Deputy Director, Financial Strategy and Planning

Job summary

This position is based at 102 Petty France (MoJ) London, SW1H 9AJ

Job description

The Role

The role will put you in a unique position – it is critical to the business of the Department, spans breadth of the organisation and is key to ensuring that the business of the Department is aligned to the broader financial landscape of both the organisation and the Government. In particular, the postholder will play a critical role in ensuring that the Accounting Officer duties of the Permanent Secretary are fulfilled and that the Department’s spending is at all times in line with the principles of Managing Public Money.

This role will require collaborative working with colleagues in every area of the department and across Whitehall at every level, to make sure that finance is at the heart of decision making, and that when developing strategic plans, you understand and have gained buy-in from policy, operational and corporate colleagues. As Deputy Director for the team, you will play an important role in this – you will need to build and maintain well-developed relationships with the Directors General in MoJ, HMPPS and HMCTS and use these to navigate tough negotiations with HMT and No.10.

The work of the teams is often fast paced, high priority and strategic, regularly reporting directly to ExCo, the Permanent Secretary and the Secretary of State, and influencing all areas of departmental planning. However, it is important that the postholder is also able to prioritise longer-term work, such as on: the role of AI and technology on the services that MoJ delivers, and how they can be used to improve productivity of the department; the opportunities for increasing income generation for MoJ, and the impact on economic growth of doing so; and, the health of key MoJ provider markets.

This role is a great opportunity for policy professionals to get finance and strategy experience – and for finance professionals to gain a more strategic overview of the department and across Whitehall. You will gain unrivalled insight into the interaction of financial planning with policy and operations.

Key Responsibilities

The postholder will be required to undertake the following duties and responsibilities:

• Working closely with Directors General, the Permanent Secretary and Ministers on the key financial issues facing the department. This will include during setpiece fiscal events, such as the Spending Review, as well as the annual budget setting process.
• Maintaining a high-quality, collaborative relationship with the HMT Spending Team, No.10 and Cabinet Office.
• Leading on fiscal events for the Department and leading the annual budget setting process for MoJ (i.e. allocations), working collaboratively across the Department to ensure that trade-offs and risks are exposed and resolved.
• Ensuring that there are robust plans in place to deliver efficiency targets, and that progress is monitored and reported on a regular basis.
• Overseeing the c.£2bn of income that MoJ receives annually from fees and fines, including working with policy colleagues to explore opportunities to increase income, whilst considering the broader impacts, such as on access to justice and economic growth, of doing so.
• Providing a high-quality finance business partnering service to Policy Group. This involves overseeing budgets of c.£250m, and working closely with the two Policy Directors General to ensure that they have a clear understanding of their budgets and spend throughout the year.
• Building strategic, financial capability and understanding across the department, through outreach and engagement at all levels of seniority.

Essential Experience:

• Able to work independently, proactively, passionately, and confidently on high-profile areas across the Department and lead others to achieve quality and on time delivery of outputs.
• Comfortable and confident in working at pace to manage a full workload with conflicting short and long-term priorities.
• Able to build positive relationships with partners in other teams and departments, and to use those relationships to influence others through excellent interpersonal and communication skills, tailored to the recipient. This includes the ability to critically consider and confidently challenge stakeholders regarding their delivery or information and translating across functions to obtain a joined-up approach.
• Confident working closely with senior officials and Ministers on tricky finance or policy issues.
• Strong negotiation skills, with the ability to remain resilient in the face of substantial and sustained challenge.
• Capable of fostering and leading a culture of knowledge sharing and collaboration between policy, programmes, the business, finance, and other corporate services
• Experience leading policy development and making decisions in complex policy areas, using analytical and finance skills and different evidence sources to provide Ministers or senior officials with high-quality advice

Desirable Experience:

• CCAB or CIMA qualified accountant (or on route to achieving qualification in near future)

For more details about the role and how to apply please view our candidate information pack.

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: 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 Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.

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:

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

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £81,000, Ministry of Justice contributes £23,465 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

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 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.

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 : scsrecruitment@justice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : scsrecruitment@justice.gov.uk

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 (Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com) 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-recruitm…

https://jobs.justice.gov.uk/careers/JobDetail/15654?entityId=15654

Attachments

Deputy Director Financial Strategy and Planning Candidate Pack Opens in new window (docx, 4172kB)) Accessible Candidate Pack - Deputy Director Financial Strategy and Planning Opens in new window (docx, 62kB)