Ministry of Justice

Job title: Safety and Security Senior Manager

Directorate: National Support Unit (NSU)

Grade: SEO

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.

Having centralised tasks and functions to ensure a more effective and efficient operational delivery, the NSU brings together the core knowledge of our operational and regional teams by consolidating work into one dedicated team, supporting operations in strengthening capability, strategy and delivery.  The NSU is responsible for governance and assurance, helping HMCTS to mitigate risks, support operational organisational health, strengthen national commissioning, identify trends and opportunities, and to provide information and insight to national and regional leadership teams.

The NSU team are spread across different locations within the HMCTS estate, working as one to serve regional and national operational leadership teams, coordinating with RSUs and wider operations, providing an interface between central services and operations.

About the role

The Safety and Security Senior Manager sits within the National Support Unit, reporting to the Head of Incident Response, Safety and Security. This role is responsible for leading and supporting a cadre of Regional Safety and Security Officers (RSSOs) in fulfilling their key accountabilities. The role holder will also act as senior advisor to the Head of Incident Response, Safety and Security, Head of Operational Incident Management and Resilience, Delivery Directors and Directors on security, Health and Safety, and fire safety matters to ensure that Operations comply with HMCTS’ operational and legislative requirements.

The role holder will maintain oversight of advice, support and guidance provided to Operations, escalating risks and issues to ensure safety and security compliance across Operations.

The role holder is responsible for the deployment of a cadre of Regional Safety and Security Officers (RSSO’s) who will be assigned to specific regions but will need to work flexibly across operations should the need arise.

Your role as the Safety and Security Senior Manager encompasses several key aspects (but not limited to):

• Responsible for managing the framework for safety and security, making sure that all areas of significant risk and vulnerability across Operations are identified
• Lead a team of RSSOs, overseeing, allocating and prioritising the work of the team.
• Provide professional support to the team and make sure they are meeting their professional competence requirements.
• Oversee and where appropriate conduct Fire Risk assessments.
• Oversee and where appropriate conduct Health and Safety audits, and security audits checking compliance with operational and legislative requirements.
• Provide high quality, timely, accurate and clear advice/briefing to the Head of Incident Response, Safety and Security, National Support Unit Deputy Director and Delivery Directors on safety and security issues.
• Promote and champion effective safety and security management best practice across Operations at all levels.
• Provide input into national security, fire safety policy, health and safety policies/arrangements
• Manage and evaluate the programme of training for security and safety matters.

 Please refer to the attached role profile for a comprehensive overview of the role.

Who are we looking for? (Person Specification)

The ideal candidate for this position should demonstrate:

Essential Skills

• Comprehensive people management and leadership skills, working with and through others to build capability and confidence.
• Experience of working with and influencing senior management and staff. 
• Experience or knowledge of HMCTS Health and Safety policies, strategies, and systems.
• Experience of operational delivery environment and operational safety and security incident management at local/regional level. 
• Strong communication skills, written and verbal, with the ability to draft and present papers at committees.
• Planning and organising skills to manage programmes/schedules of work.
• Ability to analyse data from audits and assessments to identify trends and make recommendations for action. 

Desirable Skills

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.

•  Specialist Health and Safety qualification, as a minimum NEBOSH General Certificate, and attain membership of relevant professional institute(s) - Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (Technical, Graduate or Chartered), Security Institute (member), ‘Institution of Fire Engineers’ (IFE) Institute of Fire Safety Managers’ (IFSM) – or willingness to work towards this.
• Knowledge and understanding of British Standards on Fire Safety (in particular BS 9997) and the Fire Safety Order 2005.
• PAS79 Fire Risk Assessor training/accreditation – or willingness to work towards it.
• National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) protective security training – or willingness to work towards it.

How to apply

Application Stage

Please submit:

• ·       Statement of suitability demonstrating how you meet the essential criteria (up to 750 words).
• ·       Behaviour examples illustrating the Civil Service Behaviour “Leadership” (up to 250 words each). 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.

Your Statement of Suitability should be no more than 750 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 are 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.  

We will aim to sift the insert ALL criteria but, in the event of a large number of applicants, an initial short sift may be conducted on the Behaviour only. Candidates who pass the initial sift of the Behaviour will progress to a full sift where all application assessment criteria is then assessed.

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:

·       Question(s) in relation to the following Civil Service behaviours 

• Leadership
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
•  Delivering at pace

•   Strengths will also be assessed however these are not shared in advance.
• ·       Specialist Health and Safety qualifications
• ·       British Standards on Fire Safety (in particular BS9997) and the Fire Safety Order 2005
• ·       PAS79 fire risk assessor training/accreditation
• ·       National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) protective security training

 Further details

 Working pattern

Due to the nature of the role, the minimum working hours are 30 hours in five days a week.   

Travel requirements

There will be a requirement to travel frequently to any HMCTS site in line with business needs.

Opportunities for development

HMCTS is committed to staff development and offers an extensive range of training and development opportunities, such as:

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.