75359 - Deputy Private Secretary Director General Policy, Courts and Access to Justice

We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging. To find out more about how we do this visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity.

Deputy Private Secretary  

SEO

Director General Policy, Courts and Access to Justice

The Policy Director General’s office is recruiting permanently for a Deputy Private Secretary (SEO role). This campaign is open to current civil servants on level transfer and suitable candidates on promotion.

Location:

Successful candidates will be based at 102 Petty France, London.

Ways of Working

At the MoJ we believe and promote alternative ways of working, this role is available as:

• Full-time or the option to job share
• Flexible working patterns

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

Existing Civil Servants will have their salary calculated in accordance with the Department’s pay on transfer / pay on promotion rules.  

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ)

MOJ is one of the largest government departments, employing over 80,000 people (including those in the Probation Service), with a budget of approximately £9 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 Policy Groups

The Policy Groups are at the heart of the Department, comprising approximately 900 members of staff in total. The two Groups, each headed up by a Policy DG (Jerome Glass and Ross Gribbin), are responsible for setting and advising on policy across the full range of the Department’s responsibilities, including criminal, civil, family and administrative justice; the criminal and civil law; the court system, legal aid and support and the legal services sector; the prison and probation systems, and offender policy; the youth justice system; the UK’s domestic human rights framework and international obligations. They also support the Lord Chancellor in his constitutional relationship with the judiciary and house the Private Office teams that directly support Ministers as well as the Department’s parliamentary business team.

Each Director General is responsible for around half of the MoJ’s policy portfolio. One (Ross Gribbin) is the Policy Director General for Prisons, Offenders and International Justice, and the other (Jerome Glass) is the Policy Director General for Courts and Access to Justice. In practice, the Directors General work together extremely closely and the Directors General office team is a joint one which works as a single unit, but with clearly defined roles and responsibilities.

Deputy Private Secretary to the Director General Policy – Courts and Access to Justice: The role

The Deputy Private Secretary will be responsible for supporting the Director General across a wide-ranging policy portfolio. The postholder will need to develop a strong understanding of the issues within their brief; build excellent relationships with policy teams, other private offices, and stakeholders across Government; and be able use this knowledge and their relationships to unblock problems as they occur and to drive the Director General’s strategic priorities. 

The postholder will join a small, friendly and high-performing private office team which sits right at the heart of the Department. The DGs’ office is a fast-paced environment, and the postholder will need to be flexible and responsive to changing priorities. The postholder will gain a ‘helicopter view’ of how policy teams, private offices, operational partners, the Centre and wider Whitehall operate. They will give advice to the Director General during policy development and key decision making, and they will build close links with teams across the Department.

The postholder will work for Jerome Glass, the DG who has broad responsibility for Courts and Access to Justice policy. Their portfolio is likely to include Legal Aid, Legal Support and Fees, Access to Justice, Judicial Policy, Judicial engagement, and Court Recovery. This is a stretching brief which will give the postholder an excellent insight into policy making on a wide range of high-profile justice issues. The postholder’s exact portfolio will be agreed when they join the team and may change over time depending on priorities.

Key responsibilities of the role include:

• Providing high quality advice and support to the Director General on their policy portfolio, driving forward their priorities. The Deputy Private Secretary will need to understand and be able to summarise complex policy and operational ideas quickly and build excellent relationships with policy teams and other private offices to ensure emerging issues can be handled quickly and effectively.
• Being an effective channel of communication for the DG within the department and externally, ensure his priorities are communicated effectively and delivered promptly.
• Managing and prioritising a significant number of reactive and proactive tasks - these will be varied and the postholder will need to be organised and willing to help the wider team.
• Leadership of the policy areas within their portfolio: taking responsibility for advising the Director General on areas within their brief; keeping track of actions, meetings, submissions and wider developments in their areas; horizon-scanning to highlight potential problems before they occur; and taking a proactive approach to resolving issues.
• Being an excellent line manager to two members of the wider PO team.
• Supporting Jerome’s G7 Private Secretary in the day to day running of the office, and deputising for them as needed.
• Taking on a personal corporate objective within the wider unit, directorate or Department, to help continue to make the Ministry of Justice a great place to work.
• Working in partnership with the wider DGs’ office team to support a joint private office model, which also includes a small policy and programme management function.

Skills and Experience

You will:

• be able to work effectively with colleagues at all levels in the organisation as well as senior external stakeholders, establishing strong relationships;
• have excellent written and oral communication skills;
• be effective at prioritising, have excellent organisational skills, and be able to work a pace and under pressure;
• have strong policy skills, and the ability to see quickly to the heart of an issue;
• have sound judgement, able to spot emerging issues and act on your own initiative;
• be adept at understanding the wider political and organisational context;
• be a team player who role models the Department’s values of openness, humanity, together, and purpose.

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.

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.

Application process

You will be assessed against the Civil service success profiles framework..

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

Behaviours

To apply for the role, please provide examples of how you have met each one of the behaviours listed below (see Annex A for more information):

• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and Influencing
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions

Please also refer to the CS Behaviours framework for more details at this grade (Level 3 –SEO or equivalent):

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 Delivering at Pace. Successful applicants will then be invited to an interview, testing both behaviours and strengths.

Candidates invited to Interview 

Please note that interviews will be held in person.

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 June 2023

Candidates will be required to give a short presentation at interview

At interview stage, if candidates do not score highly enough to be appointed to a SEO role, but have passed the minimum requirements, they could be offered an alternative role at the more junior level of HEO.

Security Clearance

Before taking up the post, the successful applicant will need to pass security checks. 

Contact information   

Please do get in touch if you would like to know more about the role or what it is like working in our team.

Please contact Annie Taylor, Private Secretary to Jerome Glass, Policy Director General – Courts and Access to Justice: annie.taylor3@justice.gov.uk or Catherine Craig-McFeely, Head of the Policy DGs’ Office: catherine.craig-mcfeely@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.

If you require any assistance please call 0345 241 5359 (Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm) or e mail Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com

Please quote the job reference - 75359.

Contact information   

Please do get in touch if you would like to know more about the role or what it is like working in our team.

Please contact Annie Taylor, Private Secretary to Jerome Glass, Policy Director General – Courts and Access to Justice: annie.taylor3@justice.gov.uk or Catherine Craig-McFeely, Head of the Policy DGs’ Office: catherine.craig-mcfeely@justice.gov.uk