Operational and Reporting Lead - National Magistrates Recruitment TaskforceMinistry of Justice

21153

Descriptions & requirements

Job description

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join the newly established National Magistrates Recruitment Taskforce, a cross departmental partnership between HMCTS and the Judicial Office responsible for transforming how magistrates are recruited across England and Wales.

As an Operational and Reporting Lead, you will maintain day to day operational control across multiple live magistrates’ recruitment campaigns, leading EO and AO staff and ensuring robust governance, reporting and quality assurance throughout the process, including the assurance of recommendations to the Senior Presiding Judge.

In doing so, you will play a key role in delivering an accelerated, nationally consistent recruitment pipeline that increases magistrate capacity and supports the effective delivery of justice.

Background

HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is responsible for the administration of courts and tribunals in England and Wales, supporting the delivery of justice by working with the judiciary, legal professionals and partner agencies. It governs and manages court buildings and hearing venues, provides administrative support for criminal, civil, family and tribunal cases, and ensures that people can access justice effectively, fairly and efficiently.

Magistrates form a key part of the justice system and play a critical role in supporting the government to tackle priorities including addressing the backlog of cases in the criminal courts. The vast majority of criminal cases start in a magistrates’ court and around 95% will be completed there.

A new and exciting opportunity has arisen to join a newly formed cross-departmental team consisting of officials from HMCTS and Judicial Office. The National Magistrates Recruitment Taskforce has been established to deliver a fundamental transformation to the way magistrates are recruited across England and Wales. Working across HMCTS and the Judicial Office, the Taskforce is responsible for delivering a nationally consistent, accelerated recruitment pipeline to significantly increase magistrate capacity and support delivery of justice.

Your Role

HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is responsible for the administration of courts and tribunals in England and Wales, supporting the delivery of justice by working with the judiciary, legal professionals and partner agencies. It governs and manages court buildings and hearing venues, provides administrative support for criminal, civil, family and tribunal cases, and ensures that people can access justice effectively, fairly and efficiently

Job Description

Applications are invited for one Operational and Reporting Lead position within the National Magistrates Recruitment Taskforce—a partnership between HMCTS and the Judicial Office focused on transforming the recruitment process for magistrates.

We are looking for committed, organised and delivery focused professionals with experience of working alongside magistrates and/or in judicial recruitment or operational environments to join our newly created cross departmental team as a Operational and Reporting Lead.

The Taskforce’s ambition is to reduce recruitment timescales from around 12 months to just 12 weeks, supporting the recruitment of up to 7,000 additional magistrates by 2028/29 and enabling a 20% increase in sitting days.

As an Operational Lead, you will play a vital role in delivering this ambition by maintaining day to day operational control of the magistrates recruitment pipeline and establishing and maintaining key governance and reporting metrics. You will ensure campaigns progress at pace, risks are actively managed, and quality and compliance standards are consistently applied.

Reporting to the SEO Programme Manager, you will act as the primary escalation and quality assurance point for EO and AO staff, maintaining a clear operational grip across multiple live campaigns. You will oversee workflows, lead daily staff meetings, and ensure senior stakeholders have an accurate, real time view of pipeline health and risks. Acting as the primary escalation and quality assurance point for governance and reporting issues, you will maintain a clear grip on reporting metrics, ensuring accuracy at every stage, and play a critical role in assuring recommendations progressing to the Senior Presiding Judge (SPJ).

Main Activities/Responsibilities

The postholder will have the following responsibilities;

Manage a team consisting of around 22 EOs and AOs, providing clear direction, prioritisation and operational focus across multiple live campaigns

Lead daily delivery through task allocation, workflow management and daily meetings, ensuring progress, risks and issues are actively managed

Support and develop team members through coaching, feedback and assurance, escalating performance or capacity concerns where required

Maintain day to day operational control of live recruitment campaigns

Own workflow management, task allocation and operational prioritisation

Act as escalation point for EOs and AOs, resolving issues or escalating where required

Quality assure campaign setup, eligibility checks and candidate communications

Produce regular reports using dashboards such as DOMO and monitor key KPI metrics.

Develop quarterly Diversity & Inclusion reports.

Develop a set of new standardised KPI performance metrics whilst maintaining oversight of candidate pipeline analytics and supply/demand forecasting.

Compile and assure SPJ submissions and supporting audit trails

Provide regular performance and progress information to the SEO Programme Manager

Person Specification

Ideal candidates will have experience of working alongside magistrates and/or experience in judicial recruitment or comparable judicial or operational environments. This may include supporting judicial recruitment processes, delivering recruitment or casework in courts or tribunals, or working with magistrates, advisory committees, or judicial stakeholders.

You will demonstrate sound judgement, confidence managing risk and escalation, and the ability to apply quality assurance in regulated environments, alongside strong organisational skills and experience overseeing complex operational workflows.

In addition, you will have demonstrable experience monitoring, interpreting and reporting on KPI metrics to support operational performance and decision-making. Experience producing analytical reports on workforce, diversity, or inclusion data, including quarterly or periodic reporting cycles is also desirable.

If you are passionate about supporting meaningful change and have the skills and experience to contribute to an accelerated recruitment model, we invite you to submit your Expression of Interest. Please include a summary of your relevant experience, your motivation for joining the Taskforce, and how your skills align with the responsibilities outlined above.

Join us in shaping the future of magistrates’ recruitment and making a lasting contribution to the justice system.

Working pattern / post length

This is a full time position. Standard full time working hours are 37 hours per week. We welcome part-time, flexible and job-sharing working patterns, where they meet the demands of the role and business needs and are agreed prior to appointment. All applications for part-time, flexible and job-sharing working patterns will be considered in accordance with the MoJ’s Flexible Working policy.

This post is for 12 months with the potential to extend to 24 months.

If you have any queries about the role, or wish to discuss, please contact the hiring manager Victoria Sefton – National Magistrate Recruitment Taskforce Lead – [email protected].

Fixed term appointments (FTA) on promotion

MoJ employees may apply for FTA opportunities in MoJ that are advertised at a higher grade than their current substantive grade. Where an employee accepts an FTA on promotion, this promotion will be temporary, and the employee will revert to their substantive grade upon return to their home business area, as per the loan policy for OGD loans. Before applying, employees must seek approval from their line managers to ensure they can be released for the duration of the FTA and can return to their substantive role at the end. If there is no role available at the end of the FTA, the employee will be subject to redeployment and potentially redundancy procedures.

Loans/Detached Duty

The terms of the loan or detached duty will be agreed between the home and host department and the Civil Servant (candidate). This includes grade on return. Prior agreement to be released on a loan or detached duty basis should be obtained before commencing the application process.