About the job

Job summary

Please refer to Job Description

Job description

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Family Justice Policy Unit

Overview

The Family Justice Policy Unit is looking for enthusiastic and highly motivated individuals to join the Courts, Criminal and Family Justice Directorate. This is a high-profile and fast-paced team, receiving extensive Ministerial interest.

This is a fantastic opportunity to work in a challenging but rewarding role right at the heart of the family justice system, supporting Ministers in ensuring the system is modern, effective and efficient. The unit is friendly and supportive and has adopted flexible working practices designed to ensure personal wellbeing and a genuine life/work balance.

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)

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ)

MoJ is the largest government department, employing over 90,000 people with a budget of approximately £10 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 the Courts, Criminal and Family Justice Directorate

The directorate is a high-profile, friendly and supportive team, responsible for policy on the Criminal and Family justice systems and Criminal courts, as well as running deep-dive projects on ways to improve the effectiveness of courts and tribunals across Criminal, Family and Civil jurisdictions.

Our work is varied, interesting and most importantly, impactful. Our purpose is to ensure justice is delivered swiftly and effectively so that people are treated fairly and have confidence in the justice system. We work closely with Ministers and senior officials to make sure that the Government continues to make progress on its priorities, as well as engaging with stakeholders across the justice system, at both a local and national level.

The Work of the Family Justice Policy Unit

We are a friendly, supportive, and dedicated team responsible for the policy, governance/oversight, and legal framework for family private law to resolve disputes within families (e.g., divorce and child arrangements) and family public law (where the state, usually a local authority, intervenes to protect a child at risk of significant harm). Project professionals in the unit help to provide a more effective, transparent and responsive family justice system for the public. Our work is high profile, with significant ministerial interest, and cross-cutting, involving working alongside other policy teams and external stakeholders.

The Role

Senior Policy Adviser

Do you want to make a real difference to people at some of the most difficult and transformative times of their lives? Do you want to drive reforms that support parents and improve outcomes for their children?

In this role you will work on the policy, legal framework and delivery of measures to support parents who are separating to help resolve their issues and improve child outcomes.  The changes you work on as part of the team on behalf of ministers will have a direct and positive impact on families.   

The role will involve delivering MoJ Ministerial priorities in an area which carries a significant No.10 interest. The post holder will need to be able to build strong relationships with senior officials and colleagues from across the justice system including operational partners. The role offers direct exposure to Ministers and the Senior Judiciary and the chance to build relationships with a wide range of internal and external partners.

Your responsibilities

• Co-ordinating and drafting advice to Ministers, the Permanent Secretary and other senior officials on various family justice related topics
• Using policy making, problem solving and strategic thinking skills to play a leading role across a number of complex and challenging issues affecting the family justice system.
• Proactively creating and maintaining positive, professional and trusting working relationships with a wide range of people within and outside the organisation, identifying effective connections and reaching out to bring people together to deliver shared objectives.
• Maintaining and reviewing processes to ensure quality delivery at pace.
• Potential opportunities for line management of HEO policy colleagues

Skills and Experience

The successful candidate should be able to evidence the following skills and experience:

• Strong organisational skills and be capable of managing a high volume of work at pace.
• Excellent judgement, combined with the ingenuity and independent ability to spot and manage risk and bring solutions to problems to the relevant Senior Management Team and other senior officials.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, particularly the ability to drive progress to get things done internally and through external teams, ensuring high performance.
• Ability to present complex analysis and messages clearly, visually and in a compelling way to enable effective decision making.
• Ability to be a ‘self-starter’ by using initiative to devise creative solutions to unforeseen challenges and leading on progressing pieces of work.
• Ability to critically engage with and challenge information provided to ensure the highest quality advice with relative information is provided to ministers, senior officials, stakeholders and the wider public.
• Excellent writing and editing skills, with a high standard of accuracy and attention to detail and comfortable with handling numerical data.
• Ability to quickly build positive relationships with colleagues across HMCTS and MOJ as well as other key stakeholders (e.g., Cafcass Cymru, Cafcass, Judiciary, 3rd sector organisations etc) in a complex and sensitive environment.

Desirable experience

• An understanding of the family justice system.

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.

You must ensure that any evidence submitted as part of your application, including your CV, statement of suitability and behaviour examples, are truthful and factually accurate. Please note that plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own.

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

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):

• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace
• Working together
• Making Effective Decisions

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 Communicating and Influencing. 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 out remotely.

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)

Interviews are expected to take place early July 2024.

Contact information  

If you would like to speak to someone about the opportunities in this advert, please contact chris.palmwalker@justice.gov.uk.

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 £39,868, Ministry of Justice 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.