About the job

Job summary

His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service is responsible for the administration of the criminal, civil and family courts and tribunals in England and Wales and non-devolved tribunals in Scotland and Northern Ireland. 

HMCTS’ Operations Directorate currently has around 15,000 staff, operating from around 350 locations including courts, tribunals and hearing centres, and seven large business centres. The Operations Director (‘the Director’) has overall accountability for the successful delivery of all operational business in HMCTS and some elements of a major programme of change (’Reform’), whilst providing general support to the CEO in running the organisation effectively.

The Director directly line manages: three SCS2 Directors who are responsible for the delivery of frontline business to the customer around 350 locations, and three SCS1 Deputy Directors.

This is a Nationally based role

Job description

For full details about the Role, Key Responsibilities and Person Specification, please download and review the Candidate Information pack

Person specification

Accountabilities

• You will lead and have strategic accountabilities for all operational and change activities across frontline courts, tribunals, national services and headquarters’ support offices within the Operations Directorate.
• You will work in a highly complex stakeholder environment, building and maintaining effective relationships across HMCTS, Ministry of Justice, Ministers, Judiciary, Board members, senior judicial partners and senior representatives within the Criminal, Civil, Family and Administrative Justice Systems.
• You will be a key member of HMCTS’ most senior decision-making bodies, including an executive member of the HMCTS Board.
• You will be accountable for an annual budget of £1.3bn and approximately 15,000 staff working from around 350 locations across England, Scotland and Wales. You will manage the budget through effective financial management within the HMCTS/MoJ rules and within agreed tolerances.
• You will have line management responsibility for three PB2 Directors and three PB1 Directors.

Service delivery

• You will be accountable for performance, service delivery and improvement across the operational frontline and headquarters’ support teams.
• You will ensure robust and comprehensive business planning approaches are in place to manage strategic and tactical risks and issues.
• You will provide strategic leadership and direction through a demanding and prolonged period of substantial change, whilst continuing to optimise operational performance and service delivery and consistently striving for service excellence.

Change

• You will ensure business readiness for change across Operations, and that leaders have the relevant training, skills, tools and support they need to make change happen.
• You will champion modernisation, including the vision of HMCTS Reform, and communicate this effectively to staff, the Judiciary, and Ministers – driving cultural change within your sphere of influence.
• You will maintain oversight of significant implementation issues and the impacts, ensuring they are addressed through collaborative working between Operations and change Programme teams.
• You will challenge change programmes to ensure delivery of new products is done sympathetically to operational priorities and enables the expected benefits to be realised. You will ensure your directors have a clear understanding and drive through the delivery of change benefits alongside their wider deliverables. 

People

• You will work with your directors to identify and develop talent to ensure there are sustainable succession plans for critical roles as well as plans to help increase diversity at senior levels.
• You will promote a diverse and inclusive working environment across HMCTS Operations Directorate, which may include coaching and/or mentoring colleagues to help them reach their full potential.
• You will work across the organisation to drive up staff engagement levels.

Collaboration

• You will foster an environment of collaboration across HMCTS, the department and wider Justice System in order to deliver the best outcome for any area of our work. You will do this by: 

1. identifying opportunities to co-create and co-produce.
2. working proactively to innovate and cultivate shared interests and outcomes.
3. and sponsoring or participating in projects or programmes which bring people together to develop knowledge, capability or address key departmental issues in an inclusive way.

• You may be appointed Senior Responsible Officer for change programmes and in that role, you would be required to work collaboratively to ensure programmes or projects deliver to the appropriate standard and specifications, on time and within budget.

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.

Additional Information

Please view our candidate information pack for full details about the role, key responsibilities person specification, and the criteria you will be assessed against throughout the recruitment process. If you are interested in this exciting opportunity, and feel that you meet the criteria, we would welcome your application.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £97,000, HM Courts and Tribunals Service contributes £29,391 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

For full details of the Selection Process and Recruitment Timeline, please view the Candidate Information pack.

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

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). 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.