Head of Directorate Change and Director’s Office

This vacancy is only available to existing Civil Servant employees and employees of accredited non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs). Please review the "Eligibility" section before you apply.

General Information

The national salary range is £58,511 - £65,329, London salary range is £63,343 - £70,725. Your salary will be dependent on your base location

Working Pattern

Full Time, Part Time, Part Time/Job Share, Flexible Working

Vacancy Approach

Cross Government

Location

Leeds, London

Region

London, Yorkshire and the Humber

Closing Date

04-Sep-2026

Post Type

Permanent

Grade 7

Number of jobs available

1

Reserve List

12 Months

Job ID

21297

Descriptions & requirements

Head of Directorate Change and Director’s Office

G7

Youth Justice and Offender Policy

The Youth Justice and Offender Policy Directorate is recruiting permanently for G7 Head of Directorate Change and Director’s Office

This campaign is open to current civil servants on level transfer and suitable candidates on promotion.

Candidates are reminded that to be eligible for this campaign; you must still be employed as a civil servant at the point of accepting the role. If you resign or your FTA contract ends before you are made and accept an offer, you will become ineligible and you will be withdrawn from the process.

Location:

Successful candidates will have the option to be based at one of the following locations:

• 102 Petty France, London

Occasional travel between the two locations may be required. We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and time spent in your base location (102 Petty France or 5 Wellington Place Leeds).

Ways of Working

At the MoJ we believe and promote alternative ways of working, these roles are available as:

• Full-time, part-time or the option to job share

Existing Civil Servants will have their salary calculated in accordance with the Department’s pay on transfer / pay on promotion rules.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ)

MoJ is the largest government department, employing over 90,000 people with a budget of approximately £10 billion. Each year, millions of people use our services across the UK - including at 500 courts and tribunals, and 133 prisons in England and Wales.

The Work of the Youth Justice and Offender Policy Directorate Unit

The Youth Justice and Offender Policy Directorate (YJOP) sits at the heart of some of the most challenging issues in the justice system. We lead policy on sentencing, release, the youth justice system and female offenders – all of which are departmental priorities.

YJOP works closely with colleagues across Policy Group and the Department, as well as with HMPPS, analysts, lawyers and external partners, to develop policy that is evidence‑informed and operationally realistic. Much of the Directorate’s work involves navigating complex trade‑offs, responding to emerging system pressures, and coordinating activity across multiple teams and stakeholders.

Head of Directorate Change and Director’s Office - the role

This is a high‑impact G7 role at the centre of the Directorate, responsible for strengthening how YJOP operates and delivers. Working closely with and to the Director, you will act as a strategic enabler for the Senior Leadership Team, providing grip on priorities, resourcing, governance, risk and people capability. You will play a key role in ensuring the Directorate is focused on the right work, equipped with the right skills, and able to respond confidently to emerging pressures across a complex and sensitive policy landscape. You will also manage the Director’s office, supporting him on his priorities and on cross-Directorate commissions, liaising closely with the Permanent Secretary and DGs’ offices. There is considerable scope for the postholder to shape the role, depending on interests, experience and aspirations.

What You’ll Do

Directorate Change and Continuous Improvement

• Drive prioritisation and efficiency across YJOP, supporting the Director and SLT to ensure resources are focused on the highest‑impact work.
• Provide strategic oversight of the Directorate’s policy landscape and coordinate high‑quality reporting at group and departmental level.
• Develop and embed improved approaches to risk management, aligned with wider Policy Group and DG‑level processes.
• Run YJOP’s SLT (SCS) meetings, shaping agendas, forward looks and discussions to focus on current and upcoming strategic issues.
• Lead the YJOP People Plan, working with G6 leads to ensure delivery against people objectives, clear ownership, effective communication and alignment with wider departmental activity.
• Champion continuous improvement in how the Directorate operates, helping YJOP to deliver ministers’ priorities at pace and with confidence.
• Oversee the Director’s office, representing and supporting him on key policy issues.
• Line manage the SEO Senior Business Manager, supporting their leadership of the wider Business Support Team.
• Offer G7 oversight of business management processes, ensuring workforce and financial decisions align with Director‑level priorities.
• Lead ongoing improvement of YJOP’s corporate processes (including finance, resource management, and reward and recognition).

Skills and Experience

• The successful candidate will demonstrate:
• Significant experience of working in a policy environment, including supporting or advising senior leaders on complex policy, delivery or cross‑system issues.
• Strong relationship‑building skills, with confidence to engage openly and credibly with senior leaders on sensitive organisational, people and performance issues.
• A clear understanding of how a policy directorate functions, including the corporate disciplines (governance, risk, finance, workforce and reporting) that underpin effective policy delivery.
• Experience of organisational change, translating strategic intent into practical, sustainable improvements in ways of working.
• Proven ability to prioritise in complex, fast‑paced environments, supporting senior leaders to focus effort and resource on the highest‑impact work.
• A collaborative and inclusive leadership style, with a clear commitment to building a supportive, high‑performing and positive team culture.

Additional Information

• If we receive applications from more suitable candidates than we have vacancies for at this time, we may hold suitable applicants on a reserve list for 12 months, and future vacancies requiring the same skills and experience could be offered to candidates on the reserve list without a new competition.
• Candidates applying from HMPPS should note that the Ministry of Justice does not have the same conditions of employment as HMPPS. It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the terms and conditions they will adopt should they be successful.
• The MoJ is proud to be Level 3 Disability Confident. Disability Confident is the approach through which we offer guaranteed interviews for all people with disabilities meeting the minimum criteria for the advertised role as set out in the job description.

You must ensure that any evidence submitted as part of your application, including your CV, statement of suitability and behaviour examples, are truthful and factually accurate. Please note that plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own.

Experience

You will be asked to provide a CV during the application process in order to assess any demonstrable experience, career history and achievements that are relevant to the role.

You will also be asked to upload a Statement of Suitability of no more than 750 words stating what you would bring to the role, with reference to the Skills and Experience listed above.

Should we receive a large number of applications, we will sift primarily on the Statement of Suitability. Successful applicants will then be invited to an interview, testing both behaviours and strengths.

Candidates invited to Interview

Please note that interviews will be carried out remotely.

At interview you will be assessed against behaviours where you will be asked to provide examples of how you have demonstrated them. In addition, you will also be asked strength-based questions.

Behaviours:

The following Behaviours will be tested at interview:

• Changing and Improving
• Seeing the big picture
• Leadership
• Working together

It may help to use one or more examples of a piece of work you have completed or a situation you have been in and use the WHO or STAR model to explain:

• WHO - Whatit was?Howyou approached the work/situation? What theOutcomeswere, what did youachieve? Or
• STAR - What was the Situation? What were the Tasks? What Action did you take? What were the Results of your actions?

Please also refer to the CS Behaviours framework for more details at this grade:

It is difficult to prepare for strength type questions. However, you can think through your answers, focus on your achievements and aspects you enjoy and decide how these can be applied in the organisation and role. While strengths questions are shorter and we do not expect a full STAR response, the panel is interested in your first reaction to the question and information or reasoning to support this. Further information on Civil Service Strengths can be found via this link Success Profiles: Strengths - GOV.UK

Interviews are expected to take place in September.

Using the STAR method can help you give examples of relevant experience that you have. It allows you to set the scene, show what you did, and how you did it, and explain the overall outcome.

Situation - Describe the situation you found yourself in. You must describe a specific event or situation. Be sure to give enough detail for the job holder to understand.

• Where are you?
• Who was there with you?
• What had happened?

Task - The job holder will want to understand what you tried to achieve from the situation you found yourself in.

• What was the task that you had to complete and why?
• What did you have to achieve?

Actions - What did you do? The job holder will be looking for information on what you did, how you did it and why. Keep the focus on you. What specific steps did you take and what was your contribution? Remember to include how you did it, and the behaviours you used. Try to use “I” rather than “we” to explain your actions that lead to the result. Be careful not to take credit for something that you did not do.

Results - Don’t be shy about taking credit for your behaviour. Quote specific facts and figures. Explain how the outcome benefitted the organisation or your area. Make the outcomes easily understandable.

• What results did the actions produce?
• What did you achieve through your actions and did you meet your goals?
• Was it a successful outcome? If not, what did you learn from the experience?

Keep the situation and task parts brief. Concentrate on the action and the result. If the result was not entirely successful describe what you learned from this and what you would do differently next time. Make sure you focus on your strengths.

Additional Information

Working Arrangements & Further Information

The MoJ offers Hybrid Working arrangements where business need allows. This is an informal, non-contractual form of flexible working that blends working from your base location, different MoJ sites and / or from home (please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK and not overseas). All employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in an office, subject to local estate capacity.

Some roles will not be suitable for Hybrid Working. Similarly, Hybrid Working will not suit everyone’s circumstances. Arrangements will be discussed and agreed with the successful candidate(s) and subject to regular review.

For nationally advertised roles: All successful candidates will be appointed to the nearest viable office nearest to their home postcode and on its respective pay scale. This will be at either a HQ building (subject to desk allocation, a Justice Collaboration Centre (JCC) or a Justice Satellite Office (JSO) – See Map . All employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in an office, subject to local estate capacity).

For current MoJ employees, your base location will need to be changed to the nearest viable office (to your home postcode), either at a HQ building, JCC or JSO within the National Office Network and moved its location’s respective pay scale (any legacy arrangements/locations will need to be amended).

Some of MoJ’s terms and conditions of service are changing as part of Civil Service reform. The changes will apply to staff joining MoJ who are new to the Civil Service. Staff joining MoJ from other civil service employers will transfer onto the new MoJ terms if they are already on 'modernised' terms in their current post or onto 'unmodernised' MoJ terms if they are on 'unmodernised' terms at their current post. Details will be available if an offer is made.

MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain their grade on lateral transfer.

All candidates who are currently in receipt of Mark Time / Pay Protection should ensure they are familiar with the new policy on permanent and temporary promotion which can be found on the employee intranet.

The Ministry of Justice offers a flexible working system in many offices. Standard full time working hours are 37 hours per week. MoJ welcomes part-time, flexible and job‑sharing working patterns, where they meet the demands of the role and business needs. All applications for part‑time, flexible and job‑sharing working patterns will be considered in accordance with the MoJ’s Flexible Working policy.

The MoJ offers a range of benefits:

Annual leave is 25 days on appointment and will increase to 30 days after five years’ service.

There is also a scheme to allow qualifying staff to buy or sell up to three days leave each year. Additional paid time off for public holidays and 1 privilege day. Leave for part-time and job share posts will be calculated on a pro‑rata basis.

Pension

The Civil Service offers a choice of pension schemes, giving you the flexibility to choose the pension that suits you best.

Training

The Ministry of Justice is committed to staff development and offers an extensive range of training and development opportunities.

Networks

The opportunity to join employee‑run networks that have been established to provide advice and support and to enable the views of employees from minority groups to be expressed direct to senior management. There are currently networks for employees of minority ethnic origin, employees with disabilities, employees with caring responsibilities, women employees, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees.

Staff on fixed term appointments must have been recruited through fair and open competition.

Vacancies advertised “cross‑government” are only open to all Civil Service employees and employees of accredited non‑departmental public bodies (NDPBs) who were appointed on merit following a fair and open competition; or were appointed to a permanent post through an exception in the Civil Service Commissioners' rules.

Support

• A range of ‘Family Friendly’ policies such as opportunities to work reduced hours or job share.
• Access to flexible benefits such as voluntary benefits, retail vouchers and discounts on a range of goods and services.
• For moves to or from another employer or moves across the Civil Service this can have implications on your eligibility to carry on claiming childcare vouchers. You may however be eligible for alternative government childcare support schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. More information can be found on or Childcare Choices . You can determine your eligibility at .
• Paid paternity, adoption and maternity leave.
• Free annual sight tests for employees who use computer screens.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles . Should you feel that the recruitment process has breached the recruitment principles you are able to raise a formal complaint in the following order

• To the Civil Service Commission (details available here )

As a Disability Confident employer, MoJ are committed to providing everyone with the opportunity to demonstrate their skills, talent and abilities, by making adjustments throughout all elements of the recruitment process and in the workplace. MoJ are able to offer an interview to disabled candidates who meet the minimum selection criteria, except in a limited number of campaigns.

You will be able to request reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process within the application form. If you need additional help completing the application form, please contact the TBS Recruitment Enquiries Team.

For more information on applying for a role as a candidate with a disability or long‑term condition, please watch our animated videos .

Civil Service departments are expected to explore redeployment opportunities before making an individual redundant. The MoJ is committed, as part of the Redeployment Interview Scheme, to providing opportunities to those who are 'at risk of redundancy'.

MoJ is able to offer an interview to eligible candidates who meet the minimum selection criteria, except in a limited number of campaigns. Candidates will not be eligible for the Redeployment Interview Scheme if they are applying on promotion.

Civil Service Nationality Rules

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• 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

A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made for the same or similar roles.

JD G7 Head of Directorate Change & Director's Office X Gov CS Jobs - Final.docx(Job Description Attachment)

We will assess your experience for this role via the following methods

CV or Work History, Statement of Suitability

Statement of Suitability

Guidance for the Statement of Suitability

You will also be asked to upload a Statement of Suitability of no more than 750 words stating what you would bring to the role, with reference to the Skills and Experience listed in the job description.

Evidence of Experience

CV or Work History, Statement of Suitability

Interview stage assessments

Interview Dates

Expected September 2026

Behaviours

Changing and Improving

Seeing the Big Picture

Leadership

Working Together

Strengths

Level of security checks required

Baseline Personnal Security Standard (BPSS)

Use of Artificial Intelligence (Al)

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 for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

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