Summer Interns

Directorate: National Services – Courts and Tribunals Service Centres (CTSC), and National Business Centres (NBC).

Job Title: Summer Intern – Administrative/Support Officer

Duration: up to 12-week Fixed Term Contract

Locations: Listed below

Pay Band: AO

Background:

HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is an agency of the Ministry of Justice. We provide support for the legal system across England and Wales, ensuring justice works for everyone.

Spread nationally over several sites, our CTSCs and NBCs are home to a large part of our workforce. We are working to reform the Justice system and our National Services exist to support a modern, digital Justice system. These centres offer customer support and back-office teams which support the courts from around the UK.

Key Purpose:

We are offering an exciting opportunity to come and join us on a temporary placement to support HMCTS over the summer period. We have several positions based within our National Services sites where you will be part of a team supporting the important work to ensure our services run smoothly. Successful candidates will be assigned to teams to carry out a variety of general administrative and telephony duties to provide a consistent national service that enables cases to move through to conclusion smoothly and to provide the right support to the local judiciary and our users.

As part of your role you may be required to have regular verbal/written contact with members of the Judiciary, service users, mediators, management and those within the legal profession.

Working as part of a flexible team, you will be expected to undertake a range of the responsibilities and functions specified. HMCTS will provide successful candidates with regular management support and ensure appropriate training is delivered.

Ways of working:

Successful candidates are expected to work the full duration of the 12-week contract, with annual leave provided on a pro rata basis. As these placements provide business cover during peak leave periods, we very much encourage applications from only those who are able to commit to working a full-time 37hr working week consistently for the duration of the placement. Specific working patterns and annual leave requests will only be agreed where they meet the demands of the role and business needs and are agreed prior to appointment.

National Business Centre Role Purpose:

Our administrative teams are the core of our National Business Centres (NBCs), delivering great customer service to enable Justice. Our teams work across a variety of jurisdictions and get the chance to shape and continuously improve the way we operate. Typical roles include data entry of paper and digital work, telephony, customer complaints and correspondence. We empower our staff to be the voice of our customers, giving them opportunity to make changes that matter to our users.

Courts & Tribunals Service Centre Role Purpose:

CTSCs provide hubs for telephony, assisted digital, case progression and hearing support, and will provide a consistent national service that enables cases to move through to conclusion efficiently. These are predominately telephony-based roles, and you will need to be confident using IT.

We provide an accessible and inclusive service to users, providing clear signposting and guidance to all users, coaching them in the use of the online platform and providing information to resolve their queries and processing and updating high-volume case details accurately and efficiently.

Essential Skills, Knowledge, and Criteria (All Positions):

• Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment.
• Excellent customer service skills and communications skills.
• Strong IT, administration, and organisational skills.
• Be flexible and adaptive to support business needs.
• Proactive - resolve routine problems and escalate serious issues.
• 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:

Role availability varies by location. These roles do not support hybrid working. No alternative working arrangements are available and once placements are confirmed no location changes can be accommodated. You will be given the option to select up to 3 preferred locations for your placement. Please ensure you only select locations that you would be willing to commute to and work from for the whole duration of the placement. 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.

We have other Summer Intern campaigns for HMCTS regions across the country. If you apply for more than one Region, you will only be considered for one. If selected for appointment, the Recruitment Team will contact you to identify your preferred location to progress, remaining applications will be withdrawn. We are unable to transfer applications between regions or place candidates at sites not listed.

Selection Process:

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.

Please note, dependent on volumes of applications received, the sift stage may be based solely on your Statement of Suitability.

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

Pre-Employment Checks (Vetting):

Candidates who pass the application stage will need to complete pre-employment checks successfully before a provisional offer will be made. Due to the short-term nature of the role if pre-employment checks exceed or are expected to exceed a reasonable timeframe (more than 4 weeks in total, which we expect to be no later than the 10th June 2024) we will withdraw your application as we will be unable to accommodate a later start date.

Locations:

Location Number of available posts
Bradford (NBC) 3
Bury St Edmunds (NBC) 3
Darlington (NBC) 2
Leicester (NBC) 3
Northampton (NBC) 4
CTSC Stoke-on-Trent 2
CTSC Salford 6
CTSC Loughborough 3
CTSC Newport 6
CTSC Birmingham 6

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). 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, the successful candidate(s) will be appointed to a MoJ office location, which may include their nearest Justice Collaboration Centre or Justice Satellite Office. This will be discussed and agreed on the completion of pre-employment checks.

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.

Flexible working hours

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.

Benefits

The MoJ offers a range of benefits:

Annual Leave

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.

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 GOV.UK or Childcare Choices. You can determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/.
• Paid paternity, adoption and maternity leave.
• Free annual sight tests for employees who use computer screens.

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code 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. 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 Shared Service Connected Ltd (0845 241 5358 (Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm) or e mail Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com);
• To Ministry of Justice Resourcing team (resourcing-management-office@justice.gov.uk);
• To the Civil Service Commission (details available here)

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. 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.

For more information on applying for a role as a candidate with a disability or long-term condition, please see our Disability Confident Scheme Frequently Asked Questions webpage.

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 SSCL Recruitment Enquiries Team.

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.