HQ Job Description (JD)
Band 11
Directorate: Womens Directorate
Job Description - Head of Women’s Operational
Policy & Strategy
Document Ref.
HQ-JES-3094 Head of Women’s Operational Policy &
Strategy v1.0
Document Type
Management
Version
1.0
Classification
Official
Date of Issue
21.12.22
Status
Baselined
Produced by
Job Evaluation Assurance and Support Team
Authorised by
Reward Team
JD Evidence
HQ-JES-3094 Head of Women’s Operational Policy & Strategy v1.0
Job Description
Job Title
Head of Women’s Operational Policy & Strategy
Directorate
Women’s Directorate
Band
Band 11
Overview of the
The Head of Women’s Operational Policy and Strategy is a high-
job
profile senior management role.
This is a key role in providing leadership and direction to the safe
and effective management of women in the community and
across the custodial estate, a high-profile area with significant
Ministerial, media and stakeholder interest.
The postholder will provide leadership and accountability to
embed women’s considerations into operational policy, practices
and strategic decisions across HMPPS. This will include
engagement within HMPPS, MOJ, stakeholders and other
agencies, and ensuring alignment with HMPPS strategic
priorities and objectives and effective delivery of the Female
Offender Strategy.
This is a senior managerial post reporting directly to the Director
of Women and will be a member of the Women’s Directorate
Senior Leadership Team.
The job holder will have line management responsibility and
provides oversight of policy and strategic roles within the
Women’s Policy and Strategy Team.
The geographical base for the post can be flexible and will
require some work across sites within the Women’s Directorate,
attendance at headquarters and other locations.
This is a non-operational role but requiring significant knowledge
of operational settings.
Summary
The postholder will represent HMPPS on all matters relating to
women who are touched on by HMPPS services - particularly
providing advice to sentencers, holding those remanded into
custody, and delivering community and custodial sentences.
They will be required to develop strong working relationships
with Policy colleagues, and Ministers both within the MOJ and
across government departments.
The postholder will lead strategic planning for women offenders
within HMPPS, providing expert input into wider strategic
planning across prisons and probation by HMPPS and MoJ.
HQ-JES-3094 Head of Women’s Operational Policy & Strategy v1.0
The postholder will have oversight, responsibility and delivery of
HMPPS commitments under the MoJ Female Offender Strategy
and Prisons Strategy White Paper, together with responsibility
for and delivery against the £14m women’s safety in custody
SR21 allocation.
The postholder will lead a team that oversees operational
policies for women across prisons and probation and provides
operational delivery advice and guidance to staff working with
women managed in custody and in the community. The team
works closely with MoJ policy teams and provides subject matter
expertise to HMPPS HQ teams and others.
They will lead the team ensuring that the necessary systems,
processes, evidence, strategic links and relationships are in
place to continually develop and introduce new and revised
policies to allow effective and legitimate use of policy.
Responsibilities,
The job holder will be required to carry out the following
Activities and
responsibilities, activities and duties:
Duties
• Represent the Women’s Directorate, including in forums with
Ministers, MOJ and HMPPS senior leaders, other
government departments and stakeholders.
• Provide timely, accurate, politically sensitive and strategic
advice to Ministers and Parliament on matters relating to
Women in the Criminal Justice System.
• Influence and contribute to the design and delivery of an
effective Female Offender Strategy and subsequent Delivery
Plan to deliver better outcomes for women at all stages of the
criminal justice system. Manage projects, programmes and
related workstreams to deliver agreed outputs.
• Ownership of operational policies related to women in
custody and community, ensuring that existing policies
remain current and to identify and address areas of
weakness, ambiguity or inconsistency. Accountable for
identifying policy design taking into account the strategic
priorities of the organisation and/or Ministerial priorities
and/or identified threats.
• Work collaboratively with MOJ and HMPPS Policy Teams to
influence organisation policy decisions, innovation and
change programmes, ensuring women’s distinct needs, risks
and outcomes are taken into account.
• Responsible for ensuring effective translation of policy into
prisons and community provision, providing effective
operational support and guidance.
• Work collaberatively with RPDs, Governing Governors and
frontline staff to maximise opportunities to deliver effective
outcomes for women across HMPPS in both custody and
community settings.
• Oversight, responsibility and delivery of HMPPS
commitments in relation to women in the Prisons Strategy
White Paper.
• Provide strong leadership to the business-as-usual functions
of the policy and strategy team.
HQ-JES-3094 Head of Women’s Operational Policy & Strategy v1.0
• Assure HMPPS compliance with legislation, government
policy and best practice in relation to the specific policy area.
• Working in partnership with partners and stakeholders across
and beyond the Criminal Justice System, influence wider
programmes of interventions which address women
offenders’ complex needs.
• Build and disseminate a knowledge base about what works
with women by influencing research and commissioning
agendas and actively seeking knowledge from diverse
sources to inform practice in Custody and the Community.
• Manage the operation for admissions, refusals and appeals
to Mother and Baby Units and the Women’s Estate Case
Advice and Support Panel (WECASP). Oversee
performance of, and provide appropriate support, guidance
and training to Mother and Baby Unit Independent Chairs
(noting these roles will become Public Appointments).
The duties/responsibilities listed above describe the post as it is
at present and is not intended to be exhaustive. The job holder is
expected to accept reasonable alterations and additional tasks of
a similar level that may be necessary. Significant adjustments
may require re-examination under the Job Evaluation Scheme
and shall be discussed in the first instance with the job holder.
An ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence
through the medium of English.
Behaviours
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Delivering at Pace
• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing
Strengths
It is advised strengths are chosen locally, recommended 4-8.
Experience
• Extensive knowledge of prison and probation priorities
(including both the political landscape and cross-cutting
operational issues) and expertise in advising and working with
Ministers.
• In-depth knowledge and understanding of the needs of
women offenders and care and management of women in
community and custody settings.
• Broad knowledge of the strategic priorities of HMPPS and
MoJ and ability to build a network of stakeholders across
wider Government.
• Extensive experience of working at a senior strategic level
across HMPPS, OGDs, agencies and stakeholder and
provider groups.
• Excellent senior leadership, interpersonal and communication
skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills for
communicating effectively with Ministers, internal and external
partners/stakeholders, including trade unions.
HQ-JES-3094 Head of Women’s Operational Policy & Strategy v1.0
Technical
Requirements
Ability
• Have high levels of integrity and professional credibility
amongst operational and policy colleagues.
• Excellent leadership and experience of leading a team
coupled with an ability to think strategically and work with
others.
• Be confident and resilient under pressure with the ability to
function effectively and autonomously in different
environments and react to issues of immediate concern to
mitigate further harm.
• Experience of liaising and working with a diverse set of
stakeholders, including senior members of staff.
• The ability to engage and influence a broad range of people,
with strong and sometimes conflicting views, to reach a
consensus.
• The ability to see the bigger picture and create a culture of
change and support.
• Experience of interpreting and communicating complex
information from multiple sources of evidence, including
complex data.
Minimum
• All candidates are subject to security and identity checks prior to
Eligibility
taking up post.
• All external candidates are subject to 6 months’
probation. Internal candidates are subject to probation if they
have not already served a probationary period within HMPPS.
• All staff are required to declare whether they are a member of a
group or organisation which HMPPS consider to be racist.
Hours of Work
37 hour working week
(Unsocial Hours)
Allowances
HQ-JES-3094 Head of Women’s Operational Policy & Strategy v1.0
Success Profile
Strengths
It is advised
Behaviours
Ability
Experience
Technical
strengths are
chosen locally,
recommended 4-8
Seeing the Big Picture
Have high levels of integrity
Extensive knowledge of prison
and professional credibility
and probation priorities
amongst operational and
(including both the political
policy colleagues.
landscape and cross-cutting
operational issues) and
expertise in advising and
working with Ministers.
Making Effective Decisions
Excellent leadership and
In-depth knowledge and
experience of leading a
understanding of the needs of
team coupled with an ability
women offenders and care and
to think strategically and
management of women in
work with others.
community and custody
settings.
Delivering at Pace
Be confident and resilient
Broad knowledge of the
under pressure with the
strategic priorities of HMPPS
ability to function effectively
and MoJ and ability to build a
and autonomously in
network of stakeholders across
different environments and
wider Government.
react to issues of immediate
concern to mitigate further
harm.
Working Together
Experience of liaising and
Extensive experience of
working with a diverse set of working at a senior strategic
stakeholders, including
level across HMPPS, OGDs,
senior members of staff.
agencies and stakeholder and
provider groups.
HQ-JES-3094 Head of Women’s Operational Policy & Strategy v1.0
Communicating and
The ability to engage and
Excellent senior leadership,
Influencing
influence a broad range of
interpersonal and
people, with strong and
communication skills.
sometimes conflicting views,
to reach a consensus.
The ability to see the bigger
Strong written and verbal
picture and create a culture
communication skills for
of change and support.
communicating effectively with
Ministers, internal and external
partners/stakeholders,
including trade unions.
Experience of interpreting
and communicating complex
information from multiple
sources of evidence,
including complex data.
HQ-JES-3094 Head of Women’s Operational Policy & Strategy v1.0