25582 - Judicial Appontments Commission - Diversity and Engagement Officer

About the JAC

The Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) is an independent public body that selects judges in the courts and tribunals through fair and open competition, independently from the government and judiciary.

The JAC is responsible for designing, planning and running recruitment campaigns to select judicial office holders up to and including the High Court in England and Wales. We have a statutory duty to select solely on merit, while keeping our selection processes open to the widest range of applicants.

More is on our website: www.judicialappointments.gov.uk

The Role

The JAC has a vacancy for a Diversity and Engagement Officer. You will work with colleagues in the Diversity and Engagement (D&E) team to provide administrative support across a wide range of tasks which are key to delivering successful outreach, engagement and evaluation across the JAC. The promotion of equality, diversity and inclusion are organisational priorities at the JAC, and you will play a key role within the team that is responsible for leading this agenda. You will work closely alongside colleagues who are developing diversity policy and once familiar with the role there will be opportunities for you to input into policy projects.

About the Diversity and Engagement team

The Diversity and Engagement team is responsible for:

• Developing and leading on the JAC’s strategy to widen the pool of candidates for judicial appointment
• Ensuring the processes for selecting judges are fair and free from bias
• Leading on JAC’s engagement with internal and external stakeholders and providing internal and external communications

We are looking for someone who is able to work flexibly across projects within the team and within an organisation that delivers an interesting and challenging programme of judicial recruitment. You will need to be organised, proactive and familiar with Microsoft Word, Outlook and Excel. An ability to communicate well – both written and orally - and to work collaboratively with colleagues will also be important.

Reporting to the Senior Engagement and Insight Manager, the main responsibilities of the Diversity and Engagement Officer will include

• Administrative support to the Judicial Diversity Forum (JDF) and JDF Working Group meetings (room bookings, managing attendee lists, collation of agendas and papers)
• Supporting outreach activity (coordinating logistics of JAC attendance at outreach events, updating outreach materials for each event, horizon-scanning for outreach opportunities)
• Maintaining the JAC Stakeholder Engagement log and assisting with other stakeholder engagement activity (updating and maintaining contacts lists, making hosting arrangements for visits from international delegations, supporting the preparation of the JAC monthly newsletter)
• Lead the administration of the outreach evaluation dashboard (ensure dashboard is used for every selection exercise, ensure teams provide relevant information, cross-check the data provided)
• Project support for activities the Diversity and Engagement (D&E) team are involved in such as implementing recommendations to improve selection processes, organising a JDF lecture
• Other administrative tasks as required by the D&E team (arranging and supporting team meetings, supporting involvement in organisation-wide corporate activity)

This role would be a really good opportunity for someone with an interest in diversity and engagement to work within an organisation that delivers complex and sensitive work at pace.

Based at Clive House, Petty France, London, we offer a range of benefits including an attractive annual leave allowance and flexible working. You have a choice of pensions schemes and we actively encourage all staff to undertake learning and development activities as part of their personal objectives.

Expected skills and strengths

The successful applicant will have:

• Strong organisation and planning skills to provide high quality support and meet tight deadlines
• Good writing skills
• The ability to work on your own initiative, without close supervision
• The ability to work successfully as part of a team

Application process

You will be required to provide:

1. Your CV
2. A statement of suitability (of no more than 500 words) explaining what skills and experience you can bring to the role
3. Written examples of how you demonstrate these 3 behaviours:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Changing and Improving

Those candidates invited for interview will be asked to undertake a work exercise, which may involve an email task drafting a reply to a colleague or answering questions based on a scenario that reflects a situation that they might encounter in the role. In addition, at the interview you will asked to provide examples on how you meet the following strengths (see application pack for strength descriptions):

• Organiser
• Precise
• Responsible

If after reading this job description and the application pack you would like further information or would like to have an informal conversation about this vacancy, please contact Rachael Gourley, Senior Engagement and Insight Manager at Rachael.Gourley1@judicialappointments.gov.uk or on 07542 946354.