About the job

Job summary

This is a National Role

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.

Directorate:  HMCTS CFO Directorate.

Job Title:  Senior Data Access Officer

Pay Band:  SEO

Location:  National at any HMCTS site.

Based on current ways of working, work location is likely to be a combination of working from home and from the office, dependent on business needs. 

Appointment Term:  Permanent

About us

HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is responsible for the administration of criminal, civil and family courts and tribunals in England and Wales. Our roles support our service users and colleagues, where people and businesses access potentially life-changing justice.  We’re looking for individuals who are committed to public service and want to make a difference in people’s lives in delivering justice. If you’re interested in developing a career with a real purpose, please apply.

About the role

The CFO directorate provides a pivotal role in supporting a whole range of senior leaders across the business through reporting, analysis and insights. Our work supports the organisation’s overall strategy and empowers senior leaders to make strategic, data driven business decisions.

Within CFO, the Data Access Services Team (DAST) plays a key role in making HMCTS a data-driven organisation. In 2021, HMCTS published its data strategy: HMCTS data strategy (December 2021) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Our data strategy will deliver significant benefits, from improving our decisions because we better understand our users and have a stronger evidence base, to improving our operational effectiveness because we can optimise processes through performance analytics, identify and resolve blockers and automate low value processes.

DAST has a key role in delivering the data sharing. The main functions of the team are as follows:

• Supporting third parties to access data created in the operation of the courts and tribunals service of England and Wales, which are made available for third-party use under specified conditions for public good purposes.
• Chairing and providing the secretariat to the Data Access Panel which determines the outcome of data access requests for third party access to data.
• Collaborating with other areas of HMCTS to ensure data sharing with a range of organisations is legal and ethical.
• Leading HMCTS’s involvement in the MoJ Data First Programme
• Contributing to the development of some HMCTS data policies.
• Secretariat to the Senior Data Governance Panel which provides expert independent advice and guidance on novel or contentious data policies and issues to the judiciary, the MoJ and HMCTS, to inform decisions about the use of justice data.

We are seeking an experienced data access and/or data policy professional to support this important work. The successful candidate will support the secretariat for the SDGP as well as providing specialist support and advice to the Panel and Senior Civil Servants in HMCTS, Ministry of Justice and Judicial Office. The successful candidate will also play a key role in contributing to the development and delivery of a number of important HMCTS data policies and will support the wider work of the team. 

This is an exciting time to be part of this fast-paced and output driven team. This role provides a rare opportunity to work at the heart of the constitution, with the government and the judiciary.

About you

As a member of the DAST, you will play a vital role to develop and communicate HMCTS’ data access services and the policies.

The role will have the following key responsibilities:

Providing informed expert advice on data sharing within HMCTS including providing input into Data Sharing agreements and other contractual agreements including SLAs, MOUs. Monitoring levels of compliance and making recommendations for improvements. Efficiently answering ad hoc queries from a wide range of HMCTS staff on how to manage their information.

Formulate the development of high-quality procedures and guidance to ensure the department’s information is managed in accordance with relevant legislation and cross-government guidelines.

Developing and delivering accessible training, guidance, comms, and briefings. Building and maintaining relationships with senior stakeholders across the department and wider government.

Support in the running of the HMCTS Senior Data Governance Panel. This will include inbox management, organisation of agendas and the co-ordination of meetings, papers and minute taking. Project management skills are essential to ensure the meetings are scheduled and administered effectively around other senior management committees.

Communicate effectively and confidently with senior managers, members of the Judiciary and other stakeholders.

Essential criteria – skills and experience

We are looking for candidates who can demonstrate:

• Expert knowledge and experience of developing and implementing Data Sharing Agreements and Data Governance.
• Detailed knowledge of the legal frameworks that enable data access such as GDPR, Digital Economy Act and Public Records act in a work environment.
• A proven track record of strong analytical skills. Experience of working with administrative data and sources of evidence in order to formulate pragmatic options and recommendations.
• Strong stakeholder engagement and relationship-management skills. The ability to work productively with a wide range of data owners and decision makers from the HMCTS senior leadership team to senior stakeholders within the Ministry of Justice and Judicial Office.
• Excellent written and verbal communications skills. The ability to synthesise and articulate complex information, and concisely relay this to a variety of stakeholders to help build agreement in the context of varied expectations and perspectives.
• Strong ability to work in a culture of change. Willing to review role and priorities to meet the current and future needs of the organisation.
• Research skills. The ability to independently research areas unfamiliar to you and express your findings or summarise information relayed to you by others clearly and succinctly.
• Organisation and project management. The ability to design and implement a project, manage your time effectively, and communicate the project plan to those whom it implicates.
• The ability to work with other projects or work areas to scope plans and problems and reach agreements to ensure a coordinated approach with others.

Desirable:

Applications which can demonstrate the following skill or experience will be welcome.

Technical background, including but not limited to, statistics, data, data law or informatics.

About our benefits  

We reward our people for their hard work and commitment. We have a number of family friendly and flexible working policies that will help you achieve a healthy work-life balance. In addition, we offer a range of employee benefits which include generous annual leave, a highly competitive contributory pension scheme (up to 27%!), childcare benefits, season ticket and bicycle loans.

Please refer to the attached Job Description for a comprehensive overview of the position

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. 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.