About the job

Job summary

Please refer to Job Description

Job description

The Prisoner Cohorts Team is recruiting permanently for an SEO policy adviser. 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 the two locations may be required. 

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 2 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. 

We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce and pride ourselves as being an employer of choice. To find out more about how we champion diversity and inclusion in the workplace, visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity 

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 the largest government department, employing over 90,000 people with a budget of approximately £10 billion. Each year, millions of people use our services across the UK - including at 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 

The Work of the Prison Policy Directorate

Prisons policy is one of the most interesting and challenging areas of public policy. It operates at the sharp end of a range of wider social policy issues, with those who end up in prison disproportionately likely to have endured adverse childhood experiences, to come from minority ethnic communities, to have substance misuse or mental health issues, and to live in poverty. Their time in prison is an opportunity to support these individuals to transform their lives by desisting from crime, and we work with operational colleagues and across government to improve prisons’ ability to do this. 

Prisoner Cohorts Policy Adviser

We are recruiting an SEO policy adviser in prisoner cohorts team, which focuses on ensuring that our services are tailored to the needs of different groups of prisoners. 

The main responsibility of this role will be to lead the development of a strategy for people with care experience in the criminal justice system. Children taken away from their parents and into local authority care are disproportionately likely to end up in the criminal justice system, and research indicates they make up at least a quarter of the adult prison population. Their journeys into the criminal justice system are often characterised by the trauma of the events which led to their being taken into care leading to issues with anger or substance misuse, isolation and alienation leading to exploitation by criminal gangs, and a series of failed interventions from other services.

Improving outcomes for people with care experience is one of the most pressing issues in social policy, and few outcomes are worse than ending up in the criminal justice system. The aims of this role are to deliver a strategy which both:

1. Generates commitment from other government departments to interventions which reduce the number of people with care experience who end up in the criminal justice system; and
2. Improves the support available within the criminal justice system to ensure that people with care experience can thrive in the rest of their lives.

Delivering these aims will include work to:

1. Build an evidence base and narrative which establishes why people with care experience in the criminal justice system should be a priority for additional support, and using this to generate commitment to this support from delivery partners;
2. Analyse the issues which cause people with care experience to end up in the criminal justice system, and working with other government departments to influence their policy and develop solutions which could address these; and
3. Develop best practice on how to support people with care experience in the criminal justice system, and influence senior colleagues, ministers and other government departments to secure resources to implement this best practice.

Alongside the work on care experience, there will be an opportunity to take on work relating to other priorities within the wider division, including potentially on other prisoner cohorts such as young adults and transgender prisoners, and the wider work of the division, which focuses on reducing reoffending. We are keen to shape this additional work around your skills and areas of interest. 

Skills and Experience

We are looking for people who:

• are interested in criminal justice issues, and ambitious about improving outcomes for people in the criminal justice system
• enjoy working autonomously, and take pride in producing high-quality work
• enjoy thinking strategically and taking a solution-focused approach to analysing problems
• understand the broader political context for their work, and work within this context to achieve positive change
• enjoy working with and influencing stakeholders
• communicate compellingly, both in writing and orally

Experience of working in policy is helpful but not essential, and we do not require prior civil service experience. Colleagues in MoJ policy come from a range of backgrounds, with some joining from other parts of the public sector, the third sector and the private sector.

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 also be asked to upload a Statement of Suitability of no more than 500 words stating what you would bring to the role, with reference to the Skills and Experience listed above. 

Candidates invited to Interview

Please note that interviews will be carried out remotely. 

During the interview, we will be assessing you on Behaviours and Strengths from the success Profiles framework. The behaviours will be as follows: 

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing 

Seeing the Big Picture will be assessed via a 5-minute presentation, the title of which will be provided to candidates successful at the application stage. The remaining behaviours will be assessed via behaviour questions, followed by questions on strengths. 

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 in early July. 

Contact information  

If you would like further information about the role, please contact Izzie Hill (Isolde.Hill@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 £39,868, Ministry of Justice contributes £10,804 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.