Correspondence Drafter - Policy Correspondence Team

EO

International, Rights and Constitutional Policy Directorate

The Performance and Business Support Team (PBST) is recruiting permanently for an EO Correspondence Drafter in the Policy Correspondence Team. 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 PBST

PBST sits at the heart of the Policy Group and is responsible for a broad range of corporate functions. This includes supporting our Director General and running her Private Office, alongside the drafting of correspondence. In addition, the team manages our budgets and spend, workforce data and estates. PBST also has a governance function which includes supporting our Group’s Senior Management Team, overseeing information assurance and communications, not to mention developing a first-class learning and development offer.

Correspondence Drafter - the role

The MoJ Policy Correspondence Team is responsible for drafting replies to the majority of letters the department receives from MPs, external organisations and members of the public. It is key to the department’s success in communicating with the outside world.

Members of the team work closely with MoJ policy teams to make sure the policy position is reflected accurately in correspondence, and with ministers’ private offices to make sure responses are drafted in line with ministerial preferences.

We are recruiting for a drafter to work across ministerial portfolios within the MoJ. This is a high-accountability, fast-paced post. The successful candidate will be responsible for drafting high-quality responses to both Ministerial and Treat Official correspondence. The successful candidate will manage their own caseloads, ensuring they meet deadlines in a timely manner, be organised and have a high standard of written and oral communication skills. Additionally, there will be opportunities for further leadership development.

Skills and Experience

Essential:

• Excellent written and oral communication skills

• Excellent planning and organisational skills

• The ability to manage a varied workload, and to identify priorities proactively

• The ability to form and maintain productive relationships with stakeholders and colleagues

• The ability to work to deadlines

• Excellent IT skills, including using Microsoft applications

• The ability to be able to manage competing demands and prioritise appropriately

• A high standard of written English, including grammar, spelling and punctuation

• Excellent attention to detail

Key Responsibilities

Roles in the Policy Correspondence Team are challenging and fast-paced. Post-holders will need to be adaptable and resilient, ready to undertake a diverse range of tasks including all of the following:

• Quickly grasp the essentials of various policy areas in order to draft challenging letters.

• Maintain close and effective working relationships with policy teams, Executive Agencies, Ministerial private offices and other colleagues to ensure policy briefing is suitable for correspondence purposes.

• Work collaboratively with other team members to meet relevant targets while working to challenging deadlines. At all times support team members to develop and improve practice, including encouraging creativity in drafting where possible.

• Provide support to policy teams to produce new lines for correspondence purposes, ensuring that the message is compelling, persuasive, relevant and accurate.

• Take part in joint work to continually improve processes in the team

• At all times seek to deliver clear, empathetic, respectful and timely responses to queries which address correspondent concerns, clarify policy and contribute to the overall smooth handling of Departmental public communications.

• Leading by example; visibly engaging people in owning business priorities and delivering the right results for our customers and the taxpayer. Deliver excellent customer service, aiming for once and done in all customer contact.

• Undertake a corporate contribution.

• Any further duties as judged by managers to be appropriate.

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.

Please also provide a Statement of Suitability (maximum 750 words) outlining what you would bring to the role. Demonstrate how your skills, experience and achievements meet the requirements set out in the Skills and Experience section above.

Your examples should also provide evidence of the following behaviours:

• Delivering at Pace

• Making Effective Decisions

• Managing a Quality Service

• Working Together

Structure your examples using the Situation, Task, Action, Result (STAR) format, clearly highlighting your personal contribution, the outcome achieved, and the behaviours demonstrated.

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 Statement of Suitability and/or 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.

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:

• Delivering at Pace

• Making Effective Decisions

• Managing a Quality Service

• Working Together

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.

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 via this link Success Profiles: Strengths - GOV.UK

A written exercise will be required as part of the interview process, the details of which will be sent to candidates who are successful at the sift stage.

Interviews are expected to take place in late July or 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 by emailing Kirsty.bennett@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.