The national salary range is £41,463 - £45,276, London salary range is £47,657 - £52,040. 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
Bristol, Cardiff, Jarrow, Liverpool, London, Nottingham
Region
Closing Date
05-Aug-2025
Post Type
Permanent
SEO
Number of jobs available
1
Reserve List
12 Months
Job ID
8093
Descriptions & requirements
Job Title & Grade: Core Assurance & Risk Manager – SEO
Contract Type: Permanent
Please note that unless you are currently employed by the Civil Service and are earning more than the minimum above, if successful you will be offered the minimum for the grade depending on your location.
Location: Nottingham, Liverpool, South Tyneside, Bristol, Cardiff, London LAA offices (Required for regular contact with staff, travel to other offices may be needed)
Directorate: Contract Management & Assurance
Team: Core Assurance & Risk Management Team (CARM)
Working Pattern: The post is supported by the MOJ flexible working policy and includes colleagues who work flexibly, remotely (as part of hybrid working), part time or as part of a job share etc.
If you are applying for a part time role, please note that in order to meet business demands we need cover for a minimum of 30 hours.
Reporting to: Head of Stewardship
Closing date for applications 1st August 2025
The Legal Aid Agency
We are an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). We are responsible for operationally administering the legal aid fund to provide criminal and civil legal aid advice to people in England and Wales.
Our people are at the heart of achieving excellence. Employing around 1,200 colleagues across England and Wales, we feel proud to have some of the best People Survey results in the Civil Service.
Our LAA commitment to Diversity and Inclusion
As a Disability Confident organisation, we will offer a guaranteed interview to candidates with a disability who meet the essential criteria for this role. Under the Equality Act 2010 a disability is defined as a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on your ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities which has lasted, or is expected to last, at least 12 months.
If you are responding to a role within the Legal Aid Agency and would like to be considered under the guaranteed interview, please indicate this in your application and let us know of any reasonable adjustments you may require during the sift or later selection processes. The LAA’s goal is to build an organisation that is open and inclusive and truly values and celebrates the diversity of its workforce. One that reflects and understands the needs of the diverse society we serve. This is regardless of social background, gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, beliefs, disabilities or long-term illness or caring responsibilities.
Reasonable Adjustments
We are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible to all. If you have a disability or long-term condition (for example dyslexia, anxiety, autism, a mobility condition or hearing loss) and need us to make any reasonable adjustments to support you through the recruitment process, please let us know by adding the information to the applications system or emailing LAARecruitment@justice.gov.uk after you have applied so that we can discuss options with you.
Contract Management & Assurance
Our core purpose is to ensure the delivery of accessible, high quality, value for money services to the client and contributing to the MOJ delivery of a modern Courts and Justice system. We do this through efficient management of the provider base and assurance activities that identify and mitigate risk.
Our Directorate is made up of:
Contract Management, Core Assurance and Risk Management, Counter Fraud and Investigations, Reconciliation and Amendments, Peer Review, Provider Records, Direct Services and Governance.
Core Assurance & Risk Management
The CARM team is responsible for identifying, assessing and reducing error on the part of the LAA, our providers and applicants. It does so by completing a programme of audits, independently verified by the National Audit Office, and by undertaking reviews of providers’ files on behalf of the wider business. It works together with stakeholders to reduce the risk of error, and to manage recoupments where error has occurred.
Job Summary
This role will require the effective and inclusive management of up to 30 colleagues, including training and induction, performance management and wellbeing support.
The Core Assurance and Risk Manager plays a vital role in understanding and reducing risk within Legal Aid and ensuring that the money the taxpayer spends on Legal Aid is spent in accordance with our guidelines and contracts.This is a varied role, within a dynamic, high performing team with a wide range of responsibilities and work.
The Core Assurance and Risk Manager will communicate confidently with both senior managers, colleagues in other teams and external stakeholders to find appropriate and lasting solutions to reduce the level of risk and error within the legal aid system, ensuring that the legal aid budget is directed towards assisting the most vulnerable in society.
Comfortable in understanding and challenging established viewpoints and sometimes responsible for delivering difficult messages to deliver the best solutions, the Manager is used to dealing with challenge themselves and justifying their findings.
Working with the Head of Stewardship Assurance, the Core Assurance & Risk Manager will lead the strategic direction of the team to accurately measure the level of risk and error and provide detailed analytical support to other parts of the business to meet organisational objectives.
Key Responsibilities:
The Core Assurance & Risk Manager has responsibility for a team of Auditors and a team of Analysts and is expected to:
•Line manage Band HEO, EO and AO grade colleagues as required.
•Support colleagues through training and mentoring to reduce error
•Ensure all personal and team objectives are met
•Refine existing testing regimes to better measure the level risk and error within the Legal Aid system whilst ensuring that they meet the requirements of the National Audit Office
•Communicate effectively with internal and external stakeholders to ensure the outcome and implications of reviews are understood.
•Feed into various working groups as an Assurance representative to advise on the risk and assurance implications of proposed changes and consider ways to mitigate those risks.
•Work with stakeholders to improve processes and guidance to reduce errors
Essential Knowledge, Experience and skills:
•Effective and inclusive people management
•Effective communication skills both written and verbal
•Ability to communicate and influence at all levels e.g. your team, senior leaders and external agencies
•Ability to understand the input of others and constructively challenge where needed
•Able to maintain your position when necessary when faced with opposition or criticism
•Ability to interpret and apply guidance and regulations
•Ability to analyse complex data, systems and processes•
Desirable Knowledge, Experience and skills:
•Knowledge of LAA systems and processes
•IT Literate with experience of Microsoft Office applications, especially Excel
Person Specification:
•You can quickly respond to changing priorities, delivering successful outcomes in an environment where no day is the same.
•You have confidence in your judgement and hold yourself accountable for your decisions and their implications.
•You are able to apply your knowledge to identify risks, explain their impact and make recommendations to mitigate those risks.
•You will enjoy working with a range of key stakeholders and build effective working relationships both inside and outside of the organisation.
•You are a confident leader who has the drive and ability to inspire your team to make things happen.
•You are an experienced communicator, able to explain complexities both verbally and in writing.
•You thrive in a process driven environment and understand the importance of operating within set rules and guidelines.
•You can work proactively to ensure own, team and organisation goals are met on time and to the required standard.
Assessment approach
Application Process –
To apply complete an application based of the following behaviours, each behaviour should be no more than 250 words:
•Delivering at Pace
Examples of delivering at pace at HEO and SEO grades or equivalent are when you:
•show a positive approach to keeping the whole team’s efforts focused on the top priorities
•promote a culture of following the appropriate procedures to ensure results are achieved on time whilst still enabling innovation
•ensure the most appropriate resources are available for colleagues to use to do their job effectively
•regularly monitor your own and team’s work against milestones ensuring individual needs are considered when setting tasks
•act promptly to reassess workloads and priorities when there are conflicting demands to maintain performance
•allow individuals the space and authority to meet objectives, providing additional support where necessary, whilst keeping overall responsibility
•Changing & Improving
Examples of changing and improving at HEO and SEO grades or equivalent are when you:
•work with others to identify areas for improvement and simplify processes to use fewer resources
•use technology where possible to increase efficiency
•encourage ideas for change from a wide range of sources
•clearly explain the reasons for change to colleagues and how to implement them, supporting individuals with different needs to adapt to change
•encourage an environment where colleagues know that they can challenge decisions and issues safely
•take managed risks by fully considering the varied impacts changes could have on the diverse range of end users
Examples of leadership at HEO and SEO grades or equivalent are when you:
•ensure colleagues and stakeholders have a clear understanding of objectives, activities and time-frames
•take into account different individual needs, views, and ideas, championing inclusion and equality of opportunity for all
•consider the impacts of own and team’s activities on stakeholders and end users
•role-model commitment and satisfaction with role
•recognise and praise the achievements of others to drive positivity within the team
•effectively manage conflict, misconduct and non-inclusive behaviour, raising with senior managers where appropriate
•Managing a Quality Service
Examples of managing a quality service at HEO and SEO grades or equivalent are when you:
•develop, implement, maintain and review systems and services to ensure delivery of professional excellence
•work with stakeholders to set priorities, objectives and timescales
•successfully deliver high quality outcomes that meet the customers’ needs and gives value for money
•identify risks and resolve issues efficiently
•involve a diverse range of colleagues, stakeholders and delivery partners in developing suggestions for improvements
•establish ways to find and respond to feedback from customers about the services provided
When submitting an example of a behaviour remember to include the situation, what you did and why, and what was the outcome / result.
Please note that if we have a large number of applications will we do an initial sift on the Delivering at Pace behaviour.
Interview / assessment Process
If you are successful through the application stage, you will be invited to an interview via Microsoft Teams where you will be assessed against the following:
•Strengths relevant to the role
•Some or all of the following Behaviours:
oDelivering at Pace
oChanging & Improving
oLeadership
oManaging a Quality Service
•Your Experience of implementing, promoting, or understanding diversity and inclusion policy - Diversity is the presence of difference, this can include one or more of the protected characteristics (Gender, Age, Race, Disability etc.) or it can be about working patterns, whether we like to jump into a task or reflect on it before acting. Inclusion is how we welcome, value, and celebrate diversity, giving everyone a voice, tapping into ideas, and enabling everyone to be themselves at work and achieve their potential.
For this grade/ role we would expect the candidate to demonstrate understanding of the terms Diversity and Inclusion and be able to explain why they are important in a work environment. We would also expect examples of action they have taken to embrace diversity (e.g., increasing understanding for self or others) or improve inclusion at a team or wider group level.
•You will also be asked to undertake a role play, details of this will be shared prior to the interviews. This is to assess your ability to analyse complex data, demonstrate effective communication skills verbally and the ability to understand the input of others and constructively challenge if needed.
Shortlisting is planned for week commencing 4th August 2025
Interviews are planned for week commencing 18th August 2025
If you would like more information on this opportunity, please contact – Greg Cowley, Head of Stewardship, greg.cowley@justice.gov.uk
Complaints procedure
If you have any complaints about this recruitment activity, please share your concerns by emailing LAARecruitment@justice.gov.uk initially. We aim to respond to any complaint within 10 working days.
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 www. www.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.
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) https://www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizens-families
* 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.
Job Description - SEO - Core Assurance & Risk Manager.docx(Job Description Attachment)
A sift based on the lead behaviour, Delivering at Pace, may be held if a large number of applications are received. If a large number of applications remain after the initial sift, your application will be progressed to a full sift, where all behaviours will then be considered.
250
Delivering at Pace
Changing and Improving
Leadership
Managing a Quality Service
Experience
We will assess your experience for this role via the following methods
Experience Questions
Experience Questions Application Form Question Word Limit
250
Evidence of Experience
Experience Questions
Interview stage assessments
Interview Dates
Interviews are planned for week commencing 18th August 2025
Abilities
• You will also be asked to undertake a role play, details of this will be shared prior to the interviews. This is to assess your ability to analyse complex data, demonstrate effective communication skills verbally and the ability to understand the input of others and constructively challenge if needed.
Behaviours
Delivering at Pace
Changing and Improving
Leadership
Managing a Quality Service
Experience
Your Experience for this role will be assessed at interview. To learn more about Experience and how they are assessedplease click here .
We will assess your experience for this role via the following methods
Experience Questions
Strengths
Strengths will be assessed but these are not shared in advance. To learn more about Strengths and how they are assessed please click here .
Use of Artificial Intelligence (Al)
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.
Level of security checks required
Baseline Personnal Security Standard (BPSS)
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