole Board members ensuring they are supported to make effective risk assessments that are rigorous, fair, and timely.

  • Work with the Director of Operations to plan, forecast and monitor member resource and the Parole Board Members fees budget, in order to meet the workload demands.

  • Achieving all performance measures for timeliness of Parole Board hearings and other Generic Parole Process, Recall, and internal processes.

  • Working with other hubs at the Parole Board to bring about business change that improves operational processes and performance.

  • Line management of x3 Senior Operations Managers to ensure that performance management processes are being followed. This includes manging the following teams - Regional Case Management, Listings, Workload Allocation, MCA, Hearing Support, Panel Chair Support, Operational Support.

  • Develop positive relationships with stakeholders to ensure that they are held to account by assisting us to undertake effective parole reviews.

  • Attend and present at relevant Parole Board Governance Committees on the work of the Operations Hub as required, including regional probation forums.

Primary Deliverables

To ensure Operations Hub delivers:

  • An effective secretariat to support the Parole Board membership for the purposes of paper reviews and oral hearings.

  • To ensure cases are progressed to enable the Operations hub to meet the relevant Key Performance Indicators.

Person Specification


Essential

  • Experience of leading operational delivery.

  • Proven ability to maintain operational delivery through change.

  • Proven leadership skills with the ability to provide a clear vision for your function aligned to business strategic priorities.

  • Evidence of turning around operational performance.

  • Ability to maintain and motivate a team with varied and challenging workloads.

  • Evidence of data management and communication of complex data.

  • Experience of influencing internal and external colleagues at senior levels.

  • Ability to make effective decisions as well as provide evidence-based information to inform decisions by senior leaders within the organisation.

  • Strong ability to give quality written and oral advice/presentations to inform critical decision making.

  • Resilience and ability to stay focused and positive in the face of complexity and uncertainty.

  • Ability to deal with potentially difficult and challenging situations.

  • Excellent IT skills and experience in using programmes, including Microsoft Excel, Teams, Word, and PowerPoint.

  • Ability to follow processes, policies, and guidelines

Desirable

  • Experience of managing several diverse teams within a large operational department.

  • Understanding of the Parole Process.

Main Duties:

As set out in the job description above.



Behaviours


We will assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:



Accessibility


The Parole Board is a disability confident recruiter. Accessibility requests will be carefully considered and, where reasonable, actioned.

Whilst the Parole Board office is principally located in London, and, for the purposes of organisational management and administration, it is not required to conduct business in Welsh. However, the Parole Board welcomes applications from candidates who speak Welsh and English as part of its commitment to treat both languages on a basis of equality in the conduct of public business and administration of justice in Wales, as far as is both appropriate and reasonable, and to reflect the community it serves.


Office requirements


This role is hybrid. You will be required to spend 20% of your time in person contact. For some SLT meetings as well as Operations team away days, you will be required to attend in person in London.


Selection process details


This vacancy is using Success Profiles and will assess your Behaviours and Experience. At the interview stage you will be assessed against Behaviours and Experience.

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