Ministry of Justice

Overview of the job

This senior role is directly managed by the Prison Group Director within HMPPS Public Sector Prisons (PSP) Group.

The job role will be based primarily within the relevant Group, North/South however there will be a requirement to visit establishments within the function. This is likely to be approximately 4-10 establishments and due to the nature of the geographical spread will be Group wide. Attendance in London and elsewhere for meetings will also be required.

The job holder will report directly to the Prison Group Director who in turn will report to the Executive Director.

The job holder will have line management responsibility for the Prison Group Director’s office which will include a team of support staff across grades 8 – 3. This role may include management and oversight of staff within the Group working remotely from the office team.

Summary

This is a Senior Manager post based in the Prison Group Director’s structure reporting directly to the Prison Group Director and will be a member of the Executive Management Team (EMT). The job holder will be a key member of the Prison Group Director’s Senior Management Team, accountable for oversight of the Group within the designated areas of responsibility, including performance assurance, risk management and operational delivery interfacing with stakeholders and related service planning, development and commissioning activity

The job holder will conduct a significant amount of non-routine work which is likely to have an impact either within the Prison Group, across the wider PSP Directorate or Nationally.

This is a Headquarters job but will attract RHA due to significant out of hours on call duties. The post has line management responsibilities.

The job holder will provide leadership, vision and strategic direction for the Prison Group holding accountability for ensuring any risks are communicated and managed and that the work by the Group contributes to HMPPS priorities and to the safe, decent and secure operational environment of prison establishments.

Responsibilities, Activities & Duties

The job holder will be required to carry out the following responsibilities, activities and duties:

Specifically, the post holder will be accountable for (the post-holder may be required to carry out other tasks commensurate with the nature of the role and grade of the post):

• Accountable for providing leadership and direction for all staff including coaching and mentoring for managers.
• Responsible for the development and delivery of assurance within the Group.
• Responsible for the co-ordination and monitoring of prisons under Urgent Notification, Special Measure and Group Performance Improvement Plans.
• The job holder will be accountable to the Prison Group Director and contribute to the operational delivery and strategic development of the Prison Group supporting the PGD with delivery of group strategies and objectives.
• The job holder will work directly with Prison Group Directors and Governors to promote a Rehabilitative Culture. This will include supporting the Group Safety Team focusing on Safety, Drugs and Equalities providing operational support for the delivery of the development of this agenda across the Group.
• The job holder will work directly with the Prison Group Director, Governors, Service Delivery Managers and Facilities Managers to promote cleanliness and decency and drive forward the Group’s clean and decent agenda. They will also work alongside the cleanliness and decency lead for the North/South providing operational support for the development and delivery of this agenda.
• The job holder will work with HMPPS stakeholders on key risk delivery as part of the Prison Group Director senior team. They will work across Group boundaries with their counterparts in the South/North and with the LTHSE to manage operational pressures and risks in order to maintain delivery of Ministerial and public confidence in our prisons.
• The job holder will, on behalf of the Prison Group Director, support effective key delivery partnerships, including Healthcare, Education, CRC and Probation colleagues.
• They will be required to draft Briefings and identify Risks on behalf of the Prison Group Director. They will be the central collation point for identified Risks and must be able to draw out themes and highlight risks appropriately to Governors and the Prison Group Director and taking follow up action to mitigate risks.
• The job holder will represent the Prison Group Director with the appropriate authority to contribute to the decision making on an establishment’s monitoring arrangements i.e. Special Measures, Group Performance Improvement Plan, HMIP action planning and Urgent Notification plans.
• Making recommendations, action planning and progress against plans.
• The job holder will chair meetings as required to enable a Strategic Approach for business delivery, identifying opportunities for better group working.
• The job holder will work in partnership with BDG, SHRBP and National DD Team to organise and co-ordinate national detached duty for the Group and to ensure in house decisions reflect the stability risk of the prisons in relation to the deployment requested and required.
• The job holder will collate prison submissions for the consideration of Exceptional Business case for the use of national DD and Bonus PP for submission to the Executive Director’s Office. These will be considered and support advised submissions which will be passed to the Stability Panel.
• The job holder will in the absence of the Prison Group Director be a source of advice on a broad range of issues and provide guidance on operational incidents to Governors and establishments. The job holder may be deployed to provide operational support to establishments as directed by the Prison Group Director. They will also be able to seek approval for the use of Group and national resources.
• The job holder will work with Governors to highlight and make decisions regarding performance improvement initiatives made at prison group level and where necessary devising strategies to support improved performance, sharing innovation and initiates across the wider Prison Group.
• The job holder will attend a number of other meetings as a full member or on behalf of the Prison Group Director.
• The job holder will work with subject matter stakeholders to provide advice and support during prison visits on behalf of the Prison Group Director.
• To maintain oversight and strategic responsibility to deploy the combined North/South resources such as Group resources including DST, Dog Teams for searching and intelligence on behalf of the Prison Group Director.
• The job holder will be the strategic or subject matter expert lead for an allocated area of Group business which may be at regional or national level to be determined.
• Strategically identify establishments which are of a concern across the Group through the weekly stability report and self-assessments providing advice and support on optimising stability ratings, identifying performance issues and putting measures in place to reduce risk across the Group to drive performance improvement.
• The job holder will act as a gatekeeper for all statutory offender segregation reviews, adjudication appeals, confidential access requests and complaints ensuring the quality, consistency, necessity and defensibility of all requests are considered prior to submission to the Prison Group Director.
• The job holder will have oversight of the group business delivery hub.
• The job holder will act as a gatekeeper for out of hours calls from all Prisons within the Group for routine briefing matters.
• The job holder will provide on call duties for the Group as required.
• The job holder will liaise with the CEO’s and press office on matters of ministerial interest and sensitivity providing briefings and following up on actions.
• The job holder will prepare documentation and conduct analysis and narrative for the Prison Group Director bilateral with the Executive Director of Prisons highlighting areas of progress and risk and identifying areas where support should be considered.
• The job holder will be a member of the Group workforce planning meeting to monitor resources, deployment, assessments and talent to determine future strategies.
• The job holder will work in partnership with the SHRBP and OD to provide operational input into the Group’s HR Service Delivery Plan. This will include a programme of Talent Management and Succession Planning, mentoring, coaching and leadership development master classes.
• The job holder will manage the PGD inbox – flagging any issues and risks and dealing with other matters as appropriate.

The duties/responsibilities listed above describe the post as it is at present and is not intended to be exhaustive. The job holder is expected to accept reasonable alterations and additional tasks of a similar level that may be necessary. Significant adjustments may require re-examination under the Job Evaluation Scheme and shall be discussed in the first instance with the job holder.