About the job

Summary

Please refer to Job Description

Job description

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

Background:

Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is one of government’s largest agencies, employing around 16,000 staff, with a gross annual budget of c£1.6bn, and operating across around 350 sites across England and Wales. Our work underpins justice, affecting the lives of millions every year.

Good administrative staff with excellent customer service skills are vital to the effective operation of HMCTS. Most of the staff within HMCTS are employed in administrative roles. HMCTS embraces continuous improvement (CI) techniques to provide high standards of customer service

The Roles:

We have two roles available

Operational Court Administrative Officer:

This role is part of the Operational Delivery Profession. Operational delivery professionals are the outward face of government, providing a variety of essential services to the public. They work in many different departments and agencies across the breadth of the UK, delivering service to customers in:

• Customer facing roles, including face-to-face contact with service users

• Preparing papers and files for court, tribunals, hearings and meetings

• Scheduling video hearings and data input onto in-house computer systems

Being part of the operational delivery profession means belonging to a cross-government community of people. This will offer you access to information on professional standards, skills development and qualifications to help you continue to improve your development and performance and expand your career options.

Contact / Call Centre Agents:

Contact / Call Centre Agents are assigned to teams within the centre that operate a number of different service lines including Immigration and Asylum Chamber Tribunal, Social Security and Child Support Tribunal, Employment Tribunal Fees, Tax Tribunal, County Court Money Claims and Civil and Family courts telephony.

• Provide an excellent service to our external customers, agents will also be in regular contact with court and tribunals staff at processing sites throughout the country

• Maintain accurate and concise notes on the appropriate IT operating systems following each telephone call.

• Deliver a helpful, prompt, polite and “right first time” service to our internal and external customers.

Role availability varies by location and we will endeavor to place candidates in their preferred role and locations wherever possible.

You will be given the option to select up to 3 preferred locations for your placement, if selected for appointment. Please ensure you are available to work any of your stated location preferences and you have noted the role type that is available in your chosen location is your selected role. Whilst the post holder will be allocated to a specific office base, there may be a need for flexibility to work on a regular or ad hoc basis at other local HMCTS offices.

Key Purpose (both roles):

We are offering an exciting opportunity to come and join us on a temporary placement to support our courts over the summer period. These roles will give you an insight in to how our courts / contact centres run, and you will be part of a team supporting the important work to ensure our courts and services run smoothly. Successful candidates will be assigned to teams to carry out a variety of general administrative and contact centre duties to progress cases through the court/tribunal system or provide support to other functions within HMCTS.

In some positions, role holders will have regular direct contact with court / tribunal users, including members of the Judiciary, service users and the legal profession. Working within an administrative team or contact centre, HMCTS will provide successful candidates with regular management support and ensure appropriate training is delivered.

Working as part of a flexible team, you will be expected to undertake a range of the responsibilities

and functions specified. It is not intended that each post will be responsible for the full range of duties.

Key Responsibilities (both roles):

Administration:

• Preparing papers and files for court, tribunals, hearings and meetings

• Maintain accurate/concise notes on appropriate IT operating systems following each telephone call

• Creating and updating records on in-house computer system and data input

• Draft Standard letters and correspondence, minutes, notes, reports, submissions etc., according to guidelines and instructions

Operations:

• Clerking civil and family courts, tribunals and hearings, ensuring papers and materials are available and up to date

• Assisting court users, supporting listing and rota management, checking files

• Resulting courts accurately, interpreting accurately the information required on a court file

• Handling counter (face to face), written and telephone enquiries

• Undertake grade relevant ad hoc roles, such as Jury Officer, L+D Co-Ordinator, H+S

• Answer at least 90% of all incoming telephone enquires at the first point of contact

• Answer a broad spectrum of telephone enquiries for all multiple jurisdictional areas

• Teamworking to ensure timely / productive Team Information Board (TIB) meetings are held

• Assess and contribute towards Standard Operating Procedures (SOPS) and small projects

• Seek innovative ways to use problem solving tools to continually improve the customer experience

Checking & Verifying:

• Documents, records, accounts, claims and returns for approval, results, statistics, plans etc. against criteria, regulations or procedures

• Queries that cannot be answered without recourse to the case file to be accurately e-mailed to the appropriate court in accordance with the Service Level Agreement (SLA)

• Ensuring compliance and that administration documentation meets quality standards

• Role holders may be required to cross check and validate work completed by colleagues

Collecting & Assembling Information:

• Modify / adjust information and make decisions to ensure relevant guidance is given to service users

• To collect data accurately using a call logger and/or manual survey to support the reduction of calls in line with the agreed call reduction strategy

Communication:

• Communicate and work with the Judiciary, Magistracy, the Cluster Managers, Court staff, and other internal and external stakeholders, suppliers to provide excellent customer service

• To deliver a helpful, prompt, polite and “right first time” service to our internal and external customers

Other duties:

You are required to work in a flexible way and undertake any other duties reasonably requested by line management which are commensurate with the grade and level of responsibility of this post.

Essential Skills, Knowledge and Criteria:

• Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment

• Excellent communications skills

• Strong IT, administration and organisational skills

• Students in the final/penultimate year of under/post graduate study particularly welcome

• You must be eligible to work in the UK for the entire duration of the internship

Locations:

Applicants must be available to work at the placement site for the whole duration of the internship. No alternative working arrangements are available and once placements are confirmed no location changes will be possible. We currently have vacancies in the following locations:

Role types, locations and number of vacancies per site:

Operational Court Administrative Officer:

Brighton County Court (x4), Canterbury County Court (x1), Canterbury Crown Court (x1), Chelmsford County Court (x2), Dartford County Court (x1), Guildford County Court (x6), Guildford Crown Court (x2), Hastings County Court (x1), Horsham County Court (x1), Luton Justice Centre (x2), Maidstone Crown Court (x1), Medway County Court (x1), Medway – North Kent Magistrates’ Court (x1), Milton Keynes County Court (x1), Norwich County Court (x2), Oxford County Court (x1), Peterborough Combined Court (x2), Reading County Court (x1), Staines County Court (x3), Watford County Court (x1) and Worthing County Court (x2)

Contact / Call Centre Agents:

Probate – Brighton (x2)

Application Process:

To apply for this position please complete the online application form, ensuring you include a 250-word statement based on suitability against the Essential Skills & Criteria section (above) for each of the following Success Profile Behaviours (Level 1):

• Managing a Quality Service

• Working Together

• Delivering at Pace

A 250-word Statement of Suitability is also required. To complete this, please refer to the requirements in the Essential Skills, Knowledge and Criteria section (above) and outline the relevant personal skills, experience, strengths and behaviours you could bring to HMCTS.

Further information on Success Profiles and the required standards for this post (Level 1) can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles

Please note, dependent on volumes of applications received the sift stage may be based on your Statement of Suitability and the lead behaviour, which is Managing a Quality Service.

The selection process will be conducted on written applications only. No formal interview will be required as part of this selection process. If selected for appointment, we will try to match your selected location preferences but if vacancies in those do not exist, we may offer employment at alternative nearby locations.

A Merit List of applicants meeting the required selection criteria may be kept for up to 6 months.

Responsibilities

Please refer to Job Description

Behaviours

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

• Managing a Quality Service
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace