Ministry of Justice

Overview of the Judicial Office

This is standardised wording and cannot be amended.

The Judicial Office (JO) reports to, and is accountable, to the Lady Chief Justice (LCJ). It was established in 2006 to provide support to the LCJ and to the wider judiciary in upholding the rule of law and in delivering justice impartially, speedily and efficiently, 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 JO is an interesting and unique place to work. Everything we do is in support of upholding the independence and impartiality of the judiciary. We work closely with HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS), the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and others across Government as well as with the legal professions.

We are an Arm’s Length Body sponsored by the Ministry of Justice. This creates an interesting and complex environment in which to work where we agree our priorities with the senior judiciary and receive our funding to deliver them from the Ministry of Justice. The Judicial Office has been through a period of significant growth resulting from an expansion of our remit and responsibilities.

See JO staff talk about working here: https://design102.wistia.com/medias/uhgtmbtnlv

Overview of the team

The Judicial HR Operations Team is accountable for delivering the right Judicial Office Holders with the right skills, in the right place, at the right time in support of the Lord Chancellor, Lady Chief Justice and the Senior President of Tribunals as set out in the Constitutional Reform Act 2005. We are responsible for working with the judiciary, wider JO, HMCTS, MoJ and the JAC. The Judicial Office Holder Appointments team provides support to the senior judiciary and the Lord Chancellor concerning Judicial Office Holder appointments and retirements. We also provide advice on the authorisation of judges and the deployment of individuals to other roles, including leadership roles. 

Hybrid Working Requirement

This position is eligible for hybrid working (current minimum requirement for time spent at base location is 60%, which is subject to business requirements).

Summary of the role

As Appointments Adviser, the role holder will be required to work alongside the other Advisers supporting a range of appointments and an onboarding service to the senior judiciary and the Lord Chancellor in relation to their responsibilities to judicial office holder appointments (Courts, Tribunals and Magistracy).

Responsibilities, Activities & Duties:

Working to the Appointments Manager, and alongside the Complex Appointments and Admin Advisers this role involves managing quality and timely advice on appointments to the judiciary. This will include amongst others the following responsibilities:  

Lead Areas

•             Provide accurate and timely advice to the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice, the Senior President of Tribunals and the Senior Presiding Judge on recommendations for judicial office holder appointments.

•             Drafting accurate offer and appointment letters and public announcements, taking forward all necessary steps to formalise appointments.

•             Providing accurate and timely advice on appointment renewals.

•             Receive and check appointment submissions prior to drafting clear and concise advice to the Senior Presiding Judge on magistrates’ appointments, ensuring that full information has been obtained from Advisory Committees to inform advice, relevant issues are highlighted in sufficient detail and appropriate recommendations are being made.

•             Supporting good working relations with principal stakeholders in the Advisory Committees by providing weekly update bulletins and attending joint JO/AC monthly meetings when required to do so.

•             Completing appointment submission work within the SLA parameters.

•             Accurate and timely completion of the Team Work Tracker

•             Providing assistance with HR Freedom of Information and Subject Access Requests.

•             Providing assistance in preparing and running regular reports from J-HR to identify areas of inaccuracy and work with stakeholders to cleanse this data to ensure J-HR is up to date and accurate.

•             Providing ad hoc flexible support to colleagues across the HR Operations Team as and when required to meet shifting work priorities.

Core management standards

•             To support the process of embedding continuous improvement within the team, using quantitative information to inform decision making.

•             To support the delivery of new ways of working to business as usual, whilst balancing the demands on the team.

•             To support the team in making sure submissions follow the approved templates and guidance, and the advice is clear and succinct.

•             To collaborate with stakeholders across HMCTS, MOJ and JO to ensure the HR records management system (J-HR) is the single source of truth.

•             To work across the team to support Service Level Agreements (SLA’s) and Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)

Develop a collaborative way of working with EO colleagues in the Admin and Complex Appointments team that will ensure a seamless systematic approach, providing clarity for Judicial Office Holders and the Department through collaborative working and shared knowledge of the whole appointments system.  The individual will be expected to cover and provide seamless leadership across all offboarding & onboarding areas of appointments in the courts, tribunals and magistracy when necessary, during colleagues’ periods of absence.

Essential Knowledge, Experience and Skills

·              Excellent stakeholder management skills.

·              Excellent organisational and time management skills.

·              Excellent drafting skills and attention to detail.

·              Ability to identify areas of improvement and create innovative approaches to delivering better quality services and products.

·              Experience of working with databases with a good eye for detail.

·              Good Excel skills.

Desirable Knowledge, Experience and Skills

•             Experience of a customer focused service.

•             Knowledge of the work of the judiciary.

Behaviours (for Recruitment/Success Profiles):

1.           Working Together (Lead behaviour)

2.           Managing a Quality Service

3.           Making Effective Decisions

4.           Seeing the Bigger Picture

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

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/717275/CS_Behaviours_2018.pdf Should we receive a large volume of applications, we will sift primarily on the lead behaviour Working Together.  Successful applicants will then be invited to an interview, testing both Behaviours and Strengths.

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.

Assessment process at interview

Successful applicants will then be invited to a virtual interview on MS Teams, testing both Behaviours and Strengths.