Senior Personal Assistant - Judicial and Legal Services Policy Directorate (up to 12-month, Fixed Term or Loan)(Ref: 19173)

Job summary

Job description

• Full-time or full-time established jobshares
• Flexible working patterns

If we receive applications from more suitable candidates than we have vacancies for at this time, we may hold suitable applicants on a reserve list for 12 months, and future vacancies requiring the same skills and experience could be offered to candidates on the reserve list without a new competition.

We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce and pride ourselves as being an employer of choice. To find out more about how we champion diversity and inclusion in the workplace, visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity

Salary

New entrants to the Civil Service will be expected to join on the minimum of the pay range.

If you are already a civil servant and are successful in an external recruitment competition for a role with us, your starting pay will be the better of:

• promotion terms or transfer terms, as appropriate; or
• pay on appointment arrangements (minimum of pay range)

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ)

MoJ is the largest government department, employing over 90,000 people with a budget of approximately 10 billion. Each year, millions of people use our services across the UK - including at 500 courts and tribunals, and 133 prisons in England and Wales.

Further information can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice

The Work of Judicial and Legal Services Policy (JLSP) Directorate

JLSP Directorate plays a unique and pivotal role in managing the complex and vital interaction between the Government and the judiciary. It supports the Lord Chancellor in fulfilling their constitutional responsibilities and oversees the policy relating to judicial and magistrate workforce issues, strategic judicial reform, judicial pay, pensions and diversity alongside negotiating the Courts and Tribunal Services financial settlement through the concordat process. The Directorate also has oversight of the legal services sector, including

its link to economic growth and trade and work to support the domestic rule of law. JLSP works closely with the senior judiciary, the courts service, senior legal service partners and industry to progress its agenda and therefore suits those who like to work across systems to deliver.

Senior Personal Assistant

You will work in a fast-paced and exciting environment where you will need to anticipate and resolve issues, prioritise competing demands and successfully support senior leaders so they can deliver their responsibilities. The role includes diary and inbox management, administrative support, line management of two PAs, and a range of business support functions.

Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Personal Assistant Responsibilities:

• Managing a Director and Deputy Directors diary and inbox, including arranging internal and external meetings, travel and resolving conflicting priorities.
• Ensuring meeting papers and briefing materials are prepared, organised and available in advance of meetings, in relevant OneNote folders and printed for the day diary.
• Align own in-office days with the Directors requirements and ensure appropriate in-office cover is provided by the team throughout the week.
• Confidently and accurately relaying the views and opinions of Senior Leaders to staff in the Directorate and key stakeholders.
• Working closely with the Head of Office and Senior Business Manager to support senior leadership and Directorate priorities.
• Preparing, maintaining and cascading agendas and actions for senior leadership, divisional and Directorate meetings, including booking rooms and coordinating logistics.
• Coordinating contributions to senior leadership communications, updates and commissions, ensuring deadlines are met and information is shared effectively. Building and maintaining excellent relationships with colleagues across the Ministry of Justice and external stakeholders.
• Providing flexible support and cover across the wider team as required

Business Support Responsibilities:

• Coordinating Directorate stand-ups, information sessions and other key engagement activities.
• Supporting a range of business management activities, including business continuity, organisational information, reward and recognition processes, finance returns, travel management reporting and corporate contributions.
• Coordinating joiner and leaver processes for staff across the Directorate, ensuring records, distribution lists and organisational information are maintained and updated in a timely manner.

This list is not exhaustive, and the role and responsibilities will develop over time.

Skills and Experience

Essential:

• Proficient in Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Teams.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, with the ability to build effective working
• relationships and influence stakeholders at all levels.
• Excellent organisational, time management and prioritisation skills, with the ability to
• deliver to tight deadlines and work effectively at pace.
• Proactive, with the ability to exercise sound judgement and make informed decisions on
• behalf of senior leaders.
• Highly resilient and takes can do attitude to resolving issues.
• Ability to work effectively both independently and as part of a team.

Desirable:

• Experience of providing support to senior leaders or directors, including diary, inbox and
• meeting management, and familiarity with business support functions.
• Experience of coordinating policy commissions and briefing requests, working with policy
• teams to gather information and provide timely support to senior leaders.

Candidates applying from HMPPS should note that the Ministry of Justice does not have the same conditions of employment as HMPPS. It is the candidates responsibility to ensure they are aware of the terms and conditions they will adopt should they be successful.

The MoJ is proud to be Level 3 Disability Confident. Disability Confident is the approach through which we offer guaranteed interviews for all people with disabilities meeting the minimum criteria for the advertised role as set out in the job description.

Application process

You will be assessed against the Civil service success profiles framework .

You must ensure that any evidence submitted as part of your application, including your CV, statement of suitability and behaviour examples, are truthful and factually accurate. Please note that plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own.

Experience

You will be asked ...