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.

The Youth Justice and Offender Policy Directorate is recruiting permanently for a G7 Head of Remand/Bail Policy in our Demand and Release Policy 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 the two locations may be required.

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 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)

Job Description overview

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ)

MOJ is one of the largest government departments, employing around 70,000 people (including those in the Probation Service), with a budget of approximately £9 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.

The Youth Justice and Offender Policy Directorate

The Youth Justice and Offender Policy Directorate is a friendly inclusive team of around 130 staff who work in partnership with other criminal justice groups and agencies to develop policy aimed at offenders, including youth offenders: to reduce crime and reoffending and to make the criminal justice system more effective and efficient in doing so.

We support the probation service and the policies around supervising adult offenders in the community, driving change on sentencing, release and recall of offenders, bail and electronic monitoring, the youth justice system, and responding to the particular needs of specific offender groups including women and vulnerable offenders with mental health or substance misuse issues.

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

Demand and Release Policy

Prison capacity is one of the greatest challenges facing the MoJ. Despite building record numbers of prison places and bringing additional cells online, demand continues to rise.  Extensive work continues to expand capacity and this remains a core focus. In addition, the MoJ needs to be ready to respond if demand continues to rise and we face a severe challenge for any reason. 

The Demand and Release Policy Team plays a crucial role: our responsibility for demand and release policy means we are at the heart of plans to tackle the capacity challenge. We work closely with HMPPS, other policy teams including the Custodial Options Taskforce and legal and analytical teams to give Ministers robust options.

We are looking for motivated and experienced policy professionals to join a welcoming and supportive team on a permanent basis.  The role is fast paced, intellectually challenging and exciting and give candidates the opportunity to work on areas which will make a real difference to how offenders are dealt with by the criminal justice system for years to come.

The Role

The Team Leader is responsible for building and motivating a high performing team responsible for a range of interesting policy areas: is legislation needed to reform remand and what would this look like, can MoJ do more as to influence behaviour, do we understand precisely how the system is working and give Ministers and senior leaders meaningful options to change things.  This is a busy team that receives a lot of interest from Ministers and is a great chance for an experienced policy maker to build a positive team culture and make a meaningful contribution to the prison capacity challenge.

The successful applicant will lead a new team to develop legislative and non-legislative options to reduce the remand population. There will be a lot of collaboration with key operational partners such as the police, CPS, defence lawyers and the judiciary to identify barriers to bail and develop and implement solutions to resolve them. This is a keen area of focus for the Lord Chancellor, so drafting briefings and advice will be a core part of the role.

As a Policy Manager, you will have a range of different responsibilities.

• You will be responsible for leading a range of policies and reforms and driving forward change. This includes cross-cutting strategic programmes, many which are high ministerial priorities, and which require cross-government collaboration.
• You will be at the heart of turning strategic policy into operational intent. Working closely with justice operational colleagues (HMPPS and HMCTS) as well as other Government departments to bring about lasting change. 
• You will be responsible for owning and delivering the Department’s remand/bail programme of change and driving forward both legislative and non legislative reforms.
• You will build influence at the heart of the department, as well as within the centre of government, on remand policies.
• You will work at pace with a strong degree of independence on a variety of high-profile issues, including drafting briefings and developing advice for Ministers and senior leaders, responding to parliamentary or public correspondence and driving policy documents. You will be experienced at forward planning and delegating tasks appropriately to other colleagues and will be required to input to short-term problem-solving on urgent issues.
• You will work closely with stakeholders across the Directorate, Department, agencies, Arm’s Length Bodies and delivery agencies to support the department’s strategic aims of reducing reoffending and protecting the public.

You will also be expected to contribute to one of our directorate corporate workstreams e.g. smarter working, wellbeing and inclusion, personal development etc.

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £54,358, Ministry of Justice contributes £15,165 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. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.