Ministry of Justice

Overview of role

Prisons and Probation Ombudsman – HEO (Band C) Private Secretary Job Description

The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) is an Arm’s Length Body (ALB) of the Ministry of Justice. We have three key duties:

• to investigate complaints made by prisoners, young people in detention, offenders under probation supervision and immigration detainees; and 
• to investigate deaths of prisoners, young people in detention, approved premises’ residents and immigration detainees.
• to investigate deaths of recently released prisoners that occur within 14 days of release from prison (except homicide). 

The Ombudsman receives around 4,000 new complaints a year, of which around half are assessed as eligible for investigation. The number of deaths in custody requiring investigation is generally between 300 and 350 per year.

The Private Secretary supports the Ombudsman by understanding and anticipating their priority issues, representing them in internal and external meetings and drafting ministerial briefings and briefing papers.  They will also provide the Ombudsman with assistance in relation to their visits, speaking commitments, correspondence and workload management. The post holder will gain a broad perspective of the PPO, the Ministry of Justice and wider Government.

The post holder will also work closely with the Deputy Ombudsmen for our Complaints; Fatal Incidents; and Learning, Analysis and Business Services functions.

The Private Secretary is part of the Staff Office Team, which is made up of one SEO (Band B) Communications and Media Manager and one HEO (Band C) Communications Officer.  

The post holder will need to be confident communicating with senior stakeholders and working directly to SCS staff. 

This is a busy but very interesting post, which will suit someone who is able to work to tight deadlines on a varied workload and is able to tune into the thoughts and views of the Ombudsman.  

Previous experience of the Criminal Justice System is not required as training will be given on the job. 

The PPO is based at the HM Government hub at 10 South Colonnade, Canary Wharf.  Staff are expected to work at least three days of the week at the London office (based on full time hours), with the rest of the time spent working at home or at commuter hubs.

While you will usually have some flexibility to decide which days of the week you work in the office to enable you to manage your office attendance around your personal circumstances, there will be occasions when you will be required to attend the office (for example, team meetings, office or function-wide meetings) or visit establishments belonging to our services in remit on particular days.

Please note that the PPO is unable to offer home working contracts or allow you to permanently work at any other location, other than 10 South Colonnade, for the required office attendance days.  

If you are successful, you may need to attend the office more frequently in your first six weeks, to undertake key training and induction activity.  

Interviews will be held virtually using Microsoft Teams.  

The salary range is £38,661 to £42,019.  

Successful candidates who are already at HEO will keep their base salary on transfer.  Allowances do not transfer.  Successful candidates joining on promotion will start on either the minimum of the salary range or receive a 10% increase to their current base salary, whichever is higher.

Job Description 

The post holder may be responsible for the following: 

• Understanding and anticipating the Ombudsman’s priority issues, working proactively/reactively to deliver at pace. 
• Operating with emotional intelligence and building meaningful connections with stakeholders.   
• Overseeing secretariat duties for internal and external meetings. This includes booking meeting rooms, ensuring attendance, preparing agendas, co-ordinating and circulating papers, minute taking and following up actions from meetings.
• Overseeing the secretariat function for the PPO’s monthly SLT meetings.
• Representing the Ombudsman at internal and external stakeholder meetings.
• Providing an effective channel of communication for the Ombudsman and Deputy Ombudsmen with external stakeholders, building the PPO’s reputation and relationship with organisations. 
• Drafting ministerial submissions and/or responses to ministerial correspondence. 
• Ensuring timely briefing is provided to the Ombudsman.
• Preparing briefing notes, papers, presentations and speaking notes for the Ombudsman and Deputy Ombudsmen’s attendance in internal and external meetings to ensure they are properly advised. 
• Represent the Staff Office in the absence of the Ombudsman or Deputy Ombudsmen and ensure that urgent enquiries are dealt with by an appropriate person.
• Managing the Ombudsman’s inbox and drafting email responses on behalf of the Ombudsman.  
• Managing incoming and outgoing correspondence and drafting correspondence on behalf of the Ombudsman where appropriate.
• Managing the Ombudsman’s diary, schedule and travel arrangements (including accommodation), ensuring their time is coordinated and managed effectively, highlighting any pressure points. 
• Arranging meetings and managing travel arrangements (including accommodation) for the Deputy Ombudsmen.
• Provide support to the Communications & Media team by drafting Ombudsman updates and carrying out administrative duties. 
• Working to the Deputy Ombudsmen on cross-office projects that have a direct impact on the work of the PPO.
• Responding as an assistant to the Ombudsman to help perform their duties and priorities, delivering ad-hoc and administrative requests.

Essential Requirements

• Strong organisation and prioritisation skills, and an ability to manage competing priorities.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, including experience of drafting accurate and concise material. 
• Ability to communicate confidently with people at all levels and build relationships with stakeholders.
• Ability to consider the wider criminal justice landscape and identify and comment on emerging themes.
• A willingness to grasp new challenges, adapt to changing circumstance and deliver at pace.

Desirable Requirements

• Previous private office experience.  

The Application and Interview Process

The PPO is a Disability Confident Committed Employer, and we ensure our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible. Please complete the application information on reasonable adjustments and disabilities if relevant.  Further information on the types of reasonable adjustment that can be provided can be found at https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/reasonable-adjustments/

This is a two-stage process.  

Stage 1: 

• Submit a Curriculum Vitae (CV). 
• Submit a statement of suitability (500 words) setting out how your skills and experience match the essential and desirable requirements for the role as stated above. 
• Provide an example of where you have demonstrated the skills required for the Civil Service Behaviour ‘Delivering at Pace’.  

To pass stage 1, a candidate will need to score a minimum of two out of three on their statement of suitability and four out of seven on the answer to the ‘Delivering at Pace’ behaviour.  If we receive a high number of high scoring applications, we reserve the right to increase this minimum benchmark.

The CV will not be scored but will be used to give context to the statement of suitability.  

Stage 2:  

Those who meet the required level at the application stage will be invited to a short final interview.  During the interview, you will be asked questions about the Civil Service Behaviours ‘Delivering at Pace’, ‘Communicating and Influencing’ and ‘Managing a Quality Service’, as well as strength-based questions relating to the role. 

To be considered appointable, you will need to score a minimum of 12 out of 21 for the behaviour questions and a minimum of eight out of 16 for the strength questions.  If we receive a high number of high scoring interviewees, we reserve the right to increase this minimum benchmark.  

Recruitment across the Civil Service changed from July 2019 with the introduction of Success Profiles. Further guidance can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles.

Delivering at pace

• Examples of delivering at pace at HEO and SEO grades or equivalent are when you:
• show a positive approach to keeping the whole team’s efforts focused on the top priorities.
• promote a culture of following the appropriate procedures to ensure results are achieved on time whilst still enabling innovation.
• ensure the most appropriate resources are available for colleagues to use to do their job effectively.
• regularly monitor your own and team’s work against milestones ensuring individual needs are considered when setting tasks.
• act promptly to reassess workloads and priorities when there are conflicting demands to maintain performance.
• allow individuals the space and authority to meet objectives, providing additional support where necessary, whilst keeping overall responsibility.

Communicating and Influencing

Examples of communicating and influencing at HEO and SEO grades or equivalent are when you:

• communicate in a straightforward, honest and engaging manner - choosing appropriate styles to maximise understanding and impact.
• encourage the use of different communication methods, including digital resources and highlight the benefits, including ensuring cost effectiveness.
• ensure communication has a clear purpose and takes into account people’s individual needs.
• share information as appropriate and check understanding.
• show positivity and enthusiasm towards work, encouraging others to do the same.
• ensure that important messages are communicated with colleagues and stakeholders respectfully, taking into consideration the diversity of interests.

Managing a quality service

Examples of managing a quality service at HEO and SEO grades or equivalent are when you:

• develop, implement, maintain and review systems and services to ensure delivery of professional excellence.
• work with stakeholders to set priorities, objectives and timescales.
• successfully deliver high quality outcomes that meet the customers’ needs and gives value for money.
• identify risks and resolve issues efficiently.
• involve a diverse range of colleagues, stakeholders and delivery partners in developing suggestions for improvements.
• establish ways to find and respond to feedback from customers about the services provided.

When answering questions about the behaviours, you might want to use the STAR approach to help you to present your evidence more successfully.  This approach provides structure and focus to your answers.

The STAR approach stands for:

Situation – briefly describe the context and your role. 

Task – the specific challenge, task or job that you faced.

Action – what you did, how and why you did it.

Result – what you achieved through your actions.

You should keep the situation and task parts brief, concentrating on the actions you took and the result. If the result was not entirely successful describe what you learned from this and what you would do differently next time. STAR may help you to cover all the points you need to make. 

When using STAR, you should use one specific example per behaviour and you should explain what you did rather than others.

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made should further vacancies become available.