90212 - Secretariat Officer - Legal Aid Agency

Job Title & Grade:    Secretariat Officer, EO

Contract Type:    Permanent

Salary range (depending on location):    National £27,223 - £28,613

London £31,169 - £32,760

Please note that unless you are currently employed by the Civil Service and are earning more than the minimum above, if successful you will be offered the minimum for the grade depending on your location.

Location:    National

Directorate:    Corporate Services

Team:    Corporate Assurance, Risk & Secretariat

Working Pattern:    The post is supported by the MOJ flexible working policy and includes colleagues who work flexibly, remotely (as part of hybrid working), part time or as part of a job share etc.

If you are applying for a part time role, please note that in order to meet business demands we need cover for a minimum of 30 hours and to cover 4 days of the week.

To meet legal requirements, if you are between the ages 16-18 and you are a successful candidate, you will be required to complete an apprenticeship after your initial on the job training.

Reporting to:    Head of Secretariat

Closing date for applications    Friday 13 September at 23:59

The Legal Aid Agency

We are an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). We are responsible for operationally administering the legal aid fund to provide criminal and civil legal aid advice to people in England and Wales. 

Our people are at the heart of achieving excellence. Employing around 1,200 colleagues across England and Wales, we feel proud to have some of the best People Survey results in the Civil Service.

Our LAA commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain, and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.

As a Disability Confident organisation, we will offer a guaranteed interview to candidates with a disability who meet the essential criteria for this role. Under the Equality Act 2010 a disability is defined as a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on your ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities which has lasted, or is expected to last, at least 12 months.

If you are responding to a role within the Legal Aid Agency and would like to be considered under the guaranteed interview, please indicate this in your application and let us know of any reasonable adjustments you may require during the sift or later selection processes.

The LAA’s goal is to build an organisation that is open and inclusive and truly values and celebrates the diversity of its workforce. One that reflects and understands the needs of the diverse society we serve. This is regardless of social background, gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, beliefs, disabilities or long-term illness or caring responsibilities.

Reasonable Adjustments

We are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible to all. If you have a disability or long-term condition (for example dyslexia, anxiety, autism, a mobility condition or hearing loss) and need us to make any reasonable adjustments to support you through the recruitment process, please let us know by adding the information to the applications system or emailing LAARecruitment@justice.gov.uk after you have applied so that we can discuss options with you.

Corporate Services

The Corporate Services helps shape and enable the priorities of the Chief Executive, Executive Leadership Team (ELT) and People Committee to be delivered.

Corporate Assurance, Risk and Secretariat team

The Secretariat team provides a Secretariat function for the LAA’s key senior governance forums such as the Board and Executive Leadership Team (ELT) and sits within the wider Corporate Assurance, Risk and Secretariat (CARS) team.

The CARS team combines the five functions of Health & Safety, Information & Data Security, Business Continuity, Risk and Secretariat to collectively strengthen and support the LAA’s governance, assurance strategies, risk management processes and provide support to the LAA’s governance and management committees.

Job Summary

This is a varied, fast paced and rewarding role that operates at the heart of the LAA and involves regular interaction with members of the ELT and exposure to high profile issues with the ability to manage and prioritise a variable workload.

The post-holder will be responsible for leading on, and planning, a number of key meetings. They will provide support in the preparation and management of meetings as required, help manage the Secretariat team mailbox, shared drive and Microsoft Teams areas.

This is an exciting opportunity to work closely with multiple teams across LAA as well as teams across Corporate Services such as the Chief Executive’s office on a range of areas, and to build strong networks across the LAA and wider Ministry of Justice.

Key Responsibilities:

The Secretariat Officer plays a vital role in assisting the Secretariat to deliver effective, efficient and professional management of the Agency’s formal governance forums. Key duties and responsibilities include:

• Providing quality secretariat support for key LAA governance meetings, including agenda planning, action management, paper collation and distribution and formal minute-taking*;

• Acting as the team lead for the management of particular meetings, being flexible to ensure cover for other forums depending on resource and business need;

• Routine attendance at senior governance meetings, which may be either virtual or in-person. Although this post is national, travel to particular offices will be required where in-person attendance is necessary, though this will generally be limited to 1-2 times per month;

• Leading on ensuring the attendance log is up to date and supporting Secretariat colleagues in maintaining the action logs and forward look;

• Managing the Secretariat mailbox, ensuring emails are promptly dealt with, followed up when required and then filed appropriately;

• Leading on meeting dates and arrangements for governance forums, ensuring meetings are planned well in advance and that meetings dates are timely and convenient for attendees;

• Leading on a range of ad-hoc ELT meetings, in accordance with ELT diaries and ensuring the necessary papers are provided prior to the meeting;

• Assisting in the management of numerous Microsoft Teams areas relevant to each committee.

*minute-taking will involve producing high-quality and accurate minutes for at least two meetings per month, supporting other meetings as required according to resource and business need.

Essential Knowledge, Experience and skills

•    Excellent organisational and planning skills;
•    The ability to prioritise effectively to deliver at pace to tight deadlines and competing priorities;
•    Strong interpersonal and influencing skills to engage and build relationships with key stakeholders;
•    A good team player with a drive for continuous improvement of ways of working;
•    Excellent Microsoft Outlook skills to help navigate multiple outlook calendars and prioritise between conflicting meetings;  
•    Attention to detail and excellent drafting and communication skills.

Desirable Knowledge, Experience and skills

•    Previous experience in a Secretariat or executive support role;
•    Experience of formal minute-writing;
•    Familiarity with LAA’s governance forums and requirements.

Person Specification

•    You enjoy being part of a team;
•    You enjoy working in a fast-paced environment with the ability to juggle different tasks in quick succession;
•    You are organised with excellent attention to detail;
•    You have a passion to want to deliver an excellent service;
•    You have an interest in always striving for improvement and new ways of working.

Assessment approach 

Application Process 

To apply complete an application based of the following behaviours and experience. Each behaviour and experience answer should be no more than 250 words:

•    Behaviours:

•    Managing a Quality Service – Work with customers to understand their needs and expectations. Create clear plans and set priorities which meet the needs of both the customer and the business. Clearly explain to customers what can be done. Keep colleagues and stakeholders fully informed of plans, possibilities and progress. Identify common problems that affect service, report them and find possible solutions. Deliver good customer service which balances quality and cost effectiveness.

•    Delivering at Pace – Regularly review the success of activities in the team to identify barriers to progress or challenging objectives. Identify who and what is required to ensure success, set clear goals and areas of responsibility and continually assess workloads considering individual needs. Follow relevant policies, procedures and legislation to complete your work. Ensure colleagues have the correct tools and resources available to them to do their jobs. Have a positive and focused attitude to achieving outcomes, despite any setbacks. Regularly check performance against objectives, making suggestions for improvement or taking corrective action where necessary. Ensure that colleagues are supported where tasks are challenging.

•    Seeing the Big Picture – Understand how your work and the work of your team supports wider objectives and meets the diverse needs of stakeholders. Keep up to date with the issues that affect your work area. Take a keen interest in expanding knowledge in areas related to your work. Focus on overall goals and not just specific tasks to meet priorities.

•    Experience of:

•    Using written communication skills to record, report or inform others.

Examples of such work may include, but are not limited to, work similar to that outlined in the Key Responsibilities relating to minute taking.

When submitting an example of a behaviour remember to include the situation, what you did and why, and what was the outcome / result. 

Please note that if we have a large number of applications will we do an initial sift on the Managing a Quality Service Behaviour and Experience of using written communication skills to record, report or inform others.

Interview / assessment Process

If you are successful through the application stage, you will be invited to an interview via Microsoft Teams where you will be assessed against the following: 

•    Strengths relevant to the role.
•    Some, or all, of the following Behaviours: 
•    Managing a Quality Service
•    Delivering at Pace
•    Seeing the Big Picture

•    You Experience of implementing, promoting, or understanding diversity and inclusion policy. 

Diversity is the presence of difference, this can include one or more of the protected characteristics (Gender, Age, Race, Disability etc.) or it can be about working patterns, whether we like to jump into a task or reflect on it before acting. Inclusion is how we welcome, value, and celebrate diversity, giving everyone a voice, tapping into ideas, and enabling everyone to be themselves at work and achieve their potential.

For this grade/ role we would expect the candidate to demonstrate understanding of the terms Diversity and Inclusion and be able to explain why they are important to them and to where they work. Examples of action they have taken (in or outside of work) to embrace diversity (e.g., increasing understanding) or improve inclusion for others will increase the strength of their answer.

•    In addition, there will be a practical, written exercise relevant to the role. Further details of which will be communicated in advance of the interview.

Shortlisting is planned for week commencing w/c Monday 16 September

Interviews are planned for week commencing w/c Monday 07 October

If you would like more information on this opportunity, please contact – Alex Bennett, Head of Secretariat, alex.bennett@justice.gov.uk.

Complaints procedure

If you have any complaints about this recruitment activity, please share your concerns by emailing LAARecruitment@justice.gov.uk initially. We aim to respond to any complaint within 10 working days.

If you are dissatisfied with our response, we will forward your complaint to the Civil Service Commission, an independent body, for review.