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Ministry of Justice UK

Portfolio Director

Ministry of Justice UK
United Kingdom · Full-time · Director

East Midlands (England), East of England, London (region), North East England, North West England, Scotland, South East England, South West England, Wales, West Midlands (England), Yorkshire and the Humber

Job Summary

This is a Nationally based role

Job Description

HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice. It operates based on a partnership between the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice and the Senior President of Tribunals. It currently has around 18,500 staff, operating from around 350 locations with a gross annual budget of c£2.3bn, approximately £800 million of which is recovered in fees and income from service users. It handles over 2 million criminal cases, 1.8 million civil claims, more than 150,000 family law disputes and almost 800,000 tribunal cases annually. HMCTS is responsible for the administration of the criminal, civil and family courts and tribunals in England and Wales and non-devolved tribunals in Scotland and Northern Ireland. It supports a fair, efficient and effective justice system delivered by an independent judiciary.

HMCTS Change Portfolio

We have delivered significant change through the HMCTS Reform programme creating new, user-friendly digital services and improving efficiency at the same time. There is still much to do, and expectations (of digitisation and efficiency) have increased significantly since we began our reform journey.

As HMCTS’ Portfolio Director, you will act as the senior leader accountable for the HMCT change portfolio. The role requires exceptional leadership and communication skills, proven problem-solving ability and broad portfolio, programme and project management and leadership experience, to ensure that change is successfully delivered across HMCTS.

The Portfolio Director role will be essential in providing the leadership needed to deliver change and transformation and improve access to justice. The role will be ultimately accountable for the change portfolio and the funds attached to it.

The post holder will need to ensure we are investing in the best way to deliver the modernised and upgraded justice system that is required. In addition, the role is accountable for coherent and stable change management for the organisation – with multi-jurisdictional change happening concurrently and being delivered into an already overloaded operation.

As Portfolio Director, HMCTS, just some of your responsibilities will include:

  • Setting the vision and strategy for change within the overall strategy agreed by the HMCTS Board working with the Executive Team.
  • Leading, inspiring and shaping a multi-disciplinary team of c.165 civil servants and suppliers across the Portfolio of change.
  • Driving collaboration across the portfolio, bringing together PDs and SROs across the organisation to ensure an organisational understanding of change demand, competing priorities.
  • Ensuring that change and portfolio management practices are defined, maintained and kept up to date by securing investing in support systems and tools. Ensure that the portfolio plan evolves in response to changes in the operating environment, business priorities and emerging risks.
  • Ensuring delivery of change programmes and projects within the Portfolio is to time, cost, and quality parameters.
  • Delivering outstanding value from the programme investment and ensure delivery of lifetime benefits.
  • Championing the organisation’s needs, ensuring a robust gateway for significant change initiatives and clear prioritisation to ensure effective balancing of BAU delivery, recovery, innovation and transformation.
  • Building strategic, collaborative and constructive relationships across the change and PPM community, within HMCTS, wider MOJ, cross government and with the Infrastructure and Projects Authority.
  • Driving cultural and behavioural change outside your direct sphere of influence and providing coaching, mentoring and development support to the wider team; and
  • Acting as an active member of the HMCTS Senior Leadership Team, ensuring effective management and running of the organisation.

For full details about the Role, Key Responsibilities and Person Specification, please download and review the Candidate Information Pack attached to this advert and attend our Information Session, details for which can be found below.

Information Session

  • For those interested in finding out more about the role, we encourage applicants to attend the information session on Wednesday 28 May at 11:00 AM.
  • Strategy, Analysis & Change Director Annabel Burns and a Senior HR Lead will be present to discuss the position in more depth, as well as provide information about what you can expect while working in HM Courts and Tribunals.
  • To attend the session please join using this link - HMCTS Portfolio Director - Information Session

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

HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice. It operates based on a partnership between the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice and the Senior President of Tribunals. It currently has around 18,500 staff, operating from around 350 locations with a gross annual budget of c£2.3bn, approximately £800 million of which is recovered in fees and income from service users. It handles over 2 million criminal cases, 1.8 million civil claims, more than 150,000 family law disputes and almost 800,000 tribunal cases annually. HMCTS is responsible for the administration of the criminal, civil and family courts and tribunals in England and Wales and non-devolved tribunals in Scotland and Northern Ireland. It supports a fair, efficient and effective justice system delivered by an independent judiciary.

HMCTS Change Portfolio

We have delivered significant change through the HMCTS Reform programme creating new, user-friendly digital services and improving efficiency at the same time. There is still much to do, and expectations (of digitisation and efficiency) have increased significantly since we began our reform journey.

As HMCTS’ Portfolio Director, you will act as the senior leader accountable for the HMCT change portfolio. The role requires exceptional leadership and communication skills, proven problem-solving ability and broad portfolio, programme and project management and leadership experience, to ensure that change is successfully delivered across HMCTS.

The Portfolio Director role will be essential in providing the leadership needed to deliver change and transformation and improve access to justice. The role will be ultimately accountable for the change portfolio and the funds attached to it.

The post holder will need to ensure we are investing in the best way to deliver the modernised and upgraded justice system that is required. In addition, the role is accountable for coherent and stable change management for the organisation – with multi-jurisdictional change happening concurrently and being delivered into an already overloaded operation.

As Portfolio Director, HMCTS, just some of your responsibilities will include:

  • Setting the vision and strategy for change within the overall strategy agreed by the HMCTS Board working with the Executive Team.
  • Leading, inspiring and shaping a multi-disciplinary team of c.165 civil servants and suppliers across the Portfolio of change.
  • Driving collaboration across the portfolio, bringing together PDs and SROs across the organisation to ensure an organisational understanding of change demand, competing priorities.
  • Ensuring that change and portfolio management practices are defined, maintained and kept up to date by securing investing in support systems and tools. Ensure that the portfolio plan evolves in response to changes in the operating environment, business priorities and emerging risks.
  • Ensuring delivery of change programmes and projects within the Portfolio is to time, cost, and quality parameters.
  • Delivering outstanding value from the programme investment and ensure delivery of lifetime benefits.
  • Championing the organisation’s needs, ensuring a robust gateway for significant change initiatives and clear prioritisation to ensure effective balancing of BAU delivery, recovery, innovation and transformation.
  • Building strategic, collaborative and constructive relationships across the change and PPM community, within HMCTS, wider MOJ, cross government and with the Infrastructure and Projects Authority.
  • Driving cultural and behavioural change outside your direct sphere of influence and providing coaching, mentoring and development support to the wider team; and
  • Acting as an active member of the HMCTS Senior Leadership Team, ensuring effective management and running of the organisation.

For full details about the Role, Key Responsibilities and Person Specification, please download and review the Candidate Information Pack attached to this advert and attend our Information Session, details for which can be found below.

Information Session

  • For those interested in finding out more about the role, we encourage applicants to attend the information session on Wednesday 28 May at 11:00 AM.
  • Strategy, Analysis & Change Director Annabel Burns and a Senior HR Lead will be present to discuss the position in more depth, as well as provide information about what you can expect while working in HM Courts and Tribunals.
  • To attend the session please join using this link - HMCTS Portfolio Director - Information Session

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

Person specification

For more information on the key responsibilities for this role, please refer to the Candidate Information Pack below.

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.

Behaviours

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

  • Communicating and Influencing
  • Working Together
  • Changing and Improving
  • Seeing the Big Picture
  • Making Effective Decisions

Alongside your salary of £98,000, Ministry of Justice contributes £28,390 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

  • 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

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

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 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.

Successful candidates must undergo a 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 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.

Diversity and Inclusion

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

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

Recruitment team

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. I 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/5936?entityId=5936
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Posted
May 13, 2025
Type
Full-time
Level
Director
Location
London

Industries

Government Administration

Categories

Finance Sales

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