62705 - Senior Research Officer
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.
Job title Senior Research Officer
Directorate Business Intelligence and Insights
Grade SRO/SEO equivalent
Role Type: Social Research, Analytical, Market research
Salary band
National: £36498 - £40297 plus a potential recruitment allowance of up to +10%
London: £40,228 to £44,538 plus a potential recruitment allowance of up to +10%
Responsible to Head of Evidence and Insights
Base/location National or London
(all YJB staff are currently working from their home. We will be moving to a hybrid way of working later on in the year)
Type of role Social Research, Analytical, Market Research
Working pattern Flexible working, Full time, Part time, Compressed hours
Number of posts 1
FTE/hours (Full-Time) FTE 37 Hours
Job type Permanent
Security Clearance Required Baseline (BPSS)
Who are we?
The YJB is the public body which advises Ministers, including the Secretary of State for Justice on the youth justice system. Our ambition is to see a Child First youth justice system. A system which looks to children’s’ strengths and supports children to become the best version of themselves. To this effect we engage with a wide variety of organisations, partners and parties with an interest in youth justice, we share good practice, champion improvement and issue grants.
Our recruitment is based on merit, we welcome applications from all who can commit to our vision and values, we offer considerable flexibility in how you work and expect commitment and flexibility in return. We continue to strive for equality, diversity and inclusion in our culture and our staff group to this end we encourage applications from those people with traditional protected characteristics. Our staff are public servants, eligible for the Civil Service pension scheme and we are accredited by the Civil Service Commission. This means applications from across Civil Service Departments, their agencies and Arms-Length Bodies are treated as internal applicants. We also welcome applications from those who do not work in these bodies.
Our Vision
Working to ensure a youth justice system that sees children as children, treats them fairly and helps them to build on their strengths so they can make a constructive contribution to society. This will prevent offending and create safer communities with fewer victims.
Aims of the Youth Justice System
Prevention of offending by children and young people:
- To reduce the number of children in the youth justice system
- To reduce reoffending by children in the youth justice system
- To improve the safety and wellbeing of children in the youth justice system
- To improve outcomes of children in the youth justice system
Summary
YJB is the only public body with oversight of the whole youth justice system. Research and evidence are key to our understanding of the youth justice landscape. This supports effective decision making, gives assurance to ministers that our advice has a solid evidence base and supports the achievement of our strategic objectives.
The Business Intelligence and Insights Directorate gathers and interprets information from a range of sources (including data, research, and wider intelligence). This information supports: the YJB’s oversight of the Youth Justice System (YJS), helps us to understand how the system is operating and whether it is achieving its aims, and helps to identify future opportunities and challenges for children and the YJS. The directorate leads the organisation in gathering, developing and using data and evidence well.
The role represents an excellent opportunity to support aligning research, analysis and reporting capability to YJB’s vision for a Child First youth justice system, a system that sees children as children, helps them build on their strengths, encourages their participation and promotes prevention and diversion.
The role is open to
- Existing government social research (GSR) members on promotion or lateral transfer.
- Candidates who meet the minimum criteria for GSR membership. The successful applicant will be required to join GSR.
Job description
The Evidence and Insights Team provides research advice and support to the whole organisation in delivering its functions. As such, you will have a varied and challenging role drawing on a broad range of social research skills.
The team’s objectives include:
- To commission and occasionally conduct high priority, high quality, robust and relevant research for YJB to ensure practice is evidence-based.
- To promote the role of the Evidence and Insights Team across YJB and key stakeholders to identify and respond to research and evidence opportunities.
- To provide proportionate and timely social research-related advice across YJB and our key stakeholders.
- To push and support YJB and key stakeholders with their data development agendas to ensure data quality does not compromise research opportunities.
- To develop the Team’s social research and analytical skills to improve and broaden our capabilities.
- To engage with and utilise our external networks, including our academic and Other Government Department (OGD) networks, for research purposes.
Your role may include for instance designing research specifications to meet business needs, the commissioning and management of external research projects, the quality assurance of internal and external research outputs, and leading on internal quantitative and qualitative projects. You will act as the lead on discrete areas of YJB’s business plan, providing research input and added value to the business leads in those areas. You will engage with our Academic Liaison Network in identifying, understanding and developing the youth justice evidence base. Your role may range from ad-hoc pieces of evidence synthesis to literature and more systematic reviews for briefing purposes.
You will work with colleagues in the wider Business Intelligence and Insights directorate to develop and enhance the quality and completeness of our data. You will work as an advocate for evidence-based practice and decision-making, providing guidance to non-analytical colleagues, YJB’s delivery partners and grant recipients as required.
You will be expected to take on wider corporate contributions in addition to your role. In carrying out your duties you will respect YJB’s commitment to equality of opportunity and the diversity of YJB and its stakeholders.
Main Responsibilities
- Commissioning and managing external research, and conducting bespoke internal research projects, drawing on a wide range of qualitative and quantitative social research methods, ensuring they meet GSR standards and process requirements.
- Leading on the research portfolio for one or more of the YJB’s key work areas, providing advice to the relevant business leads on identifying or developing relevant evidence to carry out their functions.
- Identifying and synthesising evidence on key topics in Youth Justice, including through evidence reviews and building relationships with the wider research and knowledge community. Disseminating this in accessible and user-friendly ways.
- Promoting and supporting the use of evidence in the YJB and wider YJ sector, including through advising colleagues and partners on research issues on specific projects, and supporting our engagement with academia through our Academic Liaison Network.
- Considering co-production of research, to ensure we emphasise the voice of the child and follow the YJB’s Child First guiding principle when designing research projects.
- Responding to briefing requests with evidence-based information and advice.
- Providing social research-related advice, such as reviewing research applications, representing the YJB on external research project advisory and steering groups, considering the quality of evidence for a policy review, drafting questionnaires, and developing position statements.
- Working with the wider research team to continue to build the capability of the YJB to deliver and use research evidence, embedding a culture of good research practice in carrying out its statutory functions
- Keep abreast of methodological developments, and proactively identify opportunities to be innovative in developing the evidence to support YJB priorities.
- Working with the wider directorate to develop and enhance our internal data and analysis capability.
Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and we will assess your behaviours, technical skills, and strengths during the selection process.
The assessment process will be made up of two parts:
- An application
- Interview
Application Stage
Please provide:
- A statement demonstrating in no more than 250 words the lead behaviour Managing a Quality Service.
- A suitability statement of up to 1000 words demonstrating:
- GSR Senior Research Officer technical skills (as described in the GSR Technical framework), and
- Using and promoting social research (as described in the GSR Technical framework)
- How you meet the essential criteria below.
Essential Criteria
- Strong analytical experience, including a track record in the practical application of analysis and research (quantitative and/or qualitative)
- Desire to manage the delivery of complex projects, delivering quality outcomes to deadlines and identifying risks
- Ability to communicate results from analysis in an impactful way (both written and verbal) to a variety of stakeholders with impact
- A willingness and desire to collaborate, build relationships, and to work effectively with strategy colleagues and other analytical professions to support policy and practice.
Interview
The interview will consist of behaviour, technical and strength-based questions.
The specific behaviours to be assessed are:
- Managing a Quality Service (Lead Behaviour)
- Making Effective Decisions
- Communicating and Influencing
Interviewees will be asked to deliver a presentation; further details will be provided nearer the time.
Contacts for information:
Karis Oram (email: karis.oram@yjb.gov.uk; Phone: 07890307267)
Rhian Manley (email: Rhian.Manley@yjb.gov.uk; Phone: 07929712426)
Benefits of working for the Youth Justice Board
- Opportunity to work in an organisation that seeks to make a positive difference to the lives of children at risk of entering and within the youth justice system
- Family friendly policies including flexible working opportunities. Many of our staff combine working from our offices in either London or Wales with working from home; compressed hours, part-time working
- Civil Service Pension Scheme, and/or continuous service transfer of Civil Service Pension Scheme as applicable
- Annual leave of 25 days per annum plus public holidays (or for those transferring directly from Civil Service Departments, their Agencies, Arms-Length Bodies (ALBs) and Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPB) we will match current annual leave entitlement, up to 30 days
- As an accredited NDPB we can accept your continuous service from other Civil Service departments their agencies and ALBs/NDBPs.
- Special recognition bonus scheme
- Special leave for unplanned emergencies and for voluntary work
- Employee Assistance Programme offering confidential support and advice for personal and work issues and occupational health
- Health and well-being initiatives such as flu-vaccinations
- Free eye tests and eyecare vouchers for VDU workers
- Interest free season ticket loans
- Regular professional development
- Professional HR Case Management support for managers
Flexible working hours
The Youth Justice Board a flexible working system in many offices.
Benefits
The Youth Justice Board offers a range of benefits:
For nationally advertised campaigns, candidates will be appointed to their nearest Justice Collaboration Centre or Justice Satellite Office. This will be discussed and agreed with the successful candidate(s) on the completion of pre-employment checks.
Annual Leave
Annual leave is 25 days on appointment and will increase to 30 days after five years’ service.
There is also a scheme to allow qualifying staff to buy or sell up to three days leave each year. Additional paid time off for public holidays and 1 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 Youth Justice Board is committed to staff development and offers an extensive range of training and development opportunities.
19/08/2022, 23:55 hours.
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.
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
Interview stage assessments
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.
The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment.
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.