About the job

Job summary

Please refer to Job Description

Job description

Administrative Officer 

A

Miscarriages of Justice Policy & Casework Unit

The Miscarriages of Justice Policy & Casework Unit is recruiting permanently for an Administrative Officer Casework Support in the Miscarriages of Justice Application Service (MOJAS) and Royal Prerogative of Mercy (RPM) Team. This campaign is being run externally and so is open to all who consider themselves suitable for the roles and meet the eligibility criteria in the wider advert within Civil Service Jobs. 

Location

Successful candidates will have the option to be based at one of the following locations:

1.    102 Petty France, London 
2.    5 Wellington Place, Leeds (occasional travel between Leeds and London may be required post Covid-19)

In order for Policy Group to meet its evolving business needs all Policy Group staff are expected to attend their base location (102 Petty France or 5 Wellington Place Leeds) at least 3 days a week. This hybrid working arrangement is not contractual and as a result staff could be asked to attend their base location more frequently.

Ways of Working

At the MoJ we believe and promote alternative ways of working, these roles are available as:

•    Full-time, part-time or the option to job share
•    Flexible working patterns
•    Flexible working arrangements between base locations, MoJ Hubs and home.

If we receive applications from more suitable candidates than we have vacancies for at this time, we may hold suitable applicants on a reserve list for 12 months, and future vacancies requiring the same skills and experience could be offered to candidates on the reserve list without a new competition.

Salary

New entrants to the Civil Service will be expected to join on the minimum of the pay range.  

If you are already a civil servant and are successful in an external recruitment competition for a role with us, your starting pay will be the better of:

•    promotion terms or transfer terms, as appropriate; or
•    pay on appointment arrangements (minimum of pay range)

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ)

MOJ is one of the largest government departments, employing over 90,000 people (including those in the Probation Service), with a budget of approximately £9.5 billion. Each year, millions of people use our services across the UK - including 500 courts and tribunals, and 133 prisons in England and Wales.

Further information can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice

Miscarriages of Justice Policy & Casework Unit

This is an exciting opportunity to undertake a key role in a fascinating, sensitive and often high-profile area of the MOJ’s portfolio. The Unit ensures a coherent departmental response to miscarriages of justice including compensation, policy reform, and any legislative response. We also act as Policy Sponsor for the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), a statutory body responsible for considering referral of cases to the Court of Appeal.

The unit is responsible for administering the Miscarriages of Justice Application Service and recommending an exercise of the Royal Prerogative of Mercy (whereby the King can pardon someone). The advertised role would work predominantly in this area. 

Administrative Officer - the role

The postholder will report into the Band C and will:

•    Provide admin support for all applications to the Miscarriages of Justice Application Service (MOJAS) and Royal Prerogative of Mercy (RPM). 
•    Liaise with the courts and transcribers to request legal documents in support of MOJAS applications, ensuring chasers are sent in good time to avoid delays.
•    Monitor and manage the team inboxes – conducting an initial triage and responding to correspondence as necessary and/or signposting to the relevant team member.
•    Manage the team’s correspondence log for MOJAS and RPM in line with internal deadlines as well as providing draft responses to all correspondence which would include TO’s, MC’s and PQ’s
•    Draft responses to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests ensuring effective interrogation of internal management information and data.
•    Oversee the destruction of paper and electronic files in line with the department’s retention policy liaising with the registy team who store our documents.
•    Interrogate and scrutinise internal management data, employing attention to detail to ensure data accuracy and quality is maintained.
•    Process all invoices related to compensation payments and fees including setting up Purchase Orders (POs) and new providers on the internal finance system SOP.
•    Manage and proactively monitor the MOJAS team’s work outputs to ensure the system has no unnecessary delays and provide a weekly overview to senior managers. 
•    Work with external and internal stakeholders across government and the courts to continually look to improve the service we provide.  

Skills and Experience

Essential:

•    You will have proven excellent written communication and oral communication/interpersonal skills.
•    You will be highly organised and able to prioritise and manage your workload. 
•    You will be a self-starter, capable of prioritising competing demands and capable of working proactively in a small team.
•    You will be confident in your decision making skills when triaging applications.
•    You are able to take responsibility for solving problems and use those solutions to develop and improve your own and the team’s ways of working.
•    You will also have an aptitude for detailed work, with the ability to communicate policy and casework related issues clearly.
•    You will have a good working knowledge of Office 365 applications, especially Outlook, Word and Excel.
•    5 GCSEs A-C, or equivalent qualification 

Desirable:

•    Awareness of the FOIA
•    Awareness of operating in a legal setting
•    Understanding of data manipulation and presentation
•    Understanding of Purchase Orders and SOP
•    Understanding the Parliamentary system, including Parliamentary Questions (PQs)

Candidates applying from HMPPS should note that the Ministry of Justice does not have the same conditions of employment as HMPPS. It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the terms and conditions they will adopt should they be successful.

The MoJ is proud to be Level 3 Disability Confident. Disability Confident is the approach through which we offer guaranteed interviews for all people with disabilities meeting the minimum criteria for the advertised role as set out in the job description.

Application process

You will be assessed against the Civil service success profiles framework.

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.

Experience

You will be asked to provide a Work History and details of your qualification during the application process in order to assess any demonstrable experience, career history and achievements that are relevant to the role. Please ensure your Work History is no longer than two pages.

You will also be asked to upload a Statement of Suitability of no more than 250 words stating what motivation and suitability you would bring to the role, with reference to the Skills and Experience listed above.

Behaviours

During the application process you will be asked to provide an example of how you have met the following behaviours (see Annex A for more information):

•    Making Effective Decisions
•    Delivering at Pace
•    Managing a Quality Service
•    Working Together

Please also refer to the CS Behaviours framework for more details at this grade:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/717275/CS_Behaviours_2018.pdf

Should we receive a large number of applications, we will sift primarily on the lead behaviour of Making Effective Decisions. Successful applicants will then be invited to an interview, testing both behaviours and strengths.

Candidates invited to interview. 

Please note that interviews will be carried out remotely. 

During the panel interview, you will be asked behaviour-based questions to explore in detail what you are capable of, and strengths-based questions to also explore what you enjoy, and your motivations relevant to the job role. 

There is no expectation or requirement for you to prepare for the strengths-based questions in advance of the interview, though you may find it helpful to spend some time reflecting on what you enjoy doing and what you do well.

You can refer to the CS Strengths dictionary for more details:  Success Profiles - Civil Service Strengths Dictionary (publishing.service.gov.uk) 

Interviews are expected to take place the beginning of September 2024.

Contact information.   

Please do get in touch if you would like to know more about the role or what it is like working in our team; Sultana Akther, Sultana.Akther@justice.gov.uk

Annex A - The STAR method

Using the STAR method can help you give examples of relevant experience that you have. It allows you to set the scene, show what you did, and how you did it, and explain the overall outcome.

Situation - Describe the situation you found yourself in. You must describe a specific event or situation. Be sure to give enough detail for the job holder to understand.

•    Where are you?
•    Who was there with you?
•    What had happened?

Task - The job holder will want to understand what you tried to achieve from the situation you found yourself in.

•    What was the task that you had to complete and why?
•    What did you have to achieve?

Actions - What did you do? The job holder will be looking for information on what you did, how you did it and why. Keep the focus on you. What specific steps did you take and what was your contribution? Remember to include how you did it, and the behaviours you used. Try to use “I” rather than “we” to explain your actions that lead to the result. Be careful not to take credit for something that you did not do.

Results - Don’t be shy about taking credit for your behaviour. Quote specific facts and figures. Explain how the outcome benefitted the organisation or your area. Make the outcomes easily understandable.

•    What results did the actions produce?
•    What did you achieve through your actions, and did you meet your goals?
•    Was it a successful outcome? If not, what did you learn from the experience?

Keep the situation and task parts brief. Concentrate on the action and the result. If the result was not entirely successful describe what you learned from this and what you would do differently next time. Make sure you focus on your strengths.

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £22,940, Ministry of Justice contributes £6,102 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) 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 (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.