Senior Publications Team Manager

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.

Job Title: Senior Publications Team Manager

Closing Date: 31 May 2022

Grade: SEO

Location: London / Leeds / Loughborough

Salary Range: £36,049 - £41,095 (National), £41,747 - £47,591 (London) depending on skills and experience

Overview

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Judicial College to lead our Publications Team through a period of expansion as the profile of the team’s work grows. The senior manager role is a new post. The Publications Team is responsible for supporting the production of a range of internal and external publications and training materials for the judiciary, ensuring that products are produced on schedule and are of high quality – an important part of our Strategy for 2021-25 - https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Judicial_College_Strategy_2021-2025_WEB.pdf. The team plays a key role in the publication of training materials for magistrates and the College’s role in training magistrates is set to expand from 2023/24. You will be responsible for leading the Publications Team through this change and working with key stakeholders to ensure that the team is resourced and prepared to meet the challenge.

Reporting to the Head of the Systems, Performance and Publications you will be responsible for leading your team in working with content creators and authors on drafts and manuscripts ahead of production, to coordinating the entire production process, to final publication. You will work closely with the judges involved in providing training and the professional experts supporting them. The focus is mainly on digital publications and training materials, but you will also liaise closely with our Digital Training Team and Content Strategy lead on the presentation of e-learning, content on the online training platform and oversight of ensuring materials are accessible to all users and meet associated standards.

You will coordinate the entire production process for College publications, with responsibility for quality control and for managing relationships with stakeholders, and you will help design College communications. You will work with the Content Strategy lead and our Strategy, Governance and Change Team on how best to promote the College’s work, as well as on communications messaging and ensuring proper governance oversight and approvals processes for all our products.

As Publications Team Manager you will:

Plan and oversee the Publications Team schedule of work ensuring that resources are in place to deliver against current and future activities.Manage multiple projects simultaneously, efficiently and on-time, reporting to senior management on issues and risks.Design and develop new business processes for servicing the increased demand for magistrates training, leading implementation across the team and evaluating performance.Work with the Strategy, Governance and Change and Content Strategy teams to establish a clear governance structure for managing College publications.Establish working relationships with key stakeholders (judiciary, senior officials, communications team) to identify links to priority areas of work or policies on the horizon that may result in work for your team, or where your team might add value.Work with the Judicial Office Communications team and publications experts across the Justice family to share best practice.Use excellent writing and editing skills to help authors express their ideas clearly, concisely and creatively, and help design a suitable narrative for their work.Help produce diverse communications products to complement major work, e.g., briefs, one-pagers, e-letters, notices.Work with College teams/content owners to ensure that College publications are consistently of a professional standard, comply with governance and approvals processes and accessibility guidelines.

If you are pro-active, have first-rate communications, attention to detail and project management skills and enjoy collaborative working, this could be an excellent opportunity to play a central role in a growing team and help deliver on the Judicial College’s key strategic objectives to make sure judges have the right knowledge, to meet the future needs of the magistracy and to provide high quality support for modern judicial training.

The Judicial College

The Judicial College is part of the Judicial Office (JO), an arm’s-length body of the Ministry of Justice. The JO is a unique branch of the Civil Service, independent from Government, dedicated to supporting the judiciary and promoting judicial independence, to maintain confidence in the rule of law. The Judicial Office reports to, and is accountable to, the Lord Chief Justice and was set up in 2006 to provide support to him and to the wider judiciary following the Constitutional Reform Act 2005. In addition, we support, and are accountable to, the Senior President of Tribunals, whose responsibilities extend to Scotland and Northern Ireland. We support some 22,000 judicial office holders, providing policy, legal and handling advice and operational support.

The principal role of Judicial College is to support the Lord Chief Justice and the Senior President of Tribunals in fulfilling their responsibilities for the arrangements for training the judiciary in an ever-evolving justice system. Working with the College Board, the Judicial College supports these senior members of the judiciary in setting the direction for training and ensuring the College has the right support in place to provide advice on the design and delivery of training, innovative digital systems to support delivery and that seminars are well organised. Our purpose is to strengthen the rule of law and improve the administration of justice through delivery of essential training for the judiciary in courts and tribunals, as well as a framework of training for magistrates. Our Strategy for 2021-2025 can be viewed here: https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Judicial_College_Strategy_2021-2025_WEB.pdf

Key Skills

Strong planning skills (both work and resource) and effectively manage several strands of work simultaneously.Leadership and team management,Stakeholder managementStrategic thinkingEditorial and proofingWork effectively and on own initiative with both internal and external stakeholdersConfident in communicating with a diverse range of internal & external stakeholders at all levelsA flexible approach to work and willingness to learn new skills and applications

Desirable skills

Project managementPublication design An understanding of the judiciary, and/or the business of courts and tribunals.

Selection criteria

This vacancy will be managed using the Success Profiles process https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles. Applications will be sifted based on experience and the following Civil Service Behaviours:

We will assess your application against the following Civil Service Behaviours

Making effective decisionsCommunicating and influencingWorking togetherManaging a quality serviceChanging and improving

For more details of behaviours at this grade (Level 3 – SEO) see

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/717275/CS_Behaviours_2018.pdf

At interview we will be assess your experience, behaviours and strengths.

Interviews will take place w/b 20 June 2022 and will be held on Microsoft Teams.

Contact

For more details about this role, please contact Sarah Wallace – sarah.wallace@judiciary.uk or Fozia Hussain - Fozia.hussain@judiciary.uk

Working hours

This is a full-time role, but we can consider part-time (minimum 0.8 of full time equivalent) or a job share.

We operate a flexible hybrid working policy, which includes a balance of office-based and remote working. This post can be based from our London, Loughborough or Leeds office.