Senior Policy Adviser - Divorce Law

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Civil, Family, Tribunals and Administration of Justice Directorate

The Civil, Family, Tribunals and Administration of Justice Directorate is recruiting permanently for an SEO Senior Policy Adviser - Divorce Law. 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 the Family Justice Policy Unit

The Unit is responsible for the policy and legal framework for family law, including resolution of disputes within families (e.g., financial arrangements on divorce and child arrangements) as well as public law family cases (where the state, usually a local authority, intervenes to protect a child at risk of significant harm). Policy professionals in the unit help to provide a more effective, transparent and responsive family justice system for the public. We are a friendly, supportive, and dedicated team, where flexible working is encouraged (including job sharing).

Senior Policy Adviser - Divorce Law - the role

This fast-paced policy role offers a dynamic opportunity to work across some of the Ministry of Justice’s most high-profile and sensitive family justice reforms.

You will work in a team that is currently undertaking a public consultation on two key areas of reform: 1) changing the law in relation to division of finances between divorcing couples; and 2) delivering a manifesto commitment to strengthen rights and protections for couples who live together but are not married. The consultation includes proposals to introduce pre-nup agreements for married couples, and also seeks views about how domestic abuse is taken into account in financial proceedings on divorce.

You will lead on divorce law policy within the team. The consultation proposals mark the biggest change in family law in decades, and this role will focused on reforming the legal framework governing divorce and the resolution of financial matters on separation to improve clarity, accessibility and fairness. As part of this role you will lead on post-consultation policy development. The role will involve working closely with MoJ Legal, other teams across MoJ Policy Group and OGDs.

You will also be responsible for ensuring the effective running of the divorce law and how we can improve the court timeliness, working closely with HMCTS. Typical work in this area ranges from working with HMCTS in relation to its online systems for applications to court, and overseeing a pilot which fast-tracks financial cases.

You need to be comfortable working in policy that is legally complex and involves careful working with lawyers.

Your responsibilities:

• Lead on the divorce elements of the consultation and post-consultation policy development.

• Develop a deep policy knowledge of your policy area and communicate policy aims effectively.

• Work closely with MoJ Legal on aspects of reform and technical detail.

• Work directly with external stakeholders.

• Respond to live operational divorce issues and focus on how we can make improvements to the divorce law and supporting system to ensure timely and fair outcomes for all.

Skills and Experience

The successful candidate should be able to evidence the following skills and experience in the application form and at assessment.

Essential:

• Excellent policy development skills, with experience of working in legal or technical issues.

• Strong collaborator with excellent relationship management skills and the ability to interact confidently, communicate complex areas clearly, and build trust with stakeholders both across, and external to, government. 

• An understanding of how to progress policy proposals through government processes. 

• Excellent written and oral briefing skills.     

• Confidence to act independently, being comfortable picking up new challenging and technical subject areas and able to master detail quickly. 

• Strong organisational skills and be capable of managing a high volume of work at pace. 

Desirable:

• Experience of working on primary legislation.

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(s) (see Annex A for more information):

• Making Effective Decisions

• Communicating and Influencing

• Delivering at Pace

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

CS Behaviours 2018

Should we receive a large number of applications, we will sift primarily on the Statement of Suitability and the lead behaviour of Making Effective Decisions. 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.

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. In addition, you will also be asked strength-based questions.

Behaviours:

• Making Effective Decisions

• Communicating and Influencing

• Delivering at Pace

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?

Strengths:

It is difficult to prepare for strength type questions. However, you can think through your answers, focus on your achievements and aspects you enjoy and decide how these can be applied in the organisation and role. While strengths questions are shorter and we do not expect a full STAR response, the panel is interested in your first reaction to the question and information or reasoning to support this. Further information on Civil Service Strengths can be found here.

Presentation:

At the start of the interview candidates will be asked to give a short 3-minute presentation on the following: What sort of challenges do divorcing couples face when using the family justice system?

Interviews are expected to take place in August.

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 key contact is: Rosa Abulafia (Head of Cohabitation and Divorce Law Policy) - rosa.abulafia@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.