Ministry of Justice

Role title:

Judicial Office – Strategic Judicial Resourcing Team:

(1)          Resourcing Attraction and Outreach Advisor

(2)          Programming and Deployment Advisor

Team/Directorate:

Team: Strategic Judicial Resourcing Team, Judicial HR

Directorate: Judicial HR

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

Within the 60%, successful candidates will be expected to travel to London (Royal Courts of Justice) at least twice a month, as well as for the occasional face to face meeting.

This position is based at any of the following locations:

-              Royal Courts of Justice, London, WC2A 2LL

-              Birmingham Civil Justice Centre, B4 6DS

-              Manchester Civil Justice Centre, M3 3FX

-              5 Wellington Place, Leeds, LS1 4AP

Overview of organisation          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

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Overview of Judicial HR

Judicial HR

Judicial HR is accountable for delivering the right judicial office holders with the right skills, in the right place, at the right time, and supports the Lady 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 are not a typical HR team in that everything we do needs to meet the, often complex, needs of the judiciary who are office holders and not employees or Civil Servants.  This provides us with an 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 and use our HR and business insights to be curious and creative about doing things differently and continuously learn.  

The Team

The Strategic Judicial Resourcing team is one of five teams that sits within the Centre of Expertise. The team is headed by a G7 and covers two main areas: Programming and Deployment (1 SEO and 1 HEO), and Attraction and Outreach (1 SEO and 1 HEO).

The team are recruiting both HEO roles. One sits under Programming and Deployment, and the other HEO role sits under Attraction and Outreach. The remit of the team is currently under review so there may be opportunities to lead on work from the wider teams.

All members of the team work closely with the senior judiciary, a range of colleagues from across JO and partner organisations to ensure that the senior judiciary have confidence that the size, shape, skills and capabilities of the judiciary meet the planning needs for the judiciary.

The role

Both roles will be required to work collaboratively across JO, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), HMCTS and with the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) to support delivery of the right judges in the right place at the right time. There is currently no line management attached to either role.

There is an expectation that you will work closely together and be able to cover for each other when required.

Programming and Deployment (1x HEO)

The Programme and Deployment Manager will be responsible for understanding where the judicial capacity gaps are and proposing the best way to fill these gaps; finding the right balance through JAC recruitment, flexible deployment opportunities and/or Sitting in Retirement. You will be alert to areas of concern in resourcing and strategic objectives that will impact future recruitment and ensure these are reflected when designing recruitment programmes with others in this space.

The role needs someone with strong organisation and communication abilities, and who is comfortable adapting and alerting others to changing priorities. You will use your ability to build strong relationships with a range of stakeholders and judges to develop and shape proposals to ensure the courts and tribunals are resourced for consideration by the senior judiciary/officials.

Although there is no line management, there is, however, an expectation for our people at manager level, to demonstrate inclusive leadership through inspiring team members and in creating an environment when everyone feels able to contribute equally.     

Attraction and Outreach (1xHEO)

The role involves supporting the development and delivery of targeted attraction and outreach activity to raise awareness of judicial opportunities, improve candidate engagement and broaden reach into underrepresented legal professions. You will support the Attraction and Outreach Manager in delivering an outreach and engagement programme aligned to judicial recruitment, while also contributing to wider team activity, including capacity planning and flexible deployment.

The post holder will have opportunities to contribute to, and where appropriate lead on, specific workstreams such as exploring eligibility, understanding eligible candidate pools, and supporting deployment and recruitment activity.

This role is well suited to someone with strong organisational and communication skills, who enjoys event management, collaborative stakeholder working, and can adapt effectively to changing priorities.

Responsibilities, Activities & Duties:

Please note: Although both roles have distinct remits, they will be required to work collaboratively, providing cover for one another to support the overall objectives of the team. This may include joint working across workstreams such as outreach support, flexible deployment, and adapting to changing priorities as required.

1)           Programming and Deployment: 

•             Work closely with HMCTS/MoJ/JAC colleagues to ensure responsibilities, accountabilities and hand-offs remain in place to deliver the right judges in the right place at the right time by being an active member of the Joint Delivery Group.

•             Oversee the JAC Recruitment Programme, ensuring that leadership exercises are sequenced in a timely manner and risks to delivery are flagged to senior managers within the team.

•             Draft advice for the senior judiciary and senior officials on a range of resourcing related matters, particularly SCJ assessments for SPJ consideration.

•             Be aware of emerging trends and how they could potentially impact on the JAC Recruitment Programme and flexible deployment/ cross-assignment and recruitment requirements.

•             Maintain a log of flexible deployment, additional authorisation, cross ticket and cross assignment EOIs and produce regular reports to show how deployment opportunities are supporting short term capacity gaps within resourcing.

•             Work closely with JO Private Offices and Chamber President Offices to understand future recruitment needs through JAC recruitment and deployment.

•             Provide secretariat support for the Judicial Resourcing Group

(senior officials group).

2)           Attraction and Outreach:

•             Support the delivery of a programme of attraction, outreach and engagement activity linked to judicial recruitment and flexible deployment priorities.

•             Coordinate and deliver pre-application seminars, including liaising with judicial speakers, drafting supporting materials (such as agendas adverts etc), and managing events on the day.

•             Provide logistical and technical support for online and in person seminars, including managing registrations, issuing joining instructions, troubleshooting participant queries, collating Q&A, and gathering and analysing feedback.

•             Take the lead on managing and coordinating the Q&A element of seminars, ensuring common themes are identified and shared with relevant policy and delivery teams where appropriate.

•             Build and maintain effective working relationships with the JO Communications team to promote outreach activity aligned to recruitment campaigns.

•             Lead the coordination and delivery of the judicial work shadowing scheme, matching prospective candidates with serving judges and managing the end to end process.

•             Manage the outreach inbox, ensuring enquiries are responded to accurately and in a timely manner.

•             Support the Attraction and Outreach Manager at resourcing related meetings, contributing to the development and delivery of attraction and outreach initiatives.

Behaviours (Success Profiles):            

Seeing the Bigger Picture

Working Together

Delivering at Pace

Communicating and Influencing

Experience (Success Profiles)

We will assess your experience in the following areas:

Essential

-              (both roles) Ability to work collaboratively and proactively with others across teams and organisations, with good influencing skills to ensure that stakeholders prioritise issues that are important to the judiciary.

-              (both roles) Strong planning and organisational skills. To be able to manage a varied workload and to plan/re-prioritise effectively to respond to competing demands.

-              (both roles) Good stakeholder management skills. Ability to develop effective working relationships and work closely with others (including the senior judiciary, HMCTS, MoJ and JAC colleagues) to deliver against commitments. 

-              (both roles) Ability to work collaboratively and proactively with others across teams and organisations.

-              (both roles) Good presentation skills.  Confident and credible when presenting to varied audiences including internal audiences, cross-government audiences and senior stakeholders.

-              (Programming and Deployment only) Strong analytical skills. Ability to obtain, analyse, interpret and present information from a range of sources and use it to provide advice and recommendations. 

-              (Attraction and Outreach only) Experience of supporting or delivering events, seminars or engagement activity, including managing logistics and coordinating with a range of contributors.

Desirable

Experience of working with the judiciary.

Security clearance required:

CTC

Additional Information:

This vacancy is using Success Profiles and will assess the Behaviours and Experience elements.

Application stage

As part of the application process, you will be asked to provide a C.V, a Statement of Suitability (personal statement) in no more than 1000 words and evidence against the lead competency, Seeing the Bigger Picture.

Your Statement of Suitability should outline your skills, experience, and achievements, providing evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to your experience on how you meet the essential criteria (outlined above). Please indicate in your statement if you wish to be considered for one or both roles.

Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be undertaken using the lead Behaviour, Seeing the Big Picture.

Feedback will not be provided at this stage.

Interview stage

All applicants that progress to interview will be assessed on Behaviours, and Experience through Success Profiles. The Behaviours tested during the interview stage will be:

•             Seeing The Big Picture

•             Working Together

•             Delivering at Pace

•             Communicating & Influencing