Ministry of Justice

This is an opportunity for the successful candidate to work within a unique organisation.  Drawing on your existing HR skills and experience you will be working in an ambiguous environment which will develop your influencing, leadership and consultancy skills.  Judicial Office is a great place to work with a warm, welcoming and supportive culture of delivery and development.  It is a place where your work is valued, recognised and rewarded.

You will work at a strategic level and will be responsible for developing and sustaining trusted working relationships with regional judicial leaders in support of the delivery of justice.  Your HR insights will be key in understanding the needs of the judiciary in the Region and will help to shape the Judicial HR offer.     

You will be part of a team of seven HRBPs, each regionally based.  You will be fully supported by our in house MyHR team comprising HR Support Officers.

If you are proactive, a change agent and able to work with ambiguity this could be an exciting challenge for you to further develop your professional HR skills and add to your portfolio of experience.

The Judicial Office

The Judicial Office (JO) reports to, and is accountable, to the Lord Chief Justice and was established in 2006 to provide support the judiciary 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 Judicial Office provides training, legal and policy advice, human resources, communications and administrative support. We promote and safeguard judicial independence to maintain confidence in the rule of law.

Through our Judicial Office specialist teams, we support some 22,000 judicial office holders in an ever-evolving justice system, providing policy, legal and handling advice and operational support on a wide range of matters.  Judicial Office incorporates the Judicial College and the independent Judicial Conduct Investigations Office.

We are proud that our work serves to reinforce the pre-eminence of the judiciary of England and Wales and maintain the UK’s position as a leader in legal services, a position which allows the UK to thrive and benefits, albeit sometimes invisibly, every part of society.

Judicial Office HR

Judicial Office Human Resources group places Judicial Office Holders at the centre of our service, ensuring we are visible, proactive and responsive. 

We support the Lord Chief Justice and Senior President of Tribunals in their responsibilities for the welfare and conduct of the judiciary. We also support and advise the advisory committees that carry out key functions on behalf of the Lord Chancellor in relation to the magistracy.

We collaborate with colleagues across the Judicial Office and beyond, to ensure we provide judicial office holders with excellent HR support and professional expertise.

Whilst we are part of the wider Civil Service HR community, we are not a typical HR team in that everything we do needs to meet the, often complex, needs of around 22,000 members of the judiciary who are office holders and not employees or Civil Servants.  This provides us with a unique and interesting set of HR challenges.   It also provides us with unique opportunities to work with the judiciary at all levels and gives us ample opportunity to broaden our HR skills sets, use our HR and business insights to be curious and creative about doing things differently within an environment of continuous learning.   

Location and work pattern:

The role is based in the Lewis Building in Birmingham, B4 6AF.  There is an expectation that the successful candidate will spend a minimum of 60% of their time in this office, some of this 60% may be spent out in the Region on Court visits, at face to face stakeholder meetings or facilitating HR input at Regional conferences.  The Region extends from Lincolnshire to Shropshire and Derbyshire to Herefordshire.  The role requires occasional (broadly quarterly) travel to Leeds or London. 

Due to the nature of the role meetings may need to take place outside of core hours. There is an expectation of working flexibly around judicial office holder availability i.e. out-of-court hours before 10am, after 4pm and at lunchtimes.   

Summary of role:

This is a significant HR leadership role requiring high levels of people and HR/business management skills. The role requires a professional approach and must ensure that delivery is in line with the requirements of Civil Service HR, pro-actively role modelling activities and behaviours which promote core MoJ/Judicial Office values including diversity and equality of opportunity and supporting and being a positive advocate of the Judicial Office HR Operating Model

This successful candidate will be responsible for developing and sustaining trusted working relationships with regional leadership judges.   Your HR insights will be key in understanding the impact of the changes for the judiciary throughout the region helping to shape the Judicial HR offer. 

If you are proactive, a change agent and are comfortable working a highly ambiguous environment this could be an exciting challenge for you.

Main responsibilities:

·       To gain a clear understanding of the priorities of the Lord Chief Justice and Senior President Tribunal and translate these into a regional plan that will add value to the local judiciary.

·       Align activities to contribute to organisational priorities (JO and HR) as outlined in Business Plans and strategies. 

• Operate at a strategic level, using coaching and consultancy skills to develop and sustain working relationships with Senior Regional judicial leaders and be a source of trusted advice and support on HR matters. 
• Provide advice to enable judicial leaders to take proactive steps to deal with or pre-empt issues relating to judicial health, welfare, conduct and performance.  Providing high quality timely advice on specific or generalised HR problems.  You will support the management of the regional HR caseload.  You will use data to identify relevant existing and likely future trends.
• Engage and support judicial leaders with the Inclusion and Diversity agenda.

·       Scan for emerging trends and act as an intelligent customer into the wider HR Team on behalf of judiciary located in your Region/Jurisdiction. Feedback Regional intelligence to support corporate initiatives and direction of travel, including supporting forecasting on workflows and demands. 

• Line management of at least one HEO grade.

·       Establish professional relationships with a broad range of stakeholders. Collaborate with these to share information, resources and support.  

·       Connect with HMCTS HRBP colleagues to provide holistic HR advice and support where issues cross boundaries of staff and the judiciary.

• Accountable for record keeping, ensuring compliance with GDPR and data retention policies. 

• Demonstrate commitment to you and your direct report/s continuous development, professional expertise and skill. 

·       Deliver effective outcomes in an ambiguous environment. 

Essential criteria:

We will assess your ability to:

• Build strong and effective HR partnerships and relationships; being recognised as a trusted HR professional.
• Deliver effective outcomes in an ambiguous environment.
• Extract, analyse and present MI and data to the business to back up propositions.
• Demonstrate excellent communication and listening skills, including the confidence to speak with credibility and authority when operating at a senior level.
• Work collaboratively and proactively with stakeholders both internally and externally.

·       Align activities to contribute to wider organisational priorities and be alert to emerging issues and trends which might impact on your and the wider HR area.

• Maintain and review systems and service to ensure delivery of professional excellence and establish ways to find and respond to feedback from customers about the service.

·       Share information as appropriate and act as an intelligent customer for the wider HR service, communicating in a straightforward, honest and engaging manner.

·       Encourage joined up teamwork within own team and across other groups. Establish professional relationships with a range of stakeholders. Collaborate with these to share information, resources and support.

·       Consider the impacts of own and team’s activities on stakeholders and end users.

·       Highly credible HR or operational experience and a sound understanding of employment law and the skills to support and advise key leaders.  An ability to use this knowledge and experience in an ambiguous context. 

Desirable criteria:

• High levels of ability to work with data, including analysis, interpretation and presentation.
• Understanding of the Judiciary.
• Understanding of HMCTS business or willingness to learn about these matters quickly.

It is anticipated that interviews will take place in person in Birmingham on the 29^th April.