Role Title Head of Regional Support Unit
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Grade Grade 7
Status For internal use
Role Purpose As a key member of the Regional Senior Leadership Team (SLT), the Head of Regional Support Unit will provide direct business advice and strategic support to
(250 words max) the Regional Delivery Director (RDD) in all the functions associated with their role. They will ensure the efficient and effective delivery of all day-to-day HMCTS
operational services within the region is maintained and that the region’s business objectives are achieved. The role holder will report directly to the RDD and
will be expected to liaise closely with operational Directors’ Offices, and National Support Unit (NSU) on relevant issues. The role is responsible for leading the
Operational Support and Judicial Secretariat (where the RSU contains this function) teams within the RSU and will oversee delivery of all regional support
services.
The scope of the role is significant. The role holder will work within a well-defined, primarily regionally focussed, framework engaging with internal contacts at
all levels and to a lesser extent partners and stakeholders to influence and negotiate outcomes that impact on the region’s operational activity.
Key Accountabilities (600 words max)
• Lead and manage multi-disciplinary RSU teams including both Judicial Secretariat (where the RSU contains this function) and Operational Support, providing visible
leadership, coaching, supporting, and communicating clear messages and guiding staff through change and improvement.
• Support the RDD and Senior Leadership Team (SLT) in strategic planning. This will involve ensuring there is a consistent strategic business planning framework across the
Region, planning and developing the regional business plan, and monitoring the delivery of the plan against its key priorities. The role will also lead on the development of
regional business continuity plan.
• Provide regional operational insight and constructive challenge/support to the RDD and SLT to influence strategy development and performance/business improvements.
• Arrange and/or lead regular briefing sessions to ensure that the RDD and SLT are briefed effectively on current issues (including but not limited to performance, people and
financial issues) by identifying the key points, advising on action taken, updating on progress and deadlines, and proposing alternative/remedial action as necessary.
• Actively engage with regional and national teams to provide clear and concise briefings, reports, and presentations as appropriate to the programme of work, business
objectives and priorities of the RDD, including Quarterly Finance and Performance Review Brief.
• Review (and challenge where necessary) corporate data on behalf of the RDD to ensure it is accurate.
• Maintain oversight of the RSU performance function to ensure good quality, consistent data and insight is provided to SLT to inform their strategic decision-making.
• Act as a point of contact in the absence of the RDD/SLT, ensuring that any matters requiring attention are dealt with, or delegated appropriately or providing advice on
action to be taken.
• Highlight regional issues that require escalation to RDD or to NSU, providing information and context to enable swift decisions or action.
• Manage the quarterly governance process by reviewing the Combined Risk Register Governance (CRRG) statements to provide assurance to RDD that all key risks and
issues are being managed and identify issues which require national escalation.
• Manage the Service Assurance Framework process by reviewing returns and flagging any significant issues to the RDD.
• Tracking and monitoring actions arising from Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA) audits, reporting progress and actions to the RDD.
• Undertake regional stakeholder engagement including with judiciary, public, MoJ and OGDs and represent the Region’s interests on behalf of the RDD on relevant national
groups, including key external and judicial stakeholder groups, as necessary.
• Manage regional responses and reallocation of RSU resource where significant national issues arise that have an operational impact.
• Maintain oversight of communication and people initiatives delivered through the RSU, including recruitment, capability planning, regional awards, and employee
engagement activity
• Manage special regional projects as required and leading on specific functional areas as required.
• Support the RDD in engagement and meetings with Regional Trade Union Side (RTUS).
• Engage with NSU functions where necessary to obtain services or insight on behalf the RDD.
• Oversight of people activities for the region such as talent management and succession planning for key roles.
• The role holder is required to work in a flexible way and undertake any duties reasonably requested by line management which are commensurate with the grade and level
of responsibility of this role.
Knowledge, Skills and Experience (500 words max)
• Relationship management including experience of Judicial relationships or similar senior stakeholder and colleague relationships which rely on influence rather than
management authority.
• Excellent communication and engagement skills to promote and enhance reputation of the Region and HMCTS and ability to adapt style according to situation from
communicating upwards including to Deputy Directors / Directors and across organisation to all grades.
• Strong understanding of corporate governance and assurance policies, procedures, and requirements, to be able to confidently challenge and provide assurance to RDD.
• Knowledge of HR policies and procedures to be able to support managers, coach and develop staff to achieve the highest performance standards and ensure RSU teams
are equipped with the skills, knowledge, and resources to effectively carry out their role, valuing/rewarding contributions as appropriate.
• Excellent leadership and communication skills, including the ability to lead others through significant uncertainty/ambiguity and to inspire, manage and motivate teams
fostering enthusiasm to improve performance and deliver targets.
• Planning and review skills, using evidence to make decisions and challenge / action where problems occur to effectively lead on the business planning cycle.
• Experience or knowledge of regional operations including the business planning process to understand how performance issues can impact on delivery against national
and regional objectives and to be able to provide organisational and regional context to performance variations.
• High quality drafting skills to be able to convey accurate information and insight to senior management efficiently, highlighting key points and actions required.
• Comprehensive people management and leadership skills and experience, working with and through others to build capability and confidence.
• Knowledge of financial checking procedures/requirements to monitor RSU budget spend.
Problem Solving and Decision Making (300 words max)
• The role is the first point of contact for reactive day-to-day problems escalated to the RDD. The Head of RSU will act to solve these on behalf of the RDD in the first
instance, dealing independently with regional problems and issues as they arise, engaging personally with the principal players as necessary to ensure constructive
outcomes and exercising discretion when to escalate to, or involve, the RDD and SLT in the resolution of the issues. The role will also need to decide what issues do not
need escalation to the RDD and what alternative action is required instead.
• There is a requirement to develop and implement solutions to regional issues ranging from simple responses to, or acting on, enquiries or issues to more complex
analysis of the problem which involves engaging others in root cause analysis and identification of options to resolve. The role requires a strong awareness of both
practical operational delivery constraints and the requirements of organisational policies and procedures to ensure any solution is both deliverable and compliant.
• The role will regularly identify and refer regional issues that require escalation upwards to the NSU and others at a national level, providing a clear explanation of the
issue and action taken and will respond at pace and proactively to any follow up queries. These issues will often have reputational implications for HMCTS.
• The role will deal with problems which arise with variable frequency but can often come in batches which requires strong time management and prioritisation skills to
ensure the most important issues area dealt with first and where necessary revised deadlines are negotiated and agreed.
• Whilst the level of problem solving can be complex and multifaceted, the Head of Regional Support Unit will be expected to make decisions within an overall framework
of agreed outcomes and deliverables. Whilst a significant amount of organisational guidance and procedures are available to support this, most problems will require
underpinning knowledge and ability to interpret the facts within the framework of the relevant policy or procedures. In more difficult or high-profile cases, senior
managers will probably have a hand in resolving the issue or agreeing a solution.
Management of Resources (250 words max)
• The role manages the teams in RSU, including Operational Support and Judicial Secretariat (where the RSU contains both these functions). The numbers are relatively
small but the reach of the work of the overall RSU team is broad.
• The role will support and advise the RDD on the financial implications of issues within their accountability and will on occasions provide direct advice to the RDD on
budget decisions required e.g., ex gratia payments, compensation awards etc.
• The Head of the RSU will monitor the budget for RSU, and in addition may also have delegated budgetary responsibility for the team.
• The role will support the RDD in allocation and use of regional resources, including monitoring spend against allocations sitting days to profile to ensure efficient and
effective use is made of regional allocations. They will provide advice on options to address issues that arise, working with the RDD and Finance Business Partner to
ensure that resources are deployed across the region to enable the delivery of consistent standards and the achievement of HMCTS strategic objectives.
Autonomy (250 words max)
• The Head of RSU will work within a defined organisational framework with limited supervision but under clear direction and with support of the RDD (a SCS PB1 role).
• The role will be expected to make decisions and take appropriate action without referral on a daily basis and, because there is limited direct supervision, the role requires
a high level of self-awareness of when referral or clearance of any reply or action is required.
• The role operates within a broad but defined set of policies and procedures but the application of these will be pragmatic and situation specific rather than narrow and,
in ensuring the effective delivery of operational services in the region, the role will act independently on day-to-day issues and only refer to more senior grades those
issues which have serious policy or resource implications.
Key Relationships and Contacts (300 words max)
• The role will maintain internal relations with Regional SLT and other key leaders within region on a wide range of business / corporate issues on a daily or weekly basis as
issues or the need arises.
• The role will build and maintain relationships with other Heads of RSU to understand common issues and share best practice.
• The role will regularly engage with the operational Directors’ Offices and National Support Unit, proactively advising of regional matters and incidents of national
importance as well as submission and liaison on routine governance and other returns.
• Engage with HR, Finance and Property Business Partners and regional teams on at least a weekly basis to share information and insight on regional issues and to
challenge the provision of service to the region where necessary.
• The role is the first point of contact in absence of the RDD and will represent the RDD’s perspective and priorities in discussions,
• The role will need to use negotiation and influencing skills to achieve mutually acceptable solutions in the areas in which it has a functional lead.
• The role may also engage with Presiding Judges / Family Division Liaison Judge and other Leadership Judiciary to liaise on regional issues.
• Trade Union engagement at regional level at least quarterly, requiring the role to schedule and facilitate meetings and ensure relevant information is shared and
recorded.
• (In Wales there may also be liaison with Welsh Government on devolved Tribunals and Judicial issues, requiring the role to schedule and facilitate meetings and a
potential requirement to bring an operational understanding to the discussions).