28936 - Analyst at the Office of the Sentencing Council

1.            Overview

Fixed Term Opportunity: Office of the Sentencing Council

• Grade: MoJ Band Cb (HEO). Eligibility is as detailed below in section 4.
• Period: 18 months. Start date is negotiable but before 1st December 2019.  

Starting Salary: £33,929

The Office of the Sentencing Council (OSC) is offering an 18-month Fixed Term Position as an analyst in its Analysis and Research (A&R) team. The position is offered as a secondment or loan to applicants who are internal to the Civil Service (applications are accepted from candidates applying on level transfer or promotion) or a fixed term contract to applicants who are external to the Civil Service. The post is Civil Service HEO/Band C and applications are accepted from candidates who meet the eligibility criteria outlined in Section 4, below. The Council is currently considering its strategic direction from 2020 onwards and there is a possibility that the position could be extended for a further 6-12 months, or become permanent, dependent on choices the Council makes about its priorities going forwards.

Interviews are likely to take place w/c 7th October 2019.

2.1          Background

We are seeking to recruit a high quality, skilled analyst to join the Analysis and Research team of the Office of the Sentencing Council. The team has a challenging agenda to support the development of sentencing guidelines for use by all judges and magistrates in the country, to monitor and evaluate their use, and to assess their likely impact on correctional resources. We also carry out research into sentencing practice and engage with the public and other key stakeholders to improve understanding about sentencing.

The Sentencing Council is an independent, non-departmental public body of the Ministry of Justice, tasked with developing sentencing guidelines. The Council is chaired by Lord Justice Holroyde, supported by seven judicial members and six non-judicial members, including the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Chief Executive of Victim Support.

The OSC is a multi-disciplinary team that supports the work of the Council. It includes policy makers, lawyers, communications specialists, researchers/analysts and support staff. This post offers a great opportunity to work in a fast-paced Arm’s Length Body of the Ministry of Justice that works closely with policy makers and the senior judiciary, and to have a very direct influence on the direction of policy.

The A&R team currently comprises six people, three statisticians and three social researchers, who all work closely together. Forthcoming areas of work will include the development of guidelines on firearms, drugs, assault and immigration and modern slavery, along with evaluations of previous guidelines (e.g. bladed article and offensive weapons).

2.2 About MOJ

As a staff member of the Office of the Sentencing Council, the post holder will also be a staff member of the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Justice is one of the largest government departments, employing around 76,000 people, with a budget of approximately £7.4 billion. Each year millions of people use our services across the UK - including courts, tribunals and prisons in England and Wales. The justice system is an important public service and our work spans criminal, civil and family justice, democracy and rights. We are all likely to come into contact with the justice system at some point in our lives, either because we have been a witness to or victim of a crime, to protect and enforce our rights, or to settle disputes.

Why work for the Ministry of Justice?

• Flexible working arrangements – including compressed hours, flexi-time and working from home or ‘commuter hubs’ outside of London
• Analysis is at the centre of the Department’s decision making – with the move to a ‘Data Driven Department’ and a Secretary of State keen for all decisions to be evidence driven, your analysis will be key in influencing decisions.
• See the frontline and what your work is influencing – regular opportunities to visit courts and prisons to better understand the areas your analysis is affecting.
• Range of new areas of work and software - with the move to a more data driven department there will be many new areas of analysis to develop and a better range of analytical software to gain experience with.

3              Key Responsibilities of the role

This role is suitable for a range of analysts; however, it should be noted that the primary duties will be to lead on, and help with, quantitative data collection and analysis.

The role will involve:

• Assisting with the design, implementation and analysis of in-court surveys of sentencing behaviour. This will include questionnaire design, piloting the survey with magistrates to check the content and structure, publicising the survey with courts to ensure their buy-in, monitoring response rates and analysing and summarising the data collected.
• Analysis of survey data from previous in-court surveys and analysis of quantitative data on sentencing trends from the MoJ Court Proceedings Database. Applicants will be expected to have experience of manipulating data using spreadsheets.
• Assistance with other statistical and research work as required (this might include evidence reviews, providing briefing documents, analysing secondary data etc).

Depending on the successful applicant’s skills, experience and interests there will be opportunities to learn and use more advanced statistical techniques such as regression to investigate relationships between variables and time series techniques to explore trends over time. There will also be opportunities to become involved in qualitative research and analysis. If development is needed in one of these areas, training and support will be provided. There will be access to the MoJ’s badged analysts training and networks even if the candidate is not a badged analyst. There may be some travel to courts around the country.

4              Eligibility criteria

Other Civil Servants/External Candidates – All candidates must meet the relevant government service professional requirements at this grade for the following profession:

• GSR requirements for social researchers

Candidates are required to have a first or upper second-class Honours degree in a relevant* social science with a substantial social research component OR, a first or second-class Honours degree, with a relevant postgraduate qualification in social research.

*relevant social science disciplines include: Area and Development Studies, Criminology, Demography, Economics, Economic and Social History, Education, Environmental Planning, Human Geography, Linguistics, Management and Business Studies, Mathematical Sciences, Methods and Computing, Political Science and International Studies, Psychology, Science and Technology Studies, Social Anthropology, Social Policy, Social Work, Socio-Legal Studies, Sociology and Statistic and Statistics

Candidates should have at least two years’ experience in an analytical role.

5              Selection Process Details

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

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

• Working Together
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace
• Government Social Research Service Professional Competency: Technical skills

The first three of these behaviours are as specified in the Success Profiles framework which can be found online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles. See the ‘Success Profiles: Civil Service Behaviours’ document.

The successful candidate should demonstrate the competencies relevant to the Government Social Research profession (see below). Please note that a number of the analyst competencies mentioned below may overlap with the MOJ competencies listed above. We therefore recommend that in providing evidence for the analyst competency, candidates focus on the technical and methodology aspects of the competencies that are specific to the profession.

The Government Social Research (GSR) competency framework can be found at (see page 2-3 for the description of technical skills for the grade of post advertised):

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-government-social-research-competency-framework

Please note that any candidates who are invited for interview will be given further details of the selection process once candidates have been shortlisted.

If you have any queries about applying, please contact Heidi Harries at Heidi.harries@sentencingcouncil.gov.uk or Sarah Poppleton at sarah.poppleton@sentencingcouncil.gov.uk.