Deputy Director, Legal Support and Additional Funding

Job description

About the job

Job summary

This position can be based at any of the following locations:

102 Petty France (MOJ) London, SW1H 9AJ

5 Wellington Place, Leeds, LS1 4AP

Job description

The Role

The postholder will be responsible for the provision of legal support and social welfare advice - the support that citizens receive before their issues crystallise into ones needing specialist intervention through legal aid.

This is an exciting cross Government agenda that involves close working with partners across government, within the Ministry of Justice and the third sector on a preventative agenda that supports earlier resolution of legal problems. The team is responsible for oversight and delivery of £20m multiyear grant funding to support advice provision via sectors partners.

The postholder will also be responsible for two major programmes within an innovative legislative agenda delivering a manifesto commitment and key Government priorities. The Government has consulted on the establishment of an "Interest in Lawyers Client Accounts" scheme - a revenue raising scheme, the first of its kind in the UK, mirroring those in Canada and Australia to raise new funds to support access to justice. The postholder would be responsible for delivery of legislation to underpin the scheme, as well as the complex implementation of such a scheme, should it be taken forwards.

The postholder would also be responsible for key delivery of a manifesto commitment relating to Hillsborough programme, via a Bill currently going through Parliament. The bill will secure a legally enforceable 'duty of candour' for public authorities and publicly funded legal aid in inquest proceedings. The postholder will lead the delivery of the legal aid for inquests provisions in the Bill, working closely with the Legal Aid Agency.

Key Responsibilities

Reporting to the Director, you will be responsible for:

• Leading, supporting and developing a team of around 25 FTE, securing its resilience and delivery.
• Setting the strategic direction for legal support services, working closely with other Government Departments and third sector partners, taking account of the cross Government devolution agenda, opportunities and challenges presented by AI and the interface with formal legal aid provision.
• Supervision of a 3 year £20m grant programme for legal support, working with third sector partners to deliver against a new outcomes framework focussed on maximising the impact of investment where it is needed most.
• Chairing the Legal Support Strategy Delivery group (comprised of senior representatives from the advice sector, academics and legal profession for partnership working and collaboration driving evidence led policy making.
• Leadership of a cross Government Legal Support Strategy Group, leveraging different programmes of work across Government to drive improvements in social welfare advice
• Development of the policy and legislation, subject to consultation, that would be necessary to support the establishment of an ILCA scheme, with the potential to raise several hundreds of millions to support access to justice priorities.
• Engaging the legal profession and banking sectors to ensure the deliverability of the scheme, subject to the outcome of the consultation earlier this year.
• If taken forwards, designing in parallel plans to implement the ILCA scheme, which would include establishment of new monitoring functions within MoJ and close working with legal services regulators and financial institutions.
• Developing the policy and legislative approach to the legal aid provisions in the 'Hillsborough Bill', which represent the largest expansion of legal aid in decades. Working closely with Ministers, No.10, campaign groups, bereaved families, Parliamentarians and legal practitioners to achieve the best outcomes for those affected.
• Driving the implementation programme for the inquests provisions, working with the Legal Aid Agency to design and deliver a new digital system to support the administration of legal aid in these cases, with a projected increased caseload of over ten thousand.
• Overseeing the business support team for the directorate.

Additional Responsibilities

You will also be a key member of the LALSD leadership team and expected to take responsibility for sponsoring and guiding elements of the corporate and staff engagement work of the directorate.

Essential Experience:

• An ability to provide visible and supportive leadership, working to establish, inspire and maintain high performing teams, including in a multi - disciplinary environment, for example across operational, financial, legal, analytical and digital teams, to drive the delivery of workstreams.
• Experience translating strategy, policy, regulation or legislative requirements into practical delivery plans in a complex environment, working collaboratively with a range of internal and external partners to develop solutions that can be implemented effectively.
• Strategic thinking, demonstrating the ability to horizon scan, anticipate, spot opportunities and resolve ambiguities to support your team to deliver in a complex and uncertain landscape, planning for the future as well as delivering current programmes.
• Ability to build, manage and influence senior relationships across organisational boundaries, demonstrating sound judgement, strategic thinking, and building credibility by displaying delivery grip and awareness of the wider operating context.
• Working across teams to develop evidence-based advice and options across complex issues where operational and external stakeholder pressures and data gaps present challenges.

Person specification

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: [1] https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity.

Diversity & Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the [2] Civil Service People Plan and the [3] Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.
References

Visible links
1. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity
2. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-people-plan-2024-2027
3. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-diversity-and-inclusion-strategy-2022-to-2025

For full details about the Role, Key Responsibilities and Person Specification, please download and review the Candidate Information pack

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Leadership
• Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £86,000, Ministry of Justice contributes £24,914 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

• Access to learning and development
• A working environment that supports a range of flexible working options to enhance your work life balance
• A working culture which encourages inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
• Annual Leave
• Public Holidays
• Season Ticket Advance

For more information about the recruitment process, benefits and allowances and answers to general queries, please click the below link which will direct you to our Candidate Information Page.

Link: https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

For full details of the Selection Process and Recruitment Timeline, please view the Candidate Information pack.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

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)
• 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)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

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

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : SCS Recruitment Team
• Email : [email protected]

Recruitment team

• Email : [email protected]

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles. If you feel a department has breached the requirement of the Recruitment Principles and would like to raise this, please contact SSCL ([email protected]) in the first instance. If the role has been advertised externally (outside of the Civil Service) and you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages: http://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/civil-service-recruitment/complaints/

https://jobs.justice.gov.uk/careers/JobDetail/21564?entityId=21564