Ministry of Justice

About the team 

The Development Directorate sits in the corporate HQ of HMCTS, and is responsible for developing and managing service strategy, operational policy and the continuous modernisation and improvement of courts and tribunals. The Crime Service Team, led by two Crime Service Owners, supports the business of the Criminal Courts. We are responsible for:  

• Oversight and management of existing end-to-end user journeys (which we manage as ‘services’); 

• The design of new digital services; 

• Maintenance of operational policies across the criminal jurisdictions as well as for providing support to operational court and business centre staff on these; 

• The implementation of change arising from government policy, legislation, or judicial initiatives; and  

• For understanding and improving performance.  

This is an opportunity to work in a high performing close-knit team working in partnership with colleagues across HMCTS, the Ministry of Justice, the Judiciary and other Government departments. The role provides excellent opportunities to work in a fast-paced change environment in an area of high ministerial priority. 

About the role 

We have vacancies for two Grade 6 Senior Service Managers. As a Senior Service Manager, you will lead and develop the jurisdiction’s priorities, facilitating their delivery and ensuring the issues that can impact on the running of services are managed effectively.  Leading a team of Service Managers, you will be responsible for ongoing continuous improvement of existing services and for reforming products and processes.  You will lead significant operational, multi-disciplinary and complex policy areas.  Influencing internal and external stakeholders reconciling differing priorities and representing the organisation on major issues will be key features of this role.  

While the focus of any Senior Service Manager is necessarily dynamic, and can pivot according to organisational priorities as needed, it is envisaged that each role holder here will come in to lead a discrete portfolio: 

• For the first of the two roles, priority focus will be to lead the ongoing enhancements relating to the Common Platform. You will develop the strategic vision for the service, under the oversight of the Service Board, and ensure design and delivery are aligned with HMCTS’ operating model, digital architecture and strategic vision. Our work here must meet the needs of all users including complainants, defendants, judiciary, HMCTS operational staff and partners around the wider Criminal Justice System.   

• The second role will lead the team responsible for shaping HMCTS’s service design inputs in response to policy-led changes, including those flowing from the Independent Review of Criminal Courts, led by Sir Brian Leveson, and Sentencing Act reforms introduced after the independent review led by Sir David Gauke.  

In both roles, you will lead a multi-disciplinary team and will work closely with project management staff and any contractors, as well as teams (including digital services) across HMCTS and MoJ more widely, to deliver at pace in a high-profile area.  You will be responsible for navigating and influencing across a complex policy, technical, and operational landscape, reconciling differing priorities and securing agreement to progress plans.  You will represent the organisation across the criminal justice system and Whitehall, including with Ministers and senior judiciary, and engage openly and constructively with all stakeholders. 

In each role, as a senior member of the Crime Service Team, you will play a leadership role in the work of the team as a whole, engaging widely as regards performance, continuous improvement, the vision and strategy for the jurisdiction and services within it, policy and legislative impacts, and providing support to operations.   

Key interactions will be with 

• Judiciary – at all levels including leadership judiciary 

• HMCTS operational colleagues – court staff and leadership 

• HMCTS finance, governance, digital, commercial, data/analysis/insight, change, and performance functions 

• MOJ policy and finance teams, the Criminal Procedure Rules Committee and Government legal advisers 

• External stakeholders – policing, CPS, LAA, HMPPS, representative bodies, representatives of the legal professions. 

Key responsibilities 

Continuous improvement strategy and process:  

• In collaboration with operations and corporate functions, develop and articulate the strategic direction for possession work within the crime jurisdiction, identifying opportunities and challenges within the criminal courts and developing strategies for addressing them, consistent with the HMCTS operating model and business architecture 

• Work with policy teams on policy and legislative proposals, ensuring that policies meet the needs of HMCTS and are operationally deliverable. 

• Ensure prioritisation and delivery of initiatives supported by standard business processes and operating procedure, overseen by organisational governance (service board / business authority / project governance).   

Ensuring service design and development is in keeping with the organisational vision: 

• Ensure digital service design meets all users’ needs and is consistent with HMCTS’ operating model and the Crime Service model, in collaboration with operational colleagues, the judiciary and other users and stakeholders. 

• Ensure scope of the digital service design is controlled and managed and that effective service design enables technical development and end-to-end delivery of a digital service, to time and budget, including working with the Criminal Procedure Rules Committee.  

Quality of services:   

• Lead, manage and shape services in line with the jurisdiction’s priorities and users’ needs, looking end-to-end and ensuring the issues that can impact on the running of the service are managed effectively.  Identify national performance issues and lead problem solving activity to lead continuous improvement.    

• Ensure the successful delivery of nationally driven changes arising from policy, legislative or judicial initiatives, ensuring they are focused on improving and transforming service delivery and that they are aligned with the service strategy and vision.   

Corporate responsibilities: 

• Provide high quality written and oral advice to colleagues and to governance boards, and advice to senior civil servants, judiciary and Ministers as required and in a timely manner, ensuring high standards in analysis, advice and drafting to enable effective decision-making.    

• Ensure high quality operational support is provided to courts and court staff on the postholder’s areas of jurisdictional and service responsibility 

• Ensure performance is maintained against correspondence, FOIs, MCs, PQs. 

• Contribute to briefings, reports, and lines to take as required and in a timely manner. 

Engagement and representation: 

• Lead and own collaborative relationships with MOJ policy and other Government departments, rule committees, public bodies, justice agencies and the judiciary to ensure HMCTS strategy and plans are aligned to wider justice policy and the Government’s agenda. 

• Lead and own collaborative relationships across HMCTS operational and HQ functions to ensure shared understanding of vision, plans, and activities and to ensure these are operationally viable. 

• Confidently and visibly engage with staff and stakeholders, build trust, and ensure understanding of users’ needs.   

• Represent HMCTS both internally and externally in areas of own responsibility and wider civil jurisdictional matters, promoting and explaining actions and decisions, and engaging constructively with all. 

Leadership: 

• The post holder will be responsible for the line management of a team and will be responsible for ensuring performance and delivery.  They will give clear sense of leadership, direction and purpose against strategies and plans.  They will lead, coach and mentor members of the team and develop capabilities in line with business needs.  

• They will be an active member of the Crime Service Team’s leadership team, contributing to the management of resources and priorities across the team, sharing learning, promoting effective working, and upholding and role-modelling our team pledge and supportive culture.   

• They will lead by example, role modelling ethics, integrity, impartiality and the elimination of bias by building diverse teams and promoting a working environment that supports the Civil Service code and MOJ Values. 

Accountability: 

• Reporting to a Deputy Director, Crime Service Team  

Who are we looking for? 

The ideal candidate for this position should demonstrate:  

Essential 

• Experience of complex stakeholder engagement and management 

• Experience of setting direction and collaborating across organisational boundaries to deliver  

• Experience or knowledge of digital service and process design   

• Experience of business change and developing operational solutions 

The below criteria are desirable only. These will not be assessed throughout the recruitment process, but will be used in the event of tied scores between candidates  

Desirable 

• Experience or knowledge of the criminal courts (and/or wider criminal justice) system, given the detailed focus on operational process development and performance improvement  

• Experience or knowledge of project delivery and change management 

• Experience or knowledge of public policy-making, specifically in the justice setting (and so including working with ministers, judges, policy teams and external partners) 

• Experience of building and leading a high-performing team 

• Skill in ensuring high quality drafting of papers and briefings