About the job

Job summary

Please refer to Job Description

Job description

We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging. To find out more about how we do this visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity.

Who are we? 

HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is an agency of the Ministry of Justice. We provide support for the legal system across England and Wales, ensuring justice works for everyone.  

The Courts and Tribunals Service Centres (CTSC) bring a number of justice services together under one roof to offer an improved and more consistent experience for victims, witnesses, and anyone who uses the court system.

The roll out of CTSC’s are part of the £1 billion court reform programme and will help provide better access to justice services.

The transformation of HMCTS is one of the most challenging and complex programmes in central government: by the time it’s completed, will have radically changed how justice is done.   

The CTSC’s are the administrative offices of the future. Providing hubs for telephony, assisted digital, case progression and hearing support, these centres provide a consistent national service that enables cases to move through to conclusion smoothly and that provide the right support to the local judiciary.   

We have multiple sites, including Birmingham, Stoke, Loughborough, Salford as well as our newest site, Newport. We are working to reform a Justice system that has in the past relied heavily on paper-based processes and the CTSCs are among the first steps in being able to support a modern, digital Justice system. 

Purpose of the role 

The Operations Manager will lead the day-to-day running of the Probate service line and sites allocated to them to deliver a high-quality user-focused service. The Probate service processes applications for grants of Probate and customers contact the CTSC to obtain vital information about their application or accessing the service.  The Grant of Probate is the term used to describe the legal and financial processes involved in dealing with property, money, and possessions (called the assets) of a person who has deceased. Before the next of kin or executor named in the will can claim, transfer, sell or distribute any of the deceased’s assets they will have to apply for Probate. This will include both operational management to improve service performance, establishing a consistent service, as well as responsibility to develop and implement strategies that deliver organisational objectives and change.

The Operations Manager will hold line management responsibility for 5-6 HEO Service Delivery Managers and inspire and engage their team to deliver effective outcomes, communicating business objectives in an operational context. Led by the Grade 6 Head of Operations, the Operations Manager will ensure effective deployment of resources to live within allocated budgets. The Operations Manager will foster relationships with a wide range of stakeholders to ensure effective service delivery including user groups and judiciary; wider regional and service partners will also be key stakeholders for the Operations Manager to ensure cohesive cross-jurisdictional delivery.  

Key accountabilities include: 

• Lead the day-to-day delivery of a high-quality user-focused service on quality and timeliness in the delivery of improved services to end users. Resolving issues using judgement and discretion, escalating where unable to resolve.
• Responsible for the day-to-day operational performance, using performance data to determine priorities and action to ensure effective service delivery, to determine and set performance targets for the teams and work with their leadership teams to support targets to be met
• Focus on maximising productivity, minimising risk and effectively responding to fluctuations in service demand
• Use available MI, data and insight (e.g. KPIs, user satisfaction) to make proposals to drive improving quality and quantity in operational performance targets and the strength of team capability and engagement
• Take responsibility for the user-facing interactions, and for ensuring teams are achieving the operational targets set for quality and quantity of user interactions and level of user satisfaction with the service. Focus on improving the effectiveness of the user-facing teams and set in place measures to ensure compliance with standards. Engage in user facing groups to support delivery of service improvements.
• Provide support and guidance on difficult or complex issues which cannot be resolved at lower levels or where the existing rules or protocols do not cover the situation
• Drive a performance improvement culture. Ensure compliance with business change, process or continuous improvement initiatives, and encourage and role model a continuous improvement ethos across all Teams working with the Service Improvement team on the process or performance improvement measures needed across all teams
• Develop own and teams’ skills, knowledge and flexibility through a coaching culture /approach and driving performance (quality and quantity) improvement. Recognise and nurture talent and build on succession plans.
• Support implementation of business change and continuous improvement initiatives driven from the centre from staff/user feedback, to focus on service improvement, measuring success and using it to drive further improvement. Developing innovative proposals for introducing policy change, drawing on best practice for managing change.
• Monitor the performance of the teams under their leadership and work with leadership team to identify potential issues facing the daily operation and develop solutions to prevent the issues from impacting on the service delivery to users and sharing these with the wider National Service teams and through the appropriate channels to Service Projects/Managers.

Ensure compliance with HMCTS values, policies and procedures (including diversity and inclusion, attendance and discipline, HMCTS Assurance Programme) and contribute to ongoing development.

• Work with team to develop local business plans setting local priorities and objectives within the context of National and Regional strategies and plans. Once developed, own its delivery
• Ensure effective deployment of resources to live within the allocated budget.
• Perform Responsible Officer duties. This may include, but are not limited to, completion of or the monitoring of any of the following activities:
  • Identification of risks
  • Ensuring IT/Workstation compliance at all times
  • Ensure compliance with health and safety requirements
  • Ensuring Risk Assessments take place at appropriate times
  • Maintenance of an up-to-date Asset Register
  • Ensure any issues regarding level of service for Estates Facilities Management are escalated to MoJ Estates
  • Constructively manage complaints within set timescales, and ensure corrective action taken where necessary.
  • Business Continuity Plans for sites/service

Person Specification; Key Knowledge, Skills and Experience

•    The ability to work strategically with peers and deliver strong operational rigour through their teams, simplifying ambiguity and giving clear direction.
•    Visible leadership skills – can motivate and enthuse others to achieve
•    Clear understanding of empowerment and how it plays through an operational environment to achieve the highest performance standards and have the skills, knowledge and resources to effectively carry out the role.  
•    Builds an ambitious performance and development culture and creates continually growing capability in the operation. Ensuring staff are supported, valued and rewarded appropriately.
•    People leadership to support staff, coaching to develop staff, including performance management, with a strong service ethic and ability to drive quality.
•    A collaborative team player, who understands how to raise capability within a team and build a sustainable platform for continued improvement
•    Self-developer: demonstrates thought leadership in the development of people and service improvement
•    Clear and concise communication skills to provide direction to the team on user insights and to provide direct / relevant information to key stakeholders across a range of channels that can be easily understood
•    Highly developed interpersonal skills to build and maintain effective relationships with the judiciary, colleagues and key stakeholders
•    Effective negotiation skills to manage/ reconcile competing priorities and resolve issues. 
•    Knowledge of best practices to make recommendations on continuous improvement initiatives, drawing evidence from multiple sources to draw out key insights to evidence where improvements are needed
•    Full understanding of functions undertaken within areas of responsibility to support the development and review of policies and procedures, and contribute to forward looking business planning activities
•    Data analysis skills and insight to enable better understanding of user trends and workflow requirements and identify improvements and contribute to the development of local priorities and objectives.
•    Effective management of governance and risk management experience: ensuring that governance, risk management registers and contingency plans are in place and updated annually/ monthly

Ways of working

Standard full time working hours are 37 hours per week. There is an expectation that you can be flexible with your working hours to accommodate the needs of the business, the post holder may also be required  to travel to other National Services sites where required. HMCTS welcomes part-time, flexible and job-sharing working patterns, where they meet the demands of the role and business needs and are agreed prior to appointment.

Please see more information about the role within the attached candidate pack.

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £39,868, HM Courts and Tribunals Service 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.