28659 - Recruitment & Succession Manager

About the Parole Board:

The Parole Board is an independent court-like body that is responsible for carrying out risk assessments on prisoners to determine whether they can be safely released into the community. We do that with great care and public protection is our top priority.  

All Parole Board decisions are solely focused on whether a prisoner would represent a significant risk to the public after release. Not all decisions Members make are popular, but they make these decisions fairly and objectively.

The Board is made up of about 100 members of secretariat staff based in our London Head Office and approximately 250 Members who make decisions on risk and hold hearings at prisons around the country.

The Parole Board is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Ministry of Justice. Staff who work for the Parole Board Secretariat are Public Servants and not Civil Servants.

About the role:

This is an exciting opportunity to take a lead role in the recruitment of new members to the Parole Board and in ensuring the Board has the right profile of membership to meet current and future operational need through effective succession planning. The consistent application of recruitment principles across the organisation, aligning staff and members, will be a key deliverable for the successful applicant.

Over the next three years, the Board has committed to an ongoing programme of outreach and recruitment to increase the diversity of its membership. In order to make this as effective as possible, targeted recruitment campaigns will be run in specific regions of England and Wales. The first of the targeted campaigns took place in the North of England. This will be followed by campaigns in the Midlands and South East of England over the next two years. A key aim of the recruitment campaigns is to redress the shortage of black and minority ethnic members. The Parole Board works with experts and charities to increase the reach of the campaigns and to share the message that these roles are open to all.

The Recruitment and Succession manager will work closely with the Director for Special Projects and the Ministry of Justice Public Appointment Team in the planning and delivery of targeted recruitment campaigns, including the promotion of the campaigns through outreach activity. They will monitor and report on member succession to support operational delivery, considering current and future membership profiles, terms of appointment and regional requirements.

The Recruitment and Succession manager will also support the recruitment of and succession planning for secretariat staff, playing an integral role in ensuring that recruitment for staff is fair and consistent across the organisation. They will implement new recruitment approaches for both staff and members, that are updated in line with government approaches and have aligning principles across both recruitment groups.  

This role provides excellent opportunities to:

• Work closely with senior stakeholders, particularly judicial, independent and specialist (psychologist/psychiatrist) Parole Board members.
• Work with external stakeholders and third sector organisations.
• Gain experience in an environment of continuous improvement.
• Manage business critical and high profile workstreams.

Person specification:

The job holder will need:

• Excellent interpersonal skills to build relationships with key stakeholders
• Excellent communication, verbal and written, skills
• Excellent organisational skills, with the ability to plan ahead and effectively manage a workload with competing priorities
• The ability to analyse, summarise and present information in a relevant way for different audiences

Main Duties:

• Lead on the planning and coordination of member recruitment, in close liaison with the MoJ Public Appointments Team
• Promote member recruitment campaigns through the identification and organisation of outreach events and other PR opportunities
• In consultation with the Communications Team, maintain the recruitment web page ensuring material is up-to-date and engaging
• Monitor the recruitment enquiry in-box and twitter feed, providing timely responses to enquiries from the public
• Monitor and analyse membership data to inform member succession planning
• Work closely with the Learning & Development Team on the commissioning, planning and delivery of training and induction opportunities for new and existing members
• Ensure that the principles underlying recruitment policies for members and staff align where possible
• Contribute to contingency planning to resource key areas of work in the event of systems failure
• Work with the Senior Leadership Team to enable recruitment within budget
• Facilitate attestation reporting for recruitment in line with government guidelines
• Attend national and regional meetings and events which may require occasional travel and overnight stays
• Actively contribute to the function’s business plan and organisational policies
• Role model management and professional behaviours in line with the Parole Board’s vision, values and competence framework
• Other tasks appropriate to the role as assigned from time to time by Line Manager and the Director of Special Projects
• Undertake these responsibilities in line with current legislation, local and national policies, and the key documents listed below

It is essential that you have:

• Strong written and oral communication skills
• Strong inter-personal skills
• Strong analytical skills
• Strong planning and organisational skills

It is desirable that you have:

• Experience of planning and delivering recruitment campaigns
• Experience of succession planning
• Understanding of the parole process

Behaviours:

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Communicating and influencing
• Delivering at pace
• Working together
• Making effective decisions

Security:

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is Basic Check.

Selection process details:

This vacancy is using Success Profiles and will assess your Behaviours and Strengths.

At the sift stage, you will be assessed against Behaviours and a statement of your suitability for the role. If there are a large volume of applications, the sift will only take place on the lead behaviour (first behaviour listed in the advert) and your statement of suitability.

Any persons successful in gaining an interview will need to bring in photographic ID, and two items which prove address dated within the last 3 months. Failure to do this may result in the successful applicants offer being withdrawn.