Job title: Senior User Support Strategy Advisor

Directorate: Strategy and Analysis

About us

HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is responsible for the administration of criminal, civil and family courts and tribunals in England and Wales. Our roles support our service users and colleagues, where people and businesses access potentially life-changing justice.  We’re looking for individuals who are committed to public service and want to make a difference in people’s lives in delivering justice. If you’re interested in developing a career with a real purpose, please apply.

About the Team

The Business and User Strategy Division sits at the heart of HMCTS, working across the whole organisation to use expert insight on the needs of our users and business, the policy context, operational priorities and wider strategic trends to develop and drive organisational strategy, strategic decision making and support for vulnerable users. We work with senior leadership and engage with colleagues across HMCTS, the Ministry of Justice and stakeholders across the wider justice system to help the organisation to meet strategic challenges, innovate and help enable access to justice for all - We do this through:  

• Taking a cross jurisdictional strategic approach to issues impacting the user experience,

• Designing, testing and iterating solutions that remove barriers to justice,

• Facilitating a forum for public user engagement, to help HMCTS improve our services (strategy, design and delivery) by understanding the experiences that public users have,

• Providing subject matter expertise advice on inclusion, vulnerability and equality.  

About the role

As Senior User Support Strategy Advisor, you will work collaboratively with the wider team to help set the direction for HMCTS being a more user focused organisation, through developing user strategies and engaging with public user representatives.

You will support the User Inclusion Strategy & Engagement Lead in creating and embedding a cohesive approach to cross jurisdictional support offered to users. Our users are any individuals who use a HMCTS service; this could be a litigant in person, victim or witness in a personal capacity or as a business owner or employee of a company.

Within the first 12 months there will be a clear focus on ensuring the successful commercial competition for the Digital Support Service and the transition from a project to the Live Service Team. The service exists to ensure that all users can access our digital services, HMCTS offers a support service for digitally excluded users (those with no access to technology or digital skills and confidence). You will be shaping final service design, identifying issues for delivery, problem solving and escalating risk. Your focus will then be redirected to understanding the wider user support landscape, which is currently fragmented, using a range of evidence, stakeholder insight and collaboration with colleagues across HMCTS and MOJ strengthen and coordinate wider user support across HMCTS.

Key Responsibilities, including but not limited to:

• Managing the commercial competition for the Digital Support Service and support Live Service Team with mobilisation of the new commercial arrangements.

• Independently managing the development of a digital referral tool for the Digital Support Service making recommendations to the User Inclusion Strategy & Engagement Lead on designs and escalation of risk.

• Building an evidence base around user needs, using engagement feedback, service performance data and operational feedback to inform the HMCTS user support offer across all channels (content, phone and in person).

• Identifying gaps or inconsistencies in support provision and work with colleagues to design simple, inclusive solutions, through delivering engagement sessions, workshops and using co-design principles.

• Developing a clear strategy for how HMCTS supports users, using evidence from service performance data, user feedback and operational insight to identify where users struggle and what improvements are needed.

Who are we looking for? (Person Specification)

The ideal candidate for this position should demonstrate:

Essential Skills

• Experience of design, delivery or service management of a user facing service using engagement feedback or codesign approaches

• Experience of using evidence and insight to improve services for users

• Experience in successfully managing and influencing stakeholders to achieve an outcome

• Experience of project management including scoping, governance and risk management

• Proven interpersonal and written communication skills

• Clear commitment to improving the accessibility of operational services

The below criteria are desirable only. These will not be assessed throughout the recruitment process, but will be used in the event of tied scores between candidates 

Desirable Skills

• Experience in the development of digital products

• Experience in co-production or co-design approaches that involve service users in the design of services.

• Knowledge or experience of the courts or tribunal services, or wider justice landscape

How to apply

Application Stage

Please submit:

• An anonymised CV. Please ensure your CV is uploaded in a simple format to prevent any formatting issues when it's downloaded or reviewed. 

Your CV should: 

• Be succinct and clear.

• Be factually accurate - You must ensure that any evidence submitted as part of your application, is truthful and factually accurate. Please note that plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own. 

• Include your qualifications, highlighting any modules or accreditation relevant to the role.

• Include your relevant experience, providing dates. 

• Provide detail - we are interested in how your knowledge, skills, and experience demonstrate the capabilities we are looking for in this role.

• A statement of suitability demonstrating how you meet the essential criteria (up to 500 words).

Your Statement of Suitability should be no more than 500 words and should give us real life examples of how your skills and experience match those needed for this role. Consider addressing particular points in the person specification requirements and key responsibilities. We recommend following the STAR format. 

You must ensure that any evidence submitted as part of your application is truthful and factually accurate. Please note that plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own.

• A behaviour example illustrating the Civil Service Behaviour Managing a Quality Service (up to 250 words). Please ensure you cover both ‘what’ you do but also ‘how’ you do it. (i.e., the effective skills, knowledge & experience needed to undertake the role). We recommend following the STAR format.

Interview Stage

If successful at sift, you will be invited to attend a remote interview, via Microsoft teams. During your interview, you will be assessed against the following Civil Service Success Profiles which will include:

• Questions in relation to the following Civil Service behaviours:

• Making Effective Decisions

• Seeing the Big Picture

• Managing a Quality Service

• Strengths will also be assessed however these are not shared in advance.

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Travel requirements

You will be required to undertake occasional travel to other HMCTS sites for team meetings and for wider business needs.

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About our benefits

We reward our people for their hard work and commitment. We have a number of family

friendly and flexible working polices that will help you achieve a healthy work-life balance. In addition, we offer a range of employee benefits which include generous annual leave, a highly competitive contributory pension scheme, childcare benefits, season ticket and bicycle loans.

Proud to Serve. Proud to keep justice going.