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.

Overview of the role 

The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) is an Arm’s Length Body of the Ministry of Justice and investigates: 

• Complaints made by prisoners, young people in detention, offenders under probation supervision and individuals detained under immigration powers;
• Deaths of prisoners, young people in detention, residents in approved premises and individuals detained under immigration powers;
• Deaths of recently released prisoners that occur within 14 days of release from prison (except homicide).

The Ombudsman receives around 4,000 new complaints a year, of which around half are assessed as eligible for investigation, and investigates around 400 deaths per year.  To enable this, the Ministry of Justice provides the PPO with a yearly budget in the region of £6.4 million.  To manage the PPO’s finances, including forecasting pay and non-pay spend for each financial year and guiding and monitoring our spend in year, we are looking for an experienced Financial Officer.  

This is a key role and it is part of the Learning, Analysis and Business Services (LABS) team, who are responsible for supporting the PPO’s main duties.  While the post holder will be part of the LABS Team, they will regularly liaise with the Ombudsman and senior managers in our Complaints and Fatal Incidents Teams.  The post holder will report to the SEO Head of Business Support.

This post will suit individuals that are well-organised, have excellent attention to detail, are able to work to deadlines and have good communication skills.  The post holder will also need to be comfortable working predominantly by themselves and using computer programmes, such as Microsoft Excel and finance databases. 

Previous financial management experience is essential.  However, previous experience of the Criminal Justice System is not required. 

The PPO is based at the HM Government hub at 10 South Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London. Currently, staff are expected to attend the office two days a week (based on full time hours), with the rest of the time spent working at home or in commuter hubs.  However, the Civil Service Heads of Department have recently written to all departments, including the PPO, and confirmed that their expectation is that staff will attend the office for three days a week (based on full time hours).  We expect this to begin at some time in 2024. 

While you will usually have some flexibility to decide which days of the week you work in the office to enable you to manage your office attendance around your personal circumstances, there will be occasions when you will be required to attend the office (for example, team meetings, office or function-wide meetings) or visit establishments belonging to our services in remit on particular days.

Please note that the PPO is unable to offer home working contracts or allow you to permanently work at any other location, other than 10 South Colonnade, for the required office attendance days. 

If you are successful, you may need to attend the office more frequently in your first six weeks, to undertake key training and induction activity. 

Interviews will be held virtually using Microsoft Teams. 

The salary range is £37,174 to £40,403.

External candidates joining the Civil Service will be expected to join on the minimum salary for the band.  Successful internal candidates who are already at HEO will keep their base salary on transfer, though allowances do not transfer.  Successful internal candidates joining on promotion will start on either the minimum of the salary range or receive a 10% increase to their current base salary, whichever is higher.

Job Description  

The post holder will be responsible for the following: Planning and managing the PPO’s annual budget and forecasted spend for the spending review period. This work includes:

• On receipt of the indicative budget, preparing initial budget allocations and pay and non-pay forecasts for the year.
• Monitoring and enabling the salary payments for all PPO staff and the allocation of any recognition and reward awards.
• Holding monthly finance review meetings and providing advice to managers on viability of anticipated spend.
• Providing monthly budget reports to our Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and highlighting issues of concern.
• Providing monthly and quarterly reports to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in the format and according to the timelines they set.
• Liaising with the MoJ on the format, timing and content of PPO’s budget reports.
• On request, providing forecasted spend for subsequent years to identify the impact of changing budget allocations.
• At the end of the financial quarter or year, identifying accruals with accompanying evidence and providing the MoJ with written analysis of the PPO’s anticipated end of quarter/ year budgetary position.

Managing the procurement of and payment for goods and services provided to PPO:

• Considering and approving requests for purchase orders.
• Responding to invoice issues and non-payments.
• Investigating the reasons for fruitless or erroneous payments to ensure lessons are learnt and these are kept to a minimum.

Providing strategic advice to the Ombudsman and Deputy Ombudsmen:

• Contributing to the preparation of the PPO’s spending review bids.
• Providing financial data for MoJ commissioning requests on issues such as workforce planning.

Essential experience and skills 

• Experience of working in a financial management environment.
• Excellent attention to detail and accuracy.
• Strong IT skills, particularly with Microsoft Excel and financial databases.   
• Excellent planning and organisational skills.
• Excellent communications skills.

Desirable criteria

• Level 4 qualification with AAT, CCAB or CIMA; or
• Working towards qualification with CCAB, CIMA or equivalent.

The Application and Interview Process

The PPO is a Disability Confident Committed Employer, and we ensure our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible. Please complete the application information on reasonable adjustments and disabilities if relevant.  Further information on the types of reasonable adjustment that can be provided can be found at https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/reasonable-adjustments/

This is a two-stage process. 

Stage 1:

• Submit a Curriculum Vitae (CV).
• Submit a statement of suitability (250 words) setting out how your skills and experience match the essential requirements for the role as stated above.
• Provide an example of where you have demonstrated the skills required for the Civil Service Behaviours ‘Managing a Quality Service’ and ‘Delivering at Pace’.

To pass stage 1, a candidate will need to score a minimum of two out of three on their statement of suitability and four out of seven for each of the behaviour answers.  If we receive a high number of applicants for the post, we will complete an initial sift on the ‘Managing a Quality Service’ behaviour.  We will not review the rest of the application for any candidate who does not meet the required benchmark for this behaviour.  Also, if we receive a high number of high scoring applications, we reserve the right to increase the minimum benchmarks for the statement of suitability and the behaviours.

The CV will not be scored but will be used to give context to the statement of suitability. 

Stage 2: 

Those who meet the required level at the application stage will be invited to a short final interview.  During the interview, you will be asked questions about the Civil Service Behaviours ‘Managing a Quality Service’, ‘Delivering at Pace’ and ‘Communicating and Influencing’, as well as strength-based questions relating to the role.

To be considered appointable, you will need to score a minimum of 12 out of 21 for the behaviour questions and a minimum of eight out of 16 for the strength questions.  If we receive a high number of high scoring interviewees, we reserve the right to increase this minimum benchmark. 

Recruitment across the Civil Service changed from July 2019 with the introduction of Success Profiles. Further guidance can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles.

Managing a Quality Service

Develop, implement, maintain and review systems and services to ensure delivery of professional excellence. Work with stakeholders to set priorities, objectives and timescales. Successfully deliver high quality outcomes that meet the customers’ needs and gives value for money. Identify risks and resolve issues efficiently. Involve a diverse range of colleagues, stakeholders and delivery partners in developing suggestions for improvements. Establish ways to find and respond to feedback from customers about the services provided.

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.

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.

When answering questions about the behaviours, you might want to use the STAR approach to help you to present your evidence more successfully.  This approach provides structure and focus to your answers.

The STAR approach stands for:

Situation – briefly describe the context and your role.

Task – the specific challenge, task or job that you faced.

Action – what you did, how and why you did it.

Result – what you achieved through your actions.

You should keep the situation and task parts brief, concentrating on the actions you took and the result. If the result was not entirely successful describe what you learned from this and what you would do differently next time. STAR may help you to cover all the points you need to make.

When using STAR, you should use one specific example per behaviour and you should explain what you did rather than others.

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made should further vacancies become available.

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £37,174, Ministry of Justice contributes £10,074 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.