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.

Corporate Services

The Corporate Services Directorate helps shape and enable the priorities of the Chief Executive, Executive Leadership Team and People Committee to be delivered. The Chief Executive's (CE) Office sits within Corporate Services Directorate. The work is business critical and has a direct internal (within the LAA and wider MoJ) and external impact upon CE and LAA reputation.

Chief Executive’s Office

The postholder will be part of the Director of Transformation and Deputy Chief Executive Officer (DTDCEO) Support team which forms part of the wider CE’s Office. The work is business critical and has a direct internal (within the LAA and wider MoJ) and external impact upon CE, DTDCEO and LAA reputation.

Together with the CE Support Team, the DTDCEO Support Team amount to the LAA’s Private Office function. The teams are responsible for managing the DTCEO’s and CEO’s time and workflow; ensuring time is properly utilised, that the LAA’s most senior leaders are focussing on the right priorities and work at the right time and that they are fully briefed and prepared to do so. DTDCEO Support will also play an important role in managing the DTDCEO’s relationships both internally within LAA and MoJ and externally with senior stakeholders across the civil and criminal justice systems.

The other teams making up CE’s Office include External Communications, CE’s Correspondence and Parliamentary Engagement Team and Publications and Commissioning.

Job Summary

Working in a dynamic and supportive team, the Deputy Private Secretary (DPS) will need to be a credible source of advice to the DTDCEO. The DTDCEO is a new position within the LAA, and it will be essential that the DPS can hit the ground running at what will be a dynamic and exciting time for the agency.

The DPS will lead on coordinating and prioritising the DTDCEO’s portfolio responsibilities; anticipating and resolving issues – escalating as appropriate when necessary (to the Private Secretary and Head of Office/members of the ELT/the CEO/MoJ Private Offices etc); have both line and matrix management responsibility and support the wider team. The DPS will need to develop an in-depth understanding of the DCEO’s priorities.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide high quality advice and support to the DTDCEO, driving forward their priorities and supporting policy, operational and wider LAA and Departmental corporate work.
• Support the Head of Office and work closely with the DPS to the CEO, in the effective management of the team and adopt line management responsibilities for the Diary Manager to the DTDCEO.
• Work proactively, independently and effectively to prioritise, manage and oversee a significant number of reactive and proactive tasks.
• Building effective working relationships across the LAA and wider Department to inspire confidence, provide leadership and be an effective channel of communication for the DTDCEO with the LAA’s Executive Leadership Team, the Board, other private offices and colleagues across the Department.
• Work closely with the Diary Manager to ensure the DTDCEO’s diary and inbox are managed.
• Lead on DTDCEO stakeholder meetings, including ensuring the DTDCEO is appropriately briefed in advance, supported at and after meetings as required, and recording and managing actions arising through to conclusion.
• Lead DTDCEO internal comms (written comms, events and speeches) and all DTCCEO and Ministerial/PS/DG/stakeholder visits.
• Lead on incoming MoJ (DGs, CPO, DOC etc) and central government commissions related to agency transformation and other areas within DTDCEO remit.

      Lead on DTDCEO clearance process for LAA submissions before sending to CEO/PrivateOffices and lead on DTDCEO clearance of non-LAA submissions.

Essential Knowledge, Experience and skills

• Effective interpersonal, written and oral communication skills, with an ability to communicate clearly and succinctly.
• Demonstrable experience of building productive. stakeholder relationships, bringing together people with differing views to develop consensus and support.
• Effective organisational skills and confidence in taking a structured approach to information management.
• Demonstrable ability to keep track of and co-ordinate large amounts of information and different pieces of work.
• Ability to work agilely and flexibly at pace to deliver quality outcomes.
• Effective strategic oversight across a wide portfolio or policy area and an ability to forward plan.

Desirable Knowledge, Experience and skills

• Previous experience working in a Private Office/senior support environment.
• Previous experience of working within a central government department.

·         Knowledge of the Legal Aid Agency and its work.

Person Specification

• A confident, insightful, proactive and decisive leader.
• Enjoys working in a demanding, fast-changing environment.
• Personally resilient, including the ability to consistently work dynamically, adapting quickly to new and unexpected demands at pace to deliver quality outcomes to time and standard.

Assessment approach

Application Process

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

Delivering at Pace:

• 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.

Seeing the Bigger Picture:

• understand the strategic drivers for your area of work.
• align activities to contribute to wider organisational priorities.
• remain alert to emerging issues and trends which might impact your work area.
• seek out and share experiences to develop knowledge of the team’s business area.
• understand how the strategies and activities of the team create value and meet the diverse needs of all stakeholders.

Communicating and Influencing:

• 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.

Making Effective Decisions:

• understand your own level of responsibility and empower others to make decisions where appropriate.
• analyse and use a range of relevant, credible information from internal and external sources to support decisions.
• invite challenge and where appropriate involve others in decision making.
• display confidence when making difficult decisions, even if they prove to be unpopular.
• consult with others to ensure the potential impacts on end users have been considered.
• present strong recommendations in a timely manner outlining the consideration of other options, costs, benefits and risks.

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 in person, or 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
• Seeing the Bigger Picture
• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions
• Managing a Quality Service
• A short practical assessment at interview which will require no prior knowledge or preparation.
• 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.

Shortlisting is planned for week commencing 6^th January 2025.

Interviews are planned for week commencing 20^th and 27^th January 2025.

If you would like more information on this opportunity, please contact – Hilary Tabita, hilary.tabita@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.