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LAA Job Description Template V7

Job Title & Grade:

Core Assurance & Risk Manager - SEO

Contract Type:

Permanent

Salary range (depending on location):

National - £41,463 - £45,276

London - £47,657 - £52,040

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, Liverpool, South Tyneside, Bristol, Cardiff, London LAA offices

(Required for regular contact with staff, travel to other offices may be needed)

Directorate:

Contract Management & Assurance

Team:

Core Assurance & Risk Management Team (CARM)

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 30 hours.

Reporting to:

Head of Stewardship

Closing date for applications

1^st August 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

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain, and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.

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.

Contract Management & Assurance

Our core purpose is to ensure the delivery of accessible, high quality, value for money services to the client and contributing to the MOJ delivery of a modern Courts and Justice system. We do this through efficient management of the provider base and assurance activities that identify and mitigate risk.

Our Directorate is made up of:
Contract Management, Core Assurance and Risk Management, Counter Fraud and Investigations, Reconciliation and Amendments, Peer Review, Provider Records, Direct Services and Governance.

Core Assurance & Risk Management

The CARM team is responsible for identifying, assessing and reducing error on the part of the LAA, our providers and applicants. It does so by completing a programme of audits, independently verified by the National Audit Office, and by undertaking reviews of providers’ files on behalf of the wider business. It works together with stakeholders to reduce the risk of error, and to manage recoupments where error has occurred.

Job Summary

This role will require the effective and inclusive management of up to 30 colleagues, including training and induction, performance management and wellbeing support.

The Core Assurance and Risk Manager plays a vital role in understanding and reducing risk within Legal Aid and ensuring that the money the taxpayer spends on Legal Aid is spent in accordance with our guidelines and contracts. This is a varied role, within a dynamic, high performing team with a wide range of responsibilities and work.

The Core Assurance and Risk Manager will communicate confidently with both senior managers, colleagues in other teams and external stakeholders to find appropriate and lasting solutions to reduce the level of risk and error within the legal aid system, ensuring that the legal aid budget is directed towards assisting the most vulnerable in society.

Comfortable in understanding and challenging established viewpoints and sometimes responsible for delivering difficult messages to deliver the best solutions, the Manager is used to dealing with challenge themselves and justifying their findings.

Working with the Head of Stewardship Assurance, the Core Assurance & Risk Manager will lead the strategic direction of the team to accurately measure the level of risk and error and provide detailed analytical support to other parts of the business to meet organisational objectives.

Key Responsibilities:

The Core Assurance & Risk Manager has responsibility for a team of Auditors and a team of Analysts and is expected to:

Line manage Band HEO, EO and AO grade colleagues as required.
Support colleagues through training and mentoring to reduce error
Ensure all personal and team objectives are met
Refine existing testing regimes to better measure the level risk and error within the Legal Aid system whilst ensuring that they meet the requirements of the National Audit Office
Communicate effectively with internal and external stakeholders to ensure the outcome and implications of reviews are understood.
Feed into various working groups as an Assurance representative to advise on the risk and assurance implications of proposed changes and consider ways to mitigate those risks.
Work with stakeholders to improve processes and guidance to reduce errors

Essential Knowledge, Experience and skills:	Effective and inclusive people management Effective communication skills both written and verbal Ability to communicate and influence at all levels e.g. your team, senior leaders and external agencies Ability to understand the input of others and constructively challenge where needed Able to maintain your position when necessary when faced with opposition or criticism Ability to interpret and apply guidance and regulations Ability to analyse complex data, systems and processes
Desirable Knowledge, Experience and skills:	Knowledge of LAA systems and processes IT Literate with experience of Microsoft Office applications, especially Excel
Person Specification:	You can quickly respond to changing priorities, delivering successful outcomes in an environment where no day is the same. You have confidence in your judgement and hold yourself accountable for your decisions and their implications. You are able to apply your knowledge to identify risks, explain their impact and make recommendations to mitigate those risks. You will enjoy working with a range of key stakeholders and build effective working relationships both inside and outside of the organisation. You are a confident leader who has the drive and ability to inspire your team to make things happen. You are an experienced communicator, able to explain complexities both verbally and in writing. You thrive in a process driven environment and understand the importance of operating within set rules and guidelines. You can work proactively to ensure own, team and organisation goals are met on time and to the required standard.

Assessment approach

Application Process -

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

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

Changing & Improving

Examples of changing and improving at HEO and SEO grades or equivalent are when you:

work with others to identify areas for improvement and simplify processes to use fewer resources
use technology where possible to increase efficiency
encourage ideas for change from a wide range of sources
clearly explain the reasons for change to colleagues and how to implement them, supporting individuals with different needs to adapt to change
encourage an environment where colleagues know that they can challenge decisions and issues safely
take managed risks by fully considering the varied impacts changes could have on the diverse range of end users

Leadership

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

ensure colleagues and stakeholders have a clear understanding of objectives, activities and time-frames
take into account different individual needs, views, and ideas, championing inclusion and equality of opportunity for all
consider the impacts of own and team’s activities on stakeholders and end users
role-model commitment and satisfaction with role
recognise and praise the achievements of others to drive positivity within the team
effectively manage conflict, misconduct and non-inclusive behaviour, raising with senior managers where appropriate

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 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 Delivering at Pace behaviour.

Interview / assessment Process

If you are successful through the application stage, you will be invited to an interview via Microsoft Teams where you will be assessed against the following:

Strengths relevant to the role
Some or all of the following Behaviours:
- Delivering at Pace
- Changing & Improving
- Leadership
- Managing a Quality Service
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 in a work environment. We would also expect examples of action they have taken to embrace diversity (e.g., increasing understanding for self or others) or improve inclusion at a team or wider group level.

You will also be asked to undertake a role play, details of this will be shared prior to the interviews. This is to assess your ability to analyse complex data, demonstrate effective communication skills verbally and the ability to understand the input of others and constructively challenge if needed.

Shortlisting is planned for week commencing 4^th August 2025

Interviews are planned for week commencing 18^th August 2025

If you would like more information on this opportunity, please contact - Greg Cowley, Head of Stewardship, greg.cowley@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.

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