HM Courts and Tribunals Service

Directorate: Digital Technology Services (DTS)

Pay Band: SEO

Job Title: Programme Planner (DRLM)

Location: London / National

Successful applicants will be expected to be office based 3 days per week in any HMCTS Office (subject to business availability). The frequency may increase in the future.

Term: Permanent

Interview: Video conference via Teams

Important salary details:

New recruits to the Civil Service joining MoJ are expected to join at the band minimum. Existing Civil Servants applying on promotion, will usually be appointed on the salary minimum of the new pay band, or receive an increase of 10 percent on the current base salary, whichever is higher (This is restricted to the pay maximum of the new band).

Reserve List:

HMCTS run a Reserve List, where candidates who are unsuccessful at interview by only a few points, can be offered other roles, at the same band, for up to 12 months. You will be able to view your status via the application screen. If you have been added to the Reserve List, your status will show either Merit or Reserve list.

Introduction:

These are exciting times at HM Court and Tribunals Service (HMCTS). As an agency of the MoJ, we support the judiciary across England and Wales to deliver justice by running courts and tribunals and processing outcomes, and we are looking for talented people to help us achieve our ambitions. It will be challenging, important and rewarding.

HMCTS Digital and Technology Services (DTS) is a specialist technology directorate which provides support to HMCTS in the use of IT and Digital.

DTS is creating a place in which it is great to do work and part of our offer is brilliant training opportunities and support from expert colleagues. As well as that you’ll find flexible working, an inclusive culture, and a place where your opinion is valued.

Please follow the link below for further information about HMCTS. www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-courts-and-tribunals-service

Background:

The Decommissioning and Legacy Risk Mitigation (DLRM) Programme is part of the Government’s Major Projects and Programmes portfolio and has been established to mitigate the risks presented by HMCTS’ legacy technology. The programme sits within HMCTS’ Digital and Technology Services directorate and works across HMCTS, MoJ and Cabinet Office to deliver its primary aim of decommissioning HMCTS applications without undue risk.

The scale of ambition for the DLRM programme is significant. There are around 300 bespoke applications in use across HMCTS.  The programme’s aim is to ensure these applications are able to support HMCTS operations as well as decommissioning those that are no longer needed. As such, the DLRM Programme brings together multiple inter-related workstreams focussed on reducing our technical, cyber and data debt. The work covers a number of Digital, Data and Technology disciplines as well as commercial, financial and programme and project delivery skills and has a blended team of permanent and contingent people from a variety of backgrounds. Having secured funding for this ambitious programme, we are now at an exciting stage of our journey and are looking for enthusiastic and committed people to join one of the most ambitious technology programmes across government.

Main Purpose of The Role:

As Programme Planner you will be working closely with the Head of PMO, Project Managers and Programme Director to implement and administer the overarching programme plan to track, manage, and escalate key activity within the programme. The role requires the management of reporting on key deliverables and milestones across the programme, which includes updating on the delivery of external activities and dependencies. As the programme is on the Government’s Major Projects and Programmes portfolio, there is additional scrutiny on programme activities to ensure delivery within desired budget and timeframes.

Key responsibilities of the role:

• Programme Planning - Implementation, administration, and reporting of the overarching programme planning solution.

• Project Planning - Lead on planning activity and develop schedules whilst developing best practice in planning and reporting at project level.

• Planning SME - Provide expert advice on planning for team members and the PMO function.

• Assumption Management - Challenge and test project assumptions to ensure that plans are realistic and achievable.

• Rescheduling - Support the Head of PMO, Project Managers, and Programme Director to identify options to optimise delivery rescheduling of activities.

• Capture and Escalate - Ensure clear translation of project requirements, dependencies, constraints, and prerequisites within the programme schedules. Monitoring and analysing information, reporting progress, slippage and highlighting areas of risk and opportunity.

• Improve - Develop a planning and controls service relevant to business and programme requirements.

• Ensure the alignment of key assurance activities to major delivery milestones and ensure these are integrated across interdependent projects. 

Skills & Experience:

• Strong communication and interpersonal skills

• Experience either as a programme planner or a senior planner.

• Ability to work effectively under pressure and time constraints in a fast paced, rapidly evolving environment.

• Experience managing and influencing internal and external stakeholder relationships.

• Experience in presenting large and complex programmes in a concise Plan on a Page view.

• Experience in representing and managing internal and external programme dependencies within a complex planning environment.

• Development of ‘critical paths’ to inform and escalate emerging issues or concerns within a programme.

Essential Criteria:

• Experience of working within a PMO and/or project management role with demonstratable project management and co-ordination responsibilities.

• Exposure to planning major projects within a technical environment.

• Expert in the use of the Microsoft Project planning tools.

• Practitioner knowledge of project planning, governance frameworks & methodologies

• Ability to analyse and present sensitive or complex data and information to support decision making.

• Proven ability to adapt communication style and approach to suite varying audience needs.

• Ability to present technical and complex information clearly and concisely at a level appropriate to the target audience.

• Experience of working with senior managers/project managers for the successful delivery of a project or workstream

• Collaborating on work with a wide range of stakeholders and teams to ensure accurate and timely reporting and management of project finances.

• Experience of organising and prioritising work effectively

Desirable Criteria:

• Project Management related qualifications and/or experience

• Previous experience of working in a large digital organisation

Application process:

The following areas of Success Profile Framework will be used to assess and score your application during the sift, and interview.

• Experience - As demonstrated in your application form.

• Strengths - The interview will involve a discussion around 2 strengths.

• Behaviours - You will be required to provide evidence of the following key behaviours at SEO Level.

• Seeing the Bigger Picture (lead behaviour)

• Changing and Improving

• Delivering at Pace