Ministry of Justice

Role Title:  Operational Support Officer  

Grade:  EO

Role Purpose

The Operational Support Officer will work as a pooled resource within the Regional Support Unit (RSU) to provide consistent, high quality, effective administrative and personal support for the regional Senior Leadership Team (SLT). The role is varied and challenging and will provide administrative and technical support to other functions in the RSU. This will include progressing regional business, collation and analysis of operational and people related information across the region to help inform service improvement and staff engagement.

Key Accountabilities

Leadership support

• Provide administrative support to the members of SLT.
• Monitor the flow of work to and from the SLT including the Heads of Operations and the Service Improvement & Performance Lead (SIP), including screening and filtering correspondence, queries and requests for information on behalf of the SLT and drafting, managing and processing responses on their behalf.
• Manage the office and diary commitments of the members of the Regional SLT, negotiating with others to resolve conflicting priorities and ensuring their diaries and calendars are kept up to date and that emails are managed effectively.
• Support the Head of RSU with preparation of the Quarterly Finance Review.
• Arrange travel and accommodation for SLT where required, following guidance and protocols.
• Provide secretariat support for SLT and other regional meetings, circulating papers, taking notes and recording actions and tracking completion of these.
• Track and monitor the completion of Combined Risk Register and Governance Statements (CRRGS) and SOCs.
• Collating and producing management information as required.
• Provide ad hoc project support to SLT, Head of RSU, People Lead and Performance Lead, Operational Support Managers on various projects as required, undertaking research and creating and maintaining project records.
• Channel incident management communications to the relevant people, ensuring key messages are conveyed to give a clear picture on incidents and actions required and progressed.
• Collating TUS facility time returns.

Performance

• Provide administrative support to the Performance Lead and Operations Support Managers and assist in production of ad hoc reports, collating information and data across the region.
• Signpost users to performance reports, and where necessary, assist in the production of reports.
• Produce financial and performance related information, to assist the SLT, Head of RSU and Leads for Performance and People in understanding regional performance and measures to improve or maintain this.
• Assist the Heads of Operations and SIP with the production of performance information for the different jurisdictions and region as a whole.

People & Comms

• Provide administrative support to People and Comms Lead and Operational Support Managers in all aspects of people and communications activity for the region.
• Draft communications, updating the regional intranet pages and post articles, proof reading documents for content, grammar, spelling, punctuation and basic formatting and accuracy and returning documents to authors for amendment where the content does not meet business needs.
• Gather data and insight on people activities, including tracking Fixed Term Contract (FTC)/agency details, Full Time Equivalent (FTE) workbooks and vacancies for the region.
• Assist with recruitment exercises and support vacancy managers in the recruitment process.
• Record keeping and management for all areas of people and communications activity, including Diversity and Inclusion, staff engagement and health and well-being initiatives.
• Schedule and track R&R activity, including panel frequency, spend and analyse data on usage, providing information to People Lead to help focus on full and effective use of this resource.

The role holder is required to work in a flexible way and undertake any other duties reasonably requested by line management which are commensurate with the grade and level of responsibility of this post.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Interpersonal skills to deal with queries on behalf of SLT members, and engage with stakeholders internally and externally, including the judiciary at all levels.
• Organisational and planning skills to support the work and diary commitments of the Regional Delivery Director, Heads of Operations, Service Improvement & Performance Lead, and to help support the activities of the Head of RSU, People Lead and Performance Lead.
• Project delivery skills to help support the delivery of ad hoc regional projects.
• Analytical skills to analyse and interpret regional data and provide useful insight to help drive operational delivery across the region.
• Good understanding of the operation and region is desirable to be able to provide operational context to delivery of plans etc.
• Good communications skills, written and verbal, with knowledge of Microsoft office (training will be given).

Problem Solving and Decision Making 

• The Operational Support Officer will be responsible for managing the inbox and calendar for members of the SLT and will need to assess the relative priorities and importance of competing requests and make decisions on what needs SLT attention and what can be actioned or delegated on behalf of the SLT.
• In supporting the work of the SLT, the People Lead and the Performance Lead, the role will collect, organise and analyse performance and people information, identify issues which might require resolution at a higher level and prepare reports to support decision making at a higher level.

Management of Resources

• The role has no line management or budgetary management responsibility but will be responsible for the effective management of the RDD’s and SLT’s time and resources, ensuring that their attention is focussed on the most important matters and delegating other matters to the appropriate level. This is likely to be in an environment where priorities change regularly, and the role will need to manage the RDD’s and SLT’s time effectively.
• The role will also have a responsibility for checking that SLT and other actions are being progressed to timescales and reporting on progress of these.
• The role will also have a responsibility for the regular maintenance and upkeep of the region’s intranet pages, ensuring the correct information is available to colleagues.

Autonomy

• The Operational Support Officer will report to the Operational Support Manager and will receive guidance and support from them where needed, but there is an expectation that this role will exercise both judgement and initiative when managing the office and diary commitments of the SLT and that they will be able to carry out this activity with minimum supervision, following the relevant guidelines and protocols.
• In supporting the work of the People Lead and Performance Lead, the role will be provided with instruction and guidance but will be expected to work mainly without regular supervision and be responsible for organising their own working day and adjusting priorities as required to deliver against their objectives.
• The role will follow organisational policies and procedures for people and communications related activities.

Key Relationships and Contacts

• The role is responsible for maintaining the inbox and calendar for SLT and the RDD and will be required to regularly engage with others to determine the key priorities that will require their attention. They may be required to negotiate with others to determine where the RDD and SLT’s time is best spent. This may require the role holder to engage with stakeholders and contacts internally and externally, including the judiciary at all levels.
• The role will support Heads of Operations, SIP, People Lead and Performance Lead by providing analytical support and analysis in their areas of function and may be responsible for commissioning information from the wider business where this is not readily available.
• The role will maintain relationships with colleagues internally to support effective team and individual performance – working as a pooled resource to support the RDD, SLT and wider RSU, the Operational Support Officers will liaise amongst themselves to ensure full support is provided.
• The role will maintain wider relationships with staff, and occasionally Judiciary, across the region to enable them to deliver their duties.