Job Description (JD)

Group/Directorate/Team:

Role: Admin Officer

Grade: AO







































Role title:

Admin Officer, HR Operations



Team/Directorate:

Judicial HR Team - HR Operations

Overview of the Judicial Office

This is standardised wording and cannot be amended.

The Judicial Office (JO) reports to, and is accountable, to the Lady Chief Justice (LCJ). It was established in 2006 to provide support to the LCJ and to the wider judiciary in upholding the rule of law and in delivering justice impartially, speedily and efficiently, following the Constitutional Reform Act 2005.

In addition, we support, and are accountable to, the Senior President of Tribunals, whose responsibilities extend to Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The JO is an interesting and unique place to work. Everything we do is in support of upholding the independence and impartiality of the judiciary. We work closely with HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS), the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and others across Government as well as with the legal professions.

We are an Arm’s Length Body sponsored by the Ministry of Justice. This creates an interesting and complex environment in which to work where we agree our priorities with the senior judiciary and receive our funding to deliver them from the Ministry of Justice. The Judicial Office has been through a period of significant growth resulting from an expansion of our remit and responsibilities.

See JO staff talk about working here: https://design102.wistia.com/medias/uhgtmbtnlv

Overview of the team

The Judicial HR Operations Team is accountable for delivering the right Judicial Office Holders with the right skills, in the right place, at the right time in support of the Lord Chancellor, Lady Chief Justice and the Senior President of Tribunals as set out in the Constitutional Reform Act 2005. We are responsible for working with the judiciary, wider JO, HMCTS, MoJ and the JAC. The Judicial Office Holder Appointments team provides support to the senior judiciary and the Lord Chancellor concerning Judicial Office Holder appointments and retirements. We also provide advice on the authorisation of judges and the deployment of individuals to other roles, including leadership roles.

Hybrid Working Requirement

This is standardised wording and cannot be amended.

This position is eligible for hybrid working (current minimum requirement for time spent at base location is 60%, which is subject to business requirements).

Summary of the role

As Admin Officer, the role holder will be required to support a range of judicial appointment related duties to the Onboarding, Complex Appointments, Relationship Management and the Management Information & Insights Team (MIIT) supporting the senior judiciary and the Lord Chancellor in relation to their responsibilities to judicial office holder appointments (Courts, Tribunals and Magistracy).

Responsibilities,

Activities & Duties:

Working to your EO Team leader, this role involves supporting quality and timely support on appointments to the judiciary. This could include the following responsibilities:

Lead Areas

  • Provide timely support to the Lord Chancellor, the Lady Chief Justice, the Senior President of Tribunals and the Senior Presiding Judge on JAC and Advisory Committee reports that recommend candidates for judicial appointment, renewals, resignations and extensions of appointments.

  • Respond timely in accordance with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to queries from stakeholders and the public, from the HR Operations Team inbox within the agreed KPIs.

  • Processing the automatic renewals of judges’ appointments and wider data inputting using the JHR IT database, system ensuring appointments are accurately maintained.

  • To support the HR Operations Team (HR Ops Team) in managing the appointments process for Courts Judges, Tribunal judges and Magistrates in a timely and efficient manner.

  • To collect Royal Warrants/Letters Patent and to draft correspondence and work with the wider team on public announcements, medical checks, and Instruments of Appointment.

  • To support swearing-in ceremonies for Circuit Judges and above, to ensure that they run smoothly. This may involve occasional working outside usual business hours.

  • To assist with the creation of an electronic filing system accessible to the wider HR Ops Team.

  • To organise and maintain the paper filing system, which may involve some lifting of boxes and moving files from one location to another.

  • Arrange the signing of long service certificates for Magistrates.

  • To support and help to implement wider assurance protocols across the HR Ops Team.

  • To support the HR Ops Team in delivering our Service Level Agreements (SLA’s) and KPI’s.

  • Providing ad hoc flexible support to colleagues across the HR Ops Team as and when required to meet shifting work priorities as and when requested by your manager.


Develop a collaborative way of working with colleagues in the wider HR Ops Team that will ensure a seamless systematic approach, providing clarity for Judicial Office Holders and the Department through team working and shared knowledge of the whole appointments system.

Essential Knowledge, Experience and Skills

  • Good organisational skills with the ability to manage your own workload effectively.

  • Proficiency in IT skills (should be able to work confidently in Word, Excel, Outlook including the ability to make formatting and layout changes to documents, manipulate data in Excel using basic formulae, sorting and filtering and be able to use databases confidently).

  • Strong team player with the ability to support colleagues across the HR Ops Team.

  • Good attention to the guidelines, procedures and processes of the HR Ops Team.

Desirable Knowledge, Experience and Skills

  • Experience of a customer focused service.

  • Knowledge of the work of the judiciary.


Behaviours (for Recruitment/Success Profiles):

  1. Working Together (Lead behaviour)

  2. Delivering at Pace

  3. Managing a Quality Service

  4. Changing and improving

Assessment process at application

Please also refer to the CS Behaviours framework for more details at this grade:


https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/717275/CS_Behaviours_2018.pdf


Should we receive a large volume of applications, we will sift primarily on the lead behaviour Working Together. Successful applicants will then be invited to an interview, testing both Behaviours and Strengths.

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.

Assessment process at interview

Successful applicants will then be invited to a virtual interview on MS Teams, testing both Behaviours and Strengths.

Security clearance required:

Select one of the below.

(this will be determined by the location)

  • DBS

  • CTC

  • SC

  • DV

Please note:

Central Government policy dictates that applicants for National Security Clearance must be a resident in the UK for these minimum periods:

  • CTC - 3 years

  • SC - 5 years

  • DV - 10 years

CTC