Ministry of Justice

Job Title & Grade: Senior Caseworker - EO Contract Type: Permanent

Salary range (depending on location): National - £28,312 to £30,011

Please note that unless you are currently employed by the Civil Service and are earning more than the minimum above, if successful you will be offered the minimum for the grade depending on your location.

Location: Nottingham and Liverpool

Directorate: Crime Case Management Team: Crime Billing

Working Pattern: The post is supported by the MOJ flexible working policy and includes colleagues who work flexibly, remotely (as part of hybrid working), part time or as part of a job share etc.

If you are applying for a part time role, please note that in order to meet business demands we need cover for a minimum of 22 hours and to cover 3 days of the week.

Reporting to: Team Manager

Closing date for applications 30th May 2025

The Legal Aid Agency

We are an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). We are responsible for operationally administering the legal aid fund to provide criminal and civil legal aid advice to people in England and Wales. 

Our people are at the heart of achieving excellence. Employing around 1,200 colleagues across England and Wales, we feel proud to have some of the best People Survey results in the Civil Service.

Our LAA commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

As a Disability Confident organisation, we will offer a guaranteed interview to candidates with a disability who meet the essential criteria for this role. Under the Equality Act 2010 a disability is defined as a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on your ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities which has lasted, or is expected to last, at least 12 months.

If you are responding to a role within the Legal Aid Agency and would like to be considered under the guaranteed interview, please indicate this in your application and let us know of any reasonable adjustments you may require during the sift or later selection processes.

The LAA’s goal is to build an organisation that is open and inclusive and truly values and celebrates the diversity of its workforce. One that reflects and understands the needs of the diverse society we serve. This is regardless of social background, gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, beliefs, disabilities or long-term illness or caring responsibilities.

Reasonable Adjustments

We are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible to all. If you have a disability or long-term condition (for example dyslexia, anxiety, autism, a mobility condition or hearing loss) and need us to make any reasonable adjustments to support you through the recruitment process, please let us know by adding the information to the applications system or emailing LAARecruitment@justice.gov.uk after you have applied so that we can discuss options with you.

Case Management

The Case Management Directorate is the operational delivery function of the LAA, and our staff ensure that each year in excess of 500,000 new clients are able to access the justice they require, and that their providers are fairly remunerated for the delivery of the legal aid. With staff based across multiple sites we deliver services for those facing both criminal and civil legal problems including family, immigration, mental health, housing and exceptional funding cases.  

Crime Case Management

The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) is responsible for making sure legal aid services from solicitors, barristers and the not-for-profit sector are available to the general public. Our work to administer legal aid is essential to the fair, efficient and effective operation of the criminal justice systems and we work closely with legal providers and the wider Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to achieve our purpose. This commitment is at the heart of our day-to-day decision making and our work to improve legal aid services. The engagement and commitment of our staff is crucial to achieving our purpose. Crime Case Management is responsible for the processing applications and claims for costs for legal aid and associated items of work. 

Job Summary

As a Senior Caseworker at this level, you will need to understand the regulations and guidelines to:

·      Process criminal legal aid applications, queries and associated tasks appropriate to this grade.

·       Support colleagues by responding to queries escalated to you by the team or directly from service users.

Key Responsibilities:

·       Maintaining a comprehensive and up to date understanding of current guidance and regulations and using this to make decisions. Supporting others to make these decisions. 

·       Supporting others on the application of current guidance and regulations by acting as a technical expert and responding to queries and ensuring understanding

·       Providing an efficient service and build relationships with internal and external stakeholders. Dealing with any matters which have been escalated and resolving these.

·       Supporting the management of the team and individual performance. Helping team members to achieve their objectives, contributing to the development of others addressing any issues which arise.

·       Working to ensure targets are met. Providing reports escalating issues as they emerge and helping to find effective solutions.

·       Working with other teams and taking the leading role in meetings, encouraging the sharing of views, ideas and solutions.

·       Contributing to the review and development of processes working with other teams and taking part in project groups to achieve this.

·       Where appropriate, design and deliver internal and external training.

·       Acting as a quality controller and engage in consistency processes to ensure improvements are made. Taking an active role in promoting consistency and providing guidance and feedback to the team. Making suggestions for improvement in specified work areas, ensuring the team are aware and understand any changes.

Essential Knowledge, Experience and skills

·       Experience of applying comprehensive knowledge of the current guidance and regulations relating to processing AGFS & LGFS workstreams.

·       Ability to solve problems and make decisions. 

·       Established communication skills both verbal and written.

·       Ability to deliver training with experience of coaching or mentoring.

·       Ability to build relationships with stakeholders to successfully resolve complex issues.

Desirable Knowledge, Experience and skills

·       Experience as a Quality Controller and providing QC feedback

·       Excellent time management skills. 

Person Specification

·       Enjoys working in a fast-paced environment.

·       Enjoys working independently and as part of a team.

Assessment approach

Application Process

To apply complete an application based of the following behaviours, each behaviour should be no more than 250 words:

·       Making effective decisions 

·       Delivering at pace

·       Working together 

·       Seeing the big picture

See interview section for full behaviour descriptions.

When submitting an example of a behaviour remember to include the situation, what you did and why, and what was the outcome / result.

Please note that if we have a large number of applications will we do an initial sift on the Making effective decisions behaviour.

Interview / assessment Process

If you are successful through the application stage, you will be invited to an interview / assessment centre in person or via Microsoft Teams where you will be assessed against the following:

·       Strengths relevant to the role

·       Some or all of the following Behaviours:

Making Effective Decisions

• take responsibility for making effective and fair decisions, in a timely manner

• analyse and research further information to support decisions

• talk to relevant people to get advice and information when unsure how to proceed

• explain how decisions have been reached in a clear and concise way, both verbally and in writing

• demonstrate the consideration of all options, costs, risks and wider implications, including the diverse needs of end users and any accessibility requirements

Delivering at Pace

• regularly review the success of activities in the team to identify barriers to progress or challenging objectives

• identify who and what is required to ensure success, set clear goals and areas of responsibility and continually assess workloads considering individual needs

• follow relevant policies, procedures and legislation to complete your work

• ensure colleagues have the correct tools and resources available to them to do their jobs

• have a positive and focused attitude to achieving outcomes, despite any setbacks

• regularly check performance against objectives, making suggestions for improvement or taking corrective action where necessary

• ensure that colleagues are supported where tasks are challenging

Working Together

·       develop a range of contacts outside own team and identify opportunities to share knowledge, information and learning

·       show genuine interest when listening to others

·       contribute to an inclusive working environment where all opinions and challenges are listened to and all individual needs are taken into account

·       ensure it is clear that bullying, harassment and discrimination are unacceptable

·       offer support and help to colleagues when in need, including consideration of your own and their wellbeing

·       change ways of working to aid cooperation within and between teams in order to achieve results 

Seeing the Bigger Picture

• understand how your work and the work of your team supports wider objectives and meets the diverse needs of stakeholders

• keep up to date with the issues that affect your work area

• take a keen interest in expanding knowledge in areas related to your work

• focus on overall goals and not just specific tasks to meet priorities

Your Experience of implementing, promoting, or understanding diversity and inclusion policy - Diversity is the presence of difference, this can include one or more of the protected characteristics (Gender, Age, Race, Disability etc.) or it can be about working patterns, whether we like to jump into a task or reflect on it before acting. Inclusion is how we welcome, value, and celebrate diversity, giving everyone a voice, tapping into ideas, and enabling everyone to be themselves at work and achieve their potential. 

·       For this grade/ role we would expect the candidate to demonstrate understanding of the terms Diversity and Inclusion and be able to explain why they are important to them and to where they work. Examples of action they have taken (in or outside of work) to embrace diversity (e.g., increasing understanding) or improve inclusion for others will increase the strength of their answer.  

An exercise will be assessed at interview on the behaviour ‘making effective decisions,’ time will be given during the interview.

Shortlisting is planned for week commencing 2nd June  2025

Interviews are planned for week commencing 16th June 2025

If you would like more information on this opportunity, please contact – Fernley, Josie | She/Hers Josie.Fernley1@justice.gov.uk

Complaints procedure

If you have any complaints about this recruitment activity, please share your concerns by emailing LAARecruitment@justice.gov.uk initially. We aim to respond to any complaint within 10 working days.