Ministry of Justice

Judicial Office HR Business Partner – South West & Wales (SEO grade)  

Temporary position until end of March 2027

The role:

This is an opportunity for the successful candidate to work within a unique organisation. Drawing on your existing HR skills and experience you will be working in an ambiguous environment which will develop your influencing, leadership and consultancy skills. Judicial Office is a great place to work with a warm, welcoming and supportive culture of delivery and development. It is a place where your work is valued, recognised and rewarded.   

You will work at a strategic level and will be responsible for developing and sustaining trusted working relationships with regional judicial leaders in support of the delivery of justice. Your HR insights will be key in understanding the needs of the judiciary in the Region and will help to shape the Judicial HR offer.   

You will be part of a team of HRBPs, each regionally based and you will lead and manage at least one HR Advisor (HEO).   

If you are proactive, a change agent and able to work with ambiguity this could be an exciting challenge for you to further develop your professional HR skills and add to your portfolio of experience.  

The Judicial Office

The Judicial Office (JO) reports to, and is accountable, to the Lady Chief Justice and was established in 2006 to provide support the judiciary 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 Judicial Office provides training, legal and policy advice, human resources, communications and administrative support. We promote and safeguard judicial independence to maintain confidence in the rule of law. 

Through our Judicial Office specialist teams, we support some 22,000 judicial office holders in an ever-evolving justice system, providing policy, legal and handling advice and operational support on a wide range of matters. Judicial Office incorporates the Judicial College and the independent Judicial Conduct Investigations Office. 

We are proud that our work serves to reinforce the pre-eminence of the judiciary of England and Wales and maintain the UK’s position as a leader in legal services, a position which allows the UK to thrive and benefits, albeit sometimes invisibly, every part of society.  

Judicial Office HR

Judicial Office Human Resources group places Judicial Office Holders at the centre of our service, ensuring we are visible, proactive and responsive. We support 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 collaborate with colleagues across the Judicial Office and beyond, to ensure we provide judicial office holders with excellent HR support and professional expertise. 

Whilst we are part of the wider Civil Service HR community, we are not a typical HR team in that everything we do needs to meet the, often complex, needs of around 22,000 members of the judiciary who are office holders and not employees or Civil Servants. This provides us with a unique and 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, use our HR and business insights to be curious and creative about doing things differently within an environment of continuous learning.  

Location and work pattern:

The role is based in Bristol Magistrates' Court and Tribunals Hearing Centre, Marlborough Street, Bristol BS1 3NU. There is an expectation that the successful candidate will spend a minimum of 60% of their time in the office. Some of this time may be spent out in the Region on Court visits, at face to face stakeholder meetings or facilitating HR input at Regional conferences. The role requires occasional (broadly quarterly) travel to other parts of England including to London. Due to the nature of the role meetings may need to take place outside of core hours. There is an expectation of working flexibly around judicial office holder availability i.e. out-of-court hours before 10am, after 4pm and at lunchtimes. We offer flexible working, our focus is on delivery of outcomes.  

Summary of role:

This is a significant strategic HR leadership role requiring high levels of people and HR/business management skills. The role requires a professional approach and must ensure that delivery is in line with the requirements of Civil Service HR, pro-actively role modelling activities and behaviours which promote core MoJ/Judicial Office values including diversity and equality of opportunity and supporting and being a positive advocate of the Judicial Office HR Operating Model. 

This successful candidate will be responsible for developing and sustaining trusted working relationships with regional leadership judges. Your HR insights will be key in understanding the impact of the changes for the judiciary throughout the region helping to shape the Judicial HR offer.   If you are proactive, a change agent and are comfortable working a highly ambiguous environment this could be an exciting challenge for you.  

Main responsibilities:

• Develop and maintain a strong working relationship with regional judicial leaders to be a source of trusted advice and support on HR matters.
• Work with judicial leaders to support their talent management, succession planning and career conversations within their areas of responsibility.
• Engage and support judicial leaders with the Inclusion and Diversity agenda.
• Provide advice to enable judicial leaders to take proactive steps to deal with or pre-empt issues relating to judicial health, welfare, conduct and performance, and to provide high quality timely advice on specific or generalised HR problems. You will support the management of the regional HR caseload. You will use data to identify relevant existing and likely future trends.
• Line management of at least one HEO grade.
• Operate as an integral member of the HRBP Team, scanning for emerging trends and acting as an intelligent customer into the wider HR Teams.
• Connecting with HMCTS HRBP colleagues to provide holistic HR advice and support where issues cross boundaries of staff and the judiciary.
• Work closely with the respective HMCTS Judicial Secretariat (who administer judicial resourcing across the region) as appropriate, to identify and address relevant HR issues.
• To gain a clear understanding of the priorities of the Lady Chief Justice and Senior President Tribunal and be able to translate these, alongside the JO Business Plan and HR Strategy, into a regional plan that will add value to the local judiciary.
• Demonstrate commitment to personal and team members continuous development, professional expertise and skill.

Essential criteria:

We will assess your ability to:  

• Build strong and effective HR partnerships and relationships; being recognised as a trusted HR professional.
• Deliver effective outcomes in an ambiguous environment.
• Extract, analyse and present MI and data to the business to back up propositions.
• Demonstrate excellent communication and listening skills, including the confidence to speak with credibility and authority when operating at a senior level.
• Work collaboratively and proactively with stakeholders both internally and externally
• Align activities to contribute to wider organisational priorities and be alert to emerging issues and trends which might impact on your and the wider HR area.
• Maintain and review systems and service to ensure delivery of professional excellence and establish ways to find and respond to feedback from customers about the service.
• Share information as appropriate and act as an intelligent customer for the wider HR service, communicating in a straightforward, honest and engaging manner.
• Encourage joined up teamwork within own team and across other groups. Establish professional relationships with a range of stakeholders. Collaborate with these to share information, resources and support.
• Consider the impacts of own and team’s activities on stakeholders and end users.
• Highly credible HR or operational experience and a sound understanding of employment law and the skills to support and advise key leaders. An ability to use this knowledge and experience in an ambiguous context.

Desirable criteria:

• High levels of ability to work with data, including analysis, interpretation and presentation.
• Understanding of the Judiciary.
• Understanding of HMCTS business and its challenges or willingness to learn about these matters quickly.

Success Profile Behaviours:

Seeing the Big Picture Leadership Communicating and Influencing Making Effective Decisions  

Technical Skills/Qualifications:

• Level 5 qualified / CIPD qualified or willing to work towards. This role can be linked to the HR Apprenticeship (Level 5) and as a route into CIPD qualification.

Security clearance required:  

• Security clearance will include a requirement of CTC and DBS

Additional Information:

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

Application stage 

As part of the application process you will be asked to provide a CV setting out your career history. 

We will also assess you against these behaviours during the application stage:

• Seeing the Big Picture (250 word limit) Lead Behaviour.
• Communicating and Influencing (250 word limit)
• Leadership (250 word limit)

In the event of a large number of applicants, an initial sift will be conducted on the lead behaviour. Those who are successful in the initial sift will then be scored on all elements of the application 

Interview stage 

Candidates will be tested at interview using behaviours and strengths from the Civil Service Success Profile Framework. It is anticipated that interviews will take place between w/c 24th August and w/c 7th September but please note that dates are subject to change. 

If you would like to discuss the role please contact: gary.oleary@judiciary.uk