Team Leader, Recall Policy

G7

Youth Justice and Offender Management (YJOP)

The YJOP Directorate is recruiting permanently for a Grade 7 Team Leader. 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 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 Prison Demand and Release Unit

The Prison Demand and Release (PDR) Policy Team, which is situated in the Youth Justice and Offender Management (YJOP) Directorate, is at the heart of plans to help tackle the prison capacity challenge. We work closely with HMPPS, other policy teams and legal and analytical teams to give ministers robust options.

This team’s remit includes helping the department to manage the recall population.

Recall Policy Team Leader - the role

Within this context, we are seeking a motivated and capable policy professional to join a welcoming and supportive team, providing additional leadership and delivery capacity to support this high profile portfolio. This is a fast paced, intellectually demanding role that will support the team in meeting significant delivery pressures and making a meaningful contribution to the department’s response to the prison capacity challenge.

The team operates at the centre of a complex and sensitive policy area, which receives a lot of interest from senior officials and ministers. As part of the team’s leadership, you will help set direction across a demanding portfolio, maintain grip on priority issues, and ensure high quality advice and products are delivered at pace. You will work closely with a wide range of stakeholders, building and sustaining strong relationships with special advisers, legal, analytical and operational colleagues, and influencing effectively beyond the immediate team.

Given the rapidly evolving nature of this policy area, you will need to quickly develop a strong grasp of new subject areas, take a strategic view of emerging risks and opportunities, and make effective decisions in an environment of uncertainty. You will be expected to work flexibly to respond to shifting priorities and provide leadership across the Prison Demand and Release Policy where required. Although the focus on the role will evolve to respond to priority areas, you will initially work closely with HMPPS on improving the recall process for female offenders and understanding the drivers of regional variation in recall rates, both of which are linked to key ministerial priorities.

You will bring strong analytical and problem-solving capability, with the confidence to exercise sound judgement and provide clear recommendations to senior leaders. You will be comfortable leading complex and challenging pieces of work with a high degree of autonomy, communicating complex issues clearly and persuasively, and maintaining delivery momentum under pressure.

Skills and Experience

The postholder will be able to demonstrate the following skills and experience:

Essential:

• Self-starter who is comfortable creating a program of work, identifying specific milestones and delivering against the plan. 

• Strong collaborative skills, able to quickly build robust relationships with colleagues in HMPPS, legal teams, analytical teams and other policy colleagues, creating a ‘one team’ dynamic to get the best possible advice to Ministers. 

• Excellent analytical skills, able to quickly get to grips with a complex policy area, understanding the complexity but able to distil the key points for Ministers and others 

• Excellent written and oral communication skills, able to confidently brief senior colleagues and produce high quality written reports that meet the needs of the target audience. 

Desirable:

• Experience of working on criminal justice or related issues

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, 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 behaviour (see Annex A for more information):

• Leadership

Please also refer to the CS Behaviours framework for more details at this grade:

Success Profiles: Civil Service behaviours - GOV.UK

Should we receive a large number of applications, we will sift primarily on the lead Behaviour Leadership.

Successful applicants will then be invited to an interview, testing all the behaviours listed below.

Candidates invited to Interview

Please note that interviews will be carried out remotely via Teams.

You will be assessed against the following behaviours at the interview stage where you will be asked to provide examples of how you have demonstrated them.

• Leadership

• Delivering at Pace

• Communicating and Influencing

• Working Together

It may help to use one or more examples of a piece of work you have completed or a situation you have been in and use the WHO or STAR model to explain:   

• WHO - What it was? How you approached the work/situation? What the Outcomes were, what did you achieve? Or

• STAR - What was the Situation? What were the Tasks? What Action did you take?  What were the Results of your actions?

Interviews are expected to take place in early August 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. Harlyn Collins - Harlyn.Collins@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.