30848 - Policy and Practice Advisor

£30,863 - £36,902
1
12 Months
London
London
10 SOUTH COLONNADE LONDON, E14 4PU
HEO
PB HEO Inner London
Permanent
Full Time
Policy

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 275 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:

The Policy and Practice Advisor will be responsible for managing day-to-day practice enquiries from members, developing and maintaining comprehensive and accurate guidance materials and notifying and providing guidance to the membership about practice developments.

This role provides excellent opportunities to:

  • Work collaboratively on a variety of interesting policy areas.
  • Work closely with senior stakeholders, judicial, independent and specialist (psychologist/psychiatrist) Parole Board members, and colleagues at all levels.
  • Work with external stakeholders, such as Criminal Justice agencies.
  • 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 deal with challenging situations and build relationships with key stakeholders
  • Excellent communication (oral and written) skills
  • Excellent organisational skills, with the ability to plan ahead and effectively manage a workload with competing priorities
  • The ability to analyse and summarise information in a relevant way for different audiences
  • The ability to work responsibly in dealing with confidential/sensitive information, maintaining and enhancing the reputation of the organisation.

Main Duties:

  • Provide advice to members in response to enquiries about any aspect of practice. This will include general enquiries about practice guidance and operational matters, casework specific enquiries and assessing whether enquiries require legal advice or operational input. Escalate enquiries to the Lead for Member Policy and Guidance where necessary.
  • Identify opportunities to improve member practice and promote best practice.
  • Analyse member enquiries about practice and the outcomes of judicial reviews and reconsideration mechanism applications to identify trends and ensure that these are fed into the development of member training and guidance.
  • Liaise with the Legal, Operations, People and Governance Directorates, to capture learning points and ensure that practice matters are shared and developed collaboratively and in consultation with key stakeholders.
  • Develop and maintain comprehensive and accurate policy and guidance materials for members, in liaison with the Lead for Member Policy and Guidance, other Parole Board directorates, members and external stakeholders. Lead on the development of guidance in specific areas. Notify and guide the membership about practice developments.
  • Support member engagement and training activities, including assisting in the planning, preparation and delivery of such activities. Contribute to the Member Learning and Development Strategy and Quality Assurance Framework.
  • Project manage specific projects for the Chief Operating Officer, Head of Policy, or Lead for Member Policy and Guidance.
  • Contribute to the Policy Directorate’s business plan and appropriate organisational and corporate policies.
  • Role model management and professional behaviours in line with the Parole Board’s vision, values and competence framework.
  • Attend national and regional meetings and events which may require occasional travel and overnight stays.
  • Other tasks appropriate to the role as assigned from time to time by the Chief Operating Officer, Head of Policy, and/or the Lead for Member Policy and Guidance.
  • Undertake these responsibilities in line with current legislation, local and national policies, and the key documents listed below.

Key Documents

  1. Terms and Conditions of Employment
  2. Staff Handbook, including code of conduct, flexible hours scheme
  3. Parole Board Business Plan
  4. Parole Board Annual Report
  5. Equality and Diversity Policy and Action Plan
  6. Health and Safety Plan and legislation
  7. Data Protection Act and General Data Protection Regulations
  8. Freedom of Information Act
  9. Information Assurance policies
  10. Website CMS (PPUD) Instructions
  11. Management Board standing orders

It is essential that you have:

  • Strong written and oral communication skills
  • Strong analytical skills
  • Strong planning and organisational skills

It is desirable that you have:

  • Understanding of the parole process
  • Experience of working in the criminal justice system

Behaviours:

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

  • Making Effective Decisions
  • Communicating and influencing
  • Delivering at pace
  • Working Together

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

As part of the interview, there will be a thirty-minute written assessment.

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 applicant's offer being withdrawn.


The Parole Board offers a range of benefits:

Annual Leave

Generous allowances for paid holiday starting at 23 days per year, and rising as your service increases. Additional paid time off for public holidays and 2.5 privilege day. Leave for part-time and job share posts will be calculated on a pro-rata basis.

Pension

The Civil Service offers a choice of pension schemes, giving you the flexibility to choose the pension that suits you best.

Training

The Parole Board is committed to staff development and offers an extensive range of training and development opportunities.

Support

A range of ‘Family Friendly’ policies such as opportunities to work reduced hours or job share.

For any moves across the Civil Service may have implications on your ability to carry on claiming childcare vouchers

Paid paternity, adoption and maternity leave.

Free annual sight tests for employees who use computer screens.

Networks

The opportunity to join employee-run networks that have been established to provide advice and support and to enable the views of employees from minority groups to be expressed direct to senior management. There are currently networks for employees of minority ethnic origin, employees with disabilities, employees with caring responsibilities, women employees, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees.

It is anticipated that the interviews will take place in the week commencing 16th December 2019

09/12/2019, 23:55 hours.

If you require any assistance please call 0845 241 5359 (Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm) or e mail Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@sscl.gse.gov.uk Please quote the job reference - 30848.

To apply for roles in MOJ you will need to confirm your employment history for at least 3 years prior to the date of application so that pre-employment checks (BPSS) can be undertaken. If you have spent significant time abroad (a total of 6 months in the past 3 years) you would be required to give a reasonable account of the reasons why. 

For some roles you will be required to successfully complete National Security Vetting at Counter Terrorism (CTC), Security Clearance (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV) level as a condition of appointment. To meet CTC/SC/DV requirements you will normally need to have been resident in the UK for at least 3/5/10 years prior to the date of application (The level of checks that are required are stated in the advert).

If you do not meet the above requirements, you may still be considered if, for example:

  • You've been serving overseas with HM Forces or in some other official capacity as a representative of HM Government
  • You were studying abroad
  • You were living overseas with parents

In such cases you will need to be able to provide referee cover for the period(s) of residence overseas. The duration of overseas residence and the country of abode will also be taken into account.

Success Profiles will enable a fairer and more inclusive method of recruitment by enabling us to assess the range of experiences, abilities, strengths, behaviours and technical/professional skills required for different roles. This flexible approach to recruitment focuses more on finding the right candidate for the specific role. To find out more about Success Profiles to support your application please click here for further guidance.

if you feel that your application has not been treated in line with the Civil Service Recruitment Principles, please contact SSCL (Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com) in the first instance

We have provided detail of the assessment stages and areas being assessed to help you prepare for completing your application form, and to advise of what will be assessed following this, if you successfully pass the application stage.


Application form stage assessments

Behaviours
Making Effective Decisions - word limit
Communicating and Influencing - word limit
Delivering at Pace - word limit
Working Together - word limit
Experience
Statement of Suitability - 500 word limit

Interview stage assessments

There is 1 interview stage for this vacancy.
Behaviours
Making Effective Decisions
Working Together
Strengths may also be assessed at interview but these are not shared in advance.
Additional Assessment(s)
Written Exercise

A Great Place to Work for Veterans

The "Making the Civil Service a Great Place to work for veterans" initiative includes a guaranteed interview scheme to those who meet the minimum criteria to provide eligible former members of the Armed Forces with opportunities to secure rewarding jobs. Allowing veterans to continue to serve their country, and to bring highly skilled individuals with a broad range of experience into the Civil Service in an environment, which recognises and values your previous service in the Armed Forces.
For further details about the initiative and eligibility requirements visit : https://www.gov.uk/government/news/making-the-civil-service-a-great-place-to-work-for-veterans

Redeployment Interview Scheme

Civil Service departments are expected to explore redeployment opportunities before making an individual redundant. The MoJ are committed, as part of the Redeployment Interview Scheme, to providing opportunities to those who are 'at risk of redundancy'.

MoJ are able to offer an interview to eligible candidates who meet the minimum selection criteria, except in a limited number of campaigns. Candidate's will not be eligible for the Redeployment Interview Scheme if they are applying on promotion.

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) https://www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizens-families

· 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) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-rules

This Vacancy is closed to applications.