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General Information

Salary
The national salary range is £28,312 - £30,011, London salary range is £32,416 - £34,361. Your salary will be dependent on your base location.
Working Pattern
Full Time
Location
Birmingham, Brighton and Hove, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Jarrow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Nottingham
Region
East Midlands, London, North East, North West, South East, South West, Wales, West Midlands, Yorkshire and the Humber
Closing Date
31-Dec-2024
Post Type
Loan
Civil Service Grade
EO
Number of jobs available
1
Job ID
977

Descriptions & requirements

Job description

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.

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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 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

We are looking for a highly motivated, proactive and organised individual to provide high level and professional executive support to the DTDCEO. This is a business-critical role as supporting the newly appointed DTDCEO will play a vital role in the successful delivery of LAA operational and strategic objectives and the delivery of a quality service to the wider Department and to the public we serve.

Working to the DTDCEO Deputy Private Secretary and to the Head of Office this is a demanding, challenging and fast-paced role. You will provide high level and professional private office management support of the DTDCEO as well as high quality guidance and advice. You will be working closely with the CEO’s Business Manager and Diary Managers of the CEO’s Executive Leadership Team together with those of the Director General and Service Transformation Group Executive Team, Ministers and wider MoJ Senior Management Team to ensure the LAA continues to deliver to the highest of standards and in doing so support the statutory responsibilities of the Lord Chancellor and Director of Legal Aid Casework.

Key Responsibilities:

Diary Management

  • ·       To proactively manage the DTDCEO’s diary – resolving conflicting scheduling demands and ensuring time management is optimised. Make the best use of the DTDCEO’s time and provide value for money by identifying potential to delegate meetings to the appropriate Deputy Director or senior subject matter expert and take forward following discussion with Private Secretaries (PSs).
  • ·       In discussion with PSs lead on arranging the DTDCEO’s diary to ensure the best use of DTDCEO time in keeping with DTDCEO priorities, supporting delivery against objectives.
  • ·       Acting as a first point of contact for the DTDCEO, use initiative to respond to and redirect queries where required.
  • ·       Arrange travel and overnight accommodation for the DTDCEO in line with current Departmental travel policy.
  • ·       Co-ordinate internal and external meetings for the DTDCEO (including room booking and set-up, greeting and escorting visitors where appropriate and provision of meeting agenda and papers).
  • ·       Understand and prioritise the DTDCEO’s key stakeholders.
  • ·       Regular monitoring of the DTDCEO’s email inbox throughout the working day to prioritise work – allocating, flagging and drawing attention to issues that need immediate attention and responding to requests where appropriate.
  • ·       Managing emails in the absence of the DTDCEO and determining which can be actioned, delegated to Head of office, others within the CEO’s Office or to the Executive Leadership Team (ELT), and identifying those which will require the DTDCEO’s personal attention.
  • ·       Liaise with the CE Support team and ELT as appropriate in identifying and resolving issues/problems which can be managed without the direct and personal involvement of the DTDCEO.
  • ·       Maintaining HR records relating to DTDCEO senior line management team i.e. absence management, approving expenses.
  • ·       Supporting the DTDCEO with performance reporting and objective setting for both the DTDCEO and their senior line management team.
  • ·       Act as note taker for any personnel matters the DTDCEO is involved with.
  • ·       Assist DTDCEO with their Champion and wider MoJ and Government corporate responsibilities.
  • ·       Providing general business support as required including, minute taking, maintenance of records and filing.
  • ·       Resolving IT issues for the DTDCEO.
  • ·       Maintaining the DTDCEO’s gifts and hospitality register.
  • ·       Processing the DTDCEO’s expenses.

Email Management

DTDCEO Support

General Business Support

Essential Knowledge, Experience and skills

·       Effective organisational skills and ability to work at pace and reactively as needs dictate.

·       An ability to plan and prioritise, managing conflicting demands effectively.

·       The ability to work autonomously and within a team, exercising sound judgement and being proactive about taking the initiative.

·       Effective and confident communication skills – an ability to liaise with staff at a variety of levels effectively and communicate with clarity and confidence.

·       Good command of the English language and good note-taking skills for minute taking and writing correspondence.

·       Intermediate level of proficiency in Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Desirable Knowledge, Experience and skills

·       Experience of working in a senior support role/providing high level corporate support with a strong work and customer service ethic would be advantageous but is not essential.

Person Specification

·       A highly professional team player who will quickly be able to grip best practice ways of working with other Private Offices and executive support functions and the nuances of operating in a senior support role within Government.

·       Enjoys working in a demanding, fast-changing environment.

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:

·       regularly review the success of activities in the team to identify barriers to progress or challenging objectives.

·       identify who and what is required to ensure success, set clear goals and areas of responsibility and continually assess workloads considering individual needs.

·       follow relevant policies, procedures and legislation to complete your work.

·       ensure colleagues have the correct tools and resources available to them to do their jobs.

·       have a positive and focused attitude to achieving outcomes, despite any setbacks.

·       regularly check performance against objectives, making suggestions for improvement or taking corrective action where necessary.

·       ensure that colleagues are supported where tasks are challenging.

Seeing the Big Picture:

·       understand how your work and the work of your team supports wider objectives and meets the diverse needs of stakeholders.

·       keep up to date with the issues that affect your work area.

·       take a keen interest in expanding knowledge in areas related to your work.

·       focus on overall goals and not just specific tasks to meet priorities.

Working together:

·       develop a range of contacts outside own team and identify opportunities to share knowledge, information and learning.

·       show genuine interest when listening to others.

·       contribute to an inclusive working environment where all opinions and challenges are listened to and all individual needs are taken into account.

·       ensure it is clear that bullying, harassment and discrimination are unacceptable.

·       offer support and help to colleagues when in need, including consideration of your own and their wellbeing.

·       change ways of working to aid cooperation within and between teams in order to achieve results.

Managing a quality service:


·       work with customers to understand their needs and expectations.

·       create clear plans and set priorities which meet the needs of both the customer and the business.

·       clearly explain to customers what can be done.

·       keep colleagues and stakeholders fully informed of plans, possibilities and progress.

·       identify common problems that affect service, report them and find possible solutions.

·       deliver good customer service which balances quality and cost effectiveness.


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 / assessment centre 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:

o   Delivering at Pace

o   Seeing the Bigger Picture

o   Working Together

o   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 to them and to where they work. Examples of action they have taken (in or outside of work) to embrace diversity (e.g., increasing understanding) or improve inclusion for others will increase the strength of their answer.

Shortlisting is planned for week commencing 6th January 2025

Interviews are planned for week commencing 20th and 27th 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.

Additional Information

If you require any assistance please call 0345 241 5359 (Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm) or e mail Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com 

Please quote the job reference 977

Working Arrangements & Further Information

The MoJ offers Hybrid Working arrangements where business need allows. This is an informal, non-contractual form of flexible working that blends working from your base location, different MoJ sites and / or from home (please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK and not overseas). All employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in an office, subject to local estate capacity.

Some roles will not be suitable for Hybrid Working. Similarly, Hybrid Working will not suit everyone’s circumstances. Arrangements will be discussed and agreed with the successful candidate(s) and subject to regular review.

For nationally advertised roles, the successful candidate(s) will be appointed to a MoJ office location, which may include their nearest Justice Collaboration Centre or Justice Satellite Office. This will be discussed and agreed on the completion of pre-employment checks. 

Some of MoJ’s terms and conditions of service are changing as part of Civil Service reform. The changes will apply to staff joining MoJ who are new to the Civil Service. Staff joining MoJ from other civil service employers will transfer onto the new MoJ terms if they are already on 'modernised' terms in their current post or onto 'unmodernised' MoJ terms if they are on 'unmodernised' terms at their current post. Details will be available if an offer is made.

MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain their grade on lateral transfer.

All candidates who are currently in receipt of Mark Time / Pay Protection should ensure they are familiar with the new policy on permanent and temporary promotion which can be found on the employee intranet.

Flexible working hours 

The Ministry of Justice offers a flexible working system in many offices. Standard full time working hours are 37 hours per week. MoJ welcomes part-time, flexible and job-sharing working patterns, where they meet the demands of the role and business needs. All applications for part-time, flexible and job-sharing working patterns will be considered in accordance with the MoJ’s Flexible Working policy.

Benefits 

The MoJ offers a range of benefits:

Annual Leave

Annual leave is 25 days on appointment and will increase to 30 days after five years’ service.

There is also a scheme to allow qualifying staff to buy or sell up to three days leave each year. Additional paid time off for public holidays and 1 privilege day. Leave for part-time and job share posts will be calculated on a pro-rata basis.

Pension 

The Civil Service offers a choice of pension schemes, giving you the flexibility to choose the pension that suits you best.

Training 

The Ministry of Justice is committed to staff development and offers an extensive range of training and development opportunities.

Networks 

The opportunity to join employee-run networks that have been established to provide advice and support and to enable the views of employees from minority groups to be expressed direct to senior management. There are currently networks for employees of minority ethnic origin, employees with disabilities, employees with caring responsibilities, women employees, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees.

Eligibility

Staff on fixed term appointments must have been recruited through fair and open competition.

Support

  • A range of ‘Family Friendly’ policies such as opportunities to work reduced hours or job share.
  • Access to flexible benefits such as voluntary benefits, retail vouchers and discounts on a range of goods and services.
  • For moves to or from another employer or moves across the Civil Service this can have implications on your eligibility to carry on claiming childcare vouchers. You may however be eligible for alternative government childcare support schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. More information can be found on www.www.GOV.UK or Childcare Choices. You can determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/.
  • Paid paternity, adoption and maternity leave.
  • Free annual sight tests for employees who use computer screens.

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles. Should you feel that the recruitment process has breached the recruitment principles you are able to raise a formal complaint in the following order

As a Disability Confident employer, MoJ are committed to providing everyone with the opportunity to demonstrate their skills, talent and abilities, by making adjustments throughout all elements of the recruitment process and in the workplace. MoJ are able to offer an interview to disabled candidates who meet the minimum selection criteria, except in a limited number of campaigns.

You will be able to request reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process within the application form. If you need additional help completing the application form, please contact the SSCL Recruitment Enquiries Team.

For more information on applying for a role as a candidate with a disability or long-term condition, please see our Disability Confident Scheme Frequently Asked Questions webpage.

Diversity & 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.

Contact Information
If you require any assistance please call 0345 241 5359 (Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm) or e mail Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com 

Please quote the job reference 977

Application form stage assessments

Behaviours
A sift based on the lead behaviour, Delivering at Pace, may be held if a large number of applications are received. If a large number of applications remain after the initial sift, your application will be progressed to a full sift, where all behaviours will then be considered.
Behaviours Application Form Question Word Limit
250
Delivering at Pace
Seeing the Big Picture
Working Together
Managing a Quality Service
Evidence of Experience
Experience Questions

Interview stage assessments

Behaviours
Delivering at Pace
Seeing the Big Picture
Working Together
Managing a Quality Service
Experience
Your Experience for this role will be assessed at interview. To learn more about Experience and how they are assessed please click here.

We will assess your experience for this role via the following methods
Experience Questions
Strengths
Strengths will be assessed but these are not shared in advance. To learn more about Strengths and how they are assessed please click here.
Use of Artificial Intelligence (Al)
You must ensure that any evidence submitted as part of your application, including your CV, statement of suitability and behaviour examples, are truthful and factually accurate. Please note that plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own.