Head of Family Justice Strategy and Performance

Grade 7

Civil, Family, Tribunals and Access to Justice Directorate

The Family Justice Unit in the Civil, Family, Tribunals and Access to Justice Directorate is recruiting permanently for a G7 Head of Family Justice Strategy and Performance. This campaign is open to current civil servants on level transfer and suitable candidates on promotion.

Location:

Successful candidates will have the option to be based at one of the following locations:

• 102 Petty France, London

• 5 Wellington Place, Leeds

Occasional travel between the two locations, and to external locations such as family courts, may be required. We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and time spent in your base location (102 Petty France or 5 Wellington Place Leeds).

Ways of Working

At the MoJ we believe and promote alternative ways of working. These roles are available as:

• Full-time, part-time or the option to job share

• Flexible working patterns

If we receive applications from more suitable candidates than we have vacancies for at this time, we may hold suitable applicants on a reserve list for 12 months, and future vacancies requiring the same skills and experience could be offered to candidates on the reserve list without a new competition.

We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce and pride ourselves as being an employer of choice. To find out more about how we champion diversity and inclusion in the workplace, visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity

Salary

Existing Civil Servants will have their salary calculated in accordance with the Department’s pay on transfer / pay on promotion rules.  

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ)

MoJ is the largest government department, employing over 90,000 people with a budget of approximately £10 billion. Each year, millions of people use our services across the UK - including at 500 courts and tribunals, and 133 prisons in England and Wales.

Further information can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice

The Work of the Family Justice Unit

The Family Justice System Improvement Unit (FJSI) drives cross system improvement work and seeks to improve outcomes for children and families across England and Wales. We work collaboratively with a range of key partners including the Department for Education, Cafcass, HMCTS, Local Authorities and Welsh Government to set strategic direction for the system and help turn Ministerial ambitions into deliverable plans for reform.

This is an exciting time to be joining FJSI. Significant progress has been made over the last two years to set a clear direction for the system, improve performance, and develop our relationships with national and local partners. There is a huge opportunity to build on this platform as the unit is playing a key role both in leading the development of a public-facing strategy for family justice, alongside the delivery of significant reforms in our family courts, including the Child-Focused Courts private law reform programme, which has the potential to transform people’s experiences of the family courts and lead to better outcomes for children and families.

Head of Family Justice Strategy and Performance - the role

This is a stretching G7 role. The postholder will play a key role in driving improvements in family justice performance, and will work closely with stakeholders including the DfE, judiciary, Cafcass, and HMCTS to finalise and implement the family justice strategy, currently under development. This will include a framework for improving performance and outcomes and a data and evidence strategy.

The postholder will also oversee family justice governance, working with the Department for Education to ensure the Family Justice Board operates as a high-impact, ministerially chaired forum that sets strategic direction and drives system-wide alignment, and that the Local Family Justice Boards that sit under it are well supported and effective at collaborating to improve performance.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Drive the delivery of a long-term, public-facing strategy for the Family Justice System, currently under development and due for publication later in 2026, working closely with DfE and system partners to secure commitment to planned reforms. This will include close working with private offices to embed MoJ and DfE ministerial priorities.

• As part of this strategy, work with analysts and system leaders to develop a clear road map for improving the data and evidence base for family justice, including developing new metrics and data-sharing approaches.

• Lead a national programme to strengthen local delivery across England and Wales, supporting performance improvement across 43 Local Family Justice Boards. Champion a culture of continuous improvement, innovation, and the sharing of best practice.

• Coordinate targeted improvement efforts in regions facing acute challenges, including bespoke regional strategies for London, Greater Manchester and south-east England.

• Oversee delivery of the highly successful mediation vouchers programme and develop policy to increase the uptake of pre-court mediation.

• Lead and inspire a high-performing team, including four SEOs and one HEO, while providing strategic direction to analytical colleagues to deliver shared objectives.

Skills and Experience

Essential:

• An experienced leader able to work collaboratively with senior stakeholders to set direction and deliver at pace.

• A supportive line manager who can lead and inspire their team, creating a culture of high performance and continuous improvement

• A strategic thinker with a proven ability to engage stakeholders in setting a future vision which ensures alignment of operational delivery plans with strategic policy outcomes

• An understanding of data and the use of analytical approaches to generate insights on performance and drive targeted improvements

• Confident working with and briefing judges, ministers and senior officials with strong written and verbal communication skills

• A commitment to changing and improving, able to generate a culture of continuous improvement and promote sharing of good practice at a national and local level.

Desirable:

• An understanding of the justice system and the challenges it faces.

Candidates applying from HMPPS should note that the Ministry of Justice does not have the same conditions of employment as HMPPS. It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the terms and conditions they will adopt should they be successful.

The MoJ is proud to be Level 3 Disability Confident. Disability Confident is the approach through which we offer guaranteed interviews for all people with disabilities meeting the minimum criteria for the advertised role as set out in the job description.

Application process

You will be assessed against the Civil service success profiles framework.

You must ensure that any evidence submitted as part of your application, including your CV, statement of suitability and behaviour examples, 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.

Experience

You will be asked to provide a CV during the application process in order to assess any demonstrable experience, career history and achievements that are relevant to the role.

You will also be asked to upload a Statement of Suitability of no more than 500 words, stating what you would bring to the role and explain how you are suitable for this role with reference to the Skills and Experience listed above.

Behaviours

During the application process you will be asked to provide an example of how you have met the following behaviours (see Annex A for more information):

• Delivering at Pace

• Working Together

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 number of applications, we will sift primarily on the lead behaviour of Delivering at Pace. Successful applicants will then be invited to an interview, testing both behaviours and strengths.

Candidates invited to Interview

Please note that interviews will be carried out remotely.

During the panel interview, you will be asked behaviour-based questions to explore in detail what you are capable of, and strengths-based questions to also explore what you enjoy, and your motivations relevant to the job role.

In addition to the Behaviour(s) listed in the application form, you will be asked by the interview panel to provide examples of how you meet the three behaviours listed below.

• Delivering at Pace

• Working Together

• Making Effective Decisions

There is no expectation or requirement for you to prepare for the strengths-based questions in advance of the interview, though you may find it helpful to spend some time reflecting on what you enjoy doing and what you do well.

You can refer to the CS Strengths dictionary for more details: Success Profiles - Civil Service Strengths Dictionary (publishing.service.gov.uk)

You will also be required to give a short presentation. Details will be provided if you are invited to interview

Interviews are expected to take place in May 2026.

Contact information  

Please do get in touch if you would like to know more about the role or what it is like working in our team. The lead contact is Phoebe Clapham (phoebe.clapham@justice.gov.uk).

Annex A - The STAR method

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.