About the job

Job summary

Please refer to Job Description

Job description

Senior Personal Assistant to the Director of JLSP

HEO

Judicial and Legal Services Policy Directorate

The Judicial and Legal Services Policy Directorate is recruiting permanently for HEO Senior Personal Assistant. 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 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.

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)

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ)

MOJ is one of the largest government departments, employing over 90,000 people (including those in the Probation Service), with a budget of approximately £9.5 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.

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

The Work of Judicial and Legal Services Policy Directorate

JLSP is part of MoJ’s Policy and Strategy Group. We are responsible (1) for supporting the Deputy Prime Minister, in his capacity as Lord Chancellor, to fulfil his responsibilities in respect of the judiciary and (2) for the department’s sponsorship of the legal services sector.

Senior Personal Assistant - the role

You will work in a fast-paced and exciting environment where you will need to anticipate and resolve issues, prioritise competing demands and successfully support the Director and one Deputy Director so they are able to deliver their responsibilities. Primarily by managing both diaries, OneNote, providing administrative support as well as a range of business support functions.   

Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

For the Director:

• Management of the Directors diary and inbox, including arranging all internal and external meetings and travel, dealing with conflicting engagements and finding ways of resolving competing priorities
• Ensuring all meeting papers/materials etc are in relevant folders in the inbox or printed, ensuring she has all relevant material sufficiently in advance of meetings.
• Confidently and accurately relaying the views and opinions of the director and other staff within the Directorate
• Work closely with the Head or Directors Office and Business Manager to take forward a range of activities supporting the Director, Senior Management Team and Directorate. 
• Preparing and cascading the Senior Management Team agenda, monitoring the forward look and archiving past meetings. Booking rooms for the SMT meetings, updating invites, attending SMT meetings and minuting the meeting and actions.
• Preparing and ensuring that multiple commissions to the SMT and the Directorate including the Director General Weekend Note, the Policy Senior Group week ahead and the SMT weekly email.  Understanding of the corporate priorities contributing suggestions for inclusion in SMT communications and circulation to the Group.

For the Deputy Director:

• Management of the Deputy Directors diary, including arranging all internal and external meetings and travel, dealing with conflicting engagements and finding ways of resolving competing priorities
• Confidently and accurately relaying the views and opinions of the director and other staff within the Directorate

• Prepare, maintain and cascade agendas for Divisional and Senior Leadership meetings.

Business Management:

• Coordinating and cascading the agenda for the monthly Directorate Stand-Ups and quarterly Directorate information sessions.
• Responsible for a range of ad-hoc and stand-alone tasks that are important to the smooth functioning of the Directorate, including Business Continuity, maintaining and updating org charts, the internal Directory, completing the Org Chart Return, processing the Reward and recognition awards, compiling corporate contributions for the Weekly Note.
• Responsible for the completion of a monthly finance commission and feeding into financial monthly reporting.
• Responsible for the review of the Travel Management Commission and cascading to SMT.
• Assisting the Head of Office and Business Manager with any ad hoc tasks.
• Building and maintaining excellent relations with other PAs across MoJ and externally, and with other staff within the Directorate and wider MoJ

This list is not exhaustive, and the role and responsibilities will develop over time.

Skills and Experience

Essential:

• Proficient in Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and MS Teams
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Excellent organisational, time management and task management skills
• Ability to be proactive and forward plan
• Highly resilient and takes “can do” attitude to resolving issues
• Can work well within a team and alone

Desirable:

• Experience of providing support to Senior Leaders/Directors and familiar with Business Support functions

Candidates applying from HMPPS should note that the Ministry of Justice does not have the same conditions of employment as HMPPS. It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the terms and conditions they will adopt should they be successful.

The MoJ is proud to be Level 3 Disability Confident. Disability Confident is the approach through which we offer guaranteed interviews for all people with disabilities meeting the minimum criteria for the advertised role as set out in the job description.

Application process

You will be assessed against the Civil service success profiles framework.

Experience

You will be asked to provide a CV during the application process in order to assess any demonstrable experience, career history and achievements that are relevant to the role.

You will also be asked to upload a Statement of Suitability of no more than 750 words stating what you would bring to the role, with reference to the Skills and Experience listed above.

Behaviours

During the application process you will be asked to provide an example of how you have met the following behaviour (see Annex A for more information):

• Delivering at Pace

Please also refer to the CS Behaviours framework for more details at this grade:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/717275/CS_Behaviours_2018.pdf

Should we receive a large number of applications, we will sift primarily on the lead behaviour of Delivering at Pace. Successful applicants will then be invited to an interview, testing both behaviours and strengths.

Candidates invited to Interview

Please note that interviews will be carried remotely via MS Teams.

During the panel interview, you will be asked behaviour-based questions to explore in detail what you are capable of, and strengths-based questions to also explore what you enjoy, and your motivations relevant to the job role.

There is no expectation or requirement for you to prepare for the strengths-based questions in advance of the interview, though you may find it helpful to spend some time reflecting on what you enjoy doing and what you do well.

You can refer to the CS Strengths dictionary for more details:  Success Profiles - Civil Service Strengths Dictionary (publishing.service.gov.uk)

In addition to the Behaviour(s) listed in the application form, you will be asked by the interview panel to provide examples of how you meet the additional behaviours listed below.

• Changing and Improving
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together

Interviews are expected to take place end of July 2024.

Contact information  

Please do get in touch if you would like to know more about the role or what it is like working in our team.

Amy Leihal

amy.leihal@justice.gov.uk      

07563 379206

Annex A - The STAR method

Using the STAR method can help you give examples of relevant experience that you have. It allows you to set the scene, show what you did, and how you did it, and explain the overall outcome.

Situation - Describe the situation you found yourself in. You must describe a specific event or situation. Be sure to give enough detail for the job holder to understand.

• Where are you?
• Who was there with you?
• What had happened?

Task - The job holder will want to understand what you tried to achieve from the situation you found yourself in.

• What was the task that you had to complete and why?
• What did you have to achieve?

Actions - What did you do? The job holder will be looking for information on what you did, how you did it and why. Keep the focus on you. What specific steps did you take and what was your contribution? Remember to include how you did it, and the behaviours you used. Try to use “I” rather than “we” to explain your actions that lead to the result. Be careful not to take credit for something that you did not do.

Results - Don’t be shy about taking credit for your behaviour. Quote specific facts and figures. Explain how the outcome benefitted the organisation or your area. Make the outcomes easily understandable.

• What results did the actions produce?
• What did you achieve through your actions and did you meet your goals?
• Was it a successful outcome? If not, what did you learn from the experience?

Keep the situation and task parts brief. Concentrate on the action and the result. If the result was not entirely successful describe what you learned from this and what you would do differently next time. Make sure you focus on your strengths.

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £32,827, Ministry of Justice contributes £8,896 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.