Change Manager - Legal Aid Agency (Ref: 21984)

Please refer to Job Description

Job Title & Grade: Change Manager, SEO

Contract Type: Detached Duty / Loan – 24 months

Salary range (depending on location):

National - £42,914 - £46,182

London - £49,325 - £53,081

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: National (any LAA office)

Please note that whilst this role is open to all Civil Servants, you can only apply for London, Cambridge and Brighton offices if you are a current LAA staff member based in those offices. This is due to and in line with the LAA's Location Strategy and the Cabinet Office's Places for Growth Strategy.

Important information for candidates choosing the Liverpool office

If you are successful and choose to be based in our Liverpool office, you will be required to complete Counter Terrorist Check (CTC) clearance in addition to our standard pre-employment checks.

To obtain CTC clearance, you must meet the current National Security Vetting residency requirements. Under Central Government policy, applicants must normally have been resident in the UK for the last 3 years to be eligible for this level of clearance.

Please consider this requirement carefully when applying if Liverpool is your preferred location.

Minimum Working Pattern:

If you are applying for a part time role, please note that to meet business demands we need cover for a minimum of 30 hours.

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.

Transformation

Transformation are responsible for continuing to drive forward simplifying the delivery of legal aid. We want to improve the experience for the people who apply for legal aid, the providers who deliver the services and those of us in the LAA who administer the scheme, while ensuring the LAA remains a great place to work.

Transformation Team

This team is leading the transformation of our organisation through innovation, collaboration and inclusion. Originally established in May 2020, the Transformation Team has grown rapidly over the last five years. We are a hybrid team of business change and project delivery experts, and working in partnership with others is at the heart of what we do. We work together with teams across the agency, with the LAA Digital team, MoJ Project Delivery Function experts, MoJ Policy teams and wider stakeholders across the justice system and government.

The transformation portfolio spans multiple services, systems and functions, with significant impacts on:

Job Summary

Change Managers

The Change Manager is accountable for leading the people side of change to ensure that organisational initiatives deliver their intended outcomes and benefits. Applying a structured, evidence‑based change management approach, the role focuses on how individuals experience, adopt and sustain change. Success is measured not by delivery milestones alone, but by adoption, usage and proficiency of new ways of working. Working alongside project, product and operational colleagues, the Change Manager ensures that change is prepared for early, actively managed throughout delivery, and reinforced after implementation so that change sticks.

The focus of any role in the Transformation Portfolio team is dynamic, reflecting our role in responding to evolving operational and policy implementation priorities.

The focus for the Change Manager role is to be:

• The owner of the people change management strategy for assigned initiatives
• The specialist responsible for enabling adoption and managing resistance
• An enabler of leaders and managers to fulfil their change roles

The role will work alongside others to establish lasting change. This role is different to those of a communications-only role, a training co-ordinator or a delivery support function, although aspects of these activities may be picked up by the Change Manager.

In particular, the role is distinct to that of a Project Manager which has a focus on owning and co-ordinating the technical and service readiness for go-live.

Key Responsibilities:

Lead the People Side of Change

• Apply a structured change management approach to support individuals and groups through transition from current to future ways of working.
• Diagnose change impacts and readiness using recognised models (e.g. ADKAR) to identify where adoption risks exist and target interventions accordingly.
• Design and own proportionate change strategies and plans aligned to delivery but focused on adoption and sustained outcomes.
• Actively contribute towards the cross-cutting change work that will allow the overall Transformation Plan to land effectively.

Drive Adoption, Usage and Proficiency

• Define what successful adoption looks like for each change, including who must do what differently and to what standard.
• Identify and actively manage resistance, working with leaders and managers to address root causes rather than symptoms.
• Monitor adoption and usage indicators, adjusting change interventions where progress stalls.

Enable Leaders, Sponsors and Managers

• Coach and support senior sponsors to fulfil their role as active and visible leaders of change.
• Equip line managers with the insight, messaging and confidence they need to support their teams through change.
• Act as a trusted adviser, providing constructive challenge where leadership behaviours or decisions risk undermining adoption.

Integrate Change with Delivery

• Work in close partnership with project, product and delivery colleagues to ensure the people side of change is considered from initiation, not bolted on at the end.
• Run people change readiness assessment ahead of Delivery Board, and own the ‘release runway’ for the LAA portfolio
• Influence delivery decisions by articulating change capacity, readiness risks and cumulative impacts across initiatives.
• Ensure go‑live decisions are informed by people readiness, not just technical readiness.

Assure Benefits Realisation and Sustainability

• Support the transition from implementation to business‑as‑usual, ensuring reinforcement mechanisms are in placeso change is sustained.
• Contribute to benefits realisation by evidencing how adoption and behavioural change underpin intended outcomes.
• Capture learning and contribute to the development of organisational change capability and maturity.

Essential Qualifications

• A recognised change management qualification (for example Prosci), or comparable professional training, accreditation.

Essential Knowledge, Experience and skills

• Experience of planning, co-ordinating or delivering change activity in a complex organisation.
• Ability to assess impacts, risks, dependencies and readiness, and use evidence to inform decisions and next steps.
• Experience of working with a wide range of people, including senior leaders, delivery teams and operational colleagues, to support successful implementation.
• Ability to communicate complex information clearly, tailoring messages, reporting or advice to different audiences.
• Experience of producing clear, high-quality plans, reporting or governance material to support oversight, prioritisation and decision-making.
• Ability to manage several priorities in a fast-paced environment while maintaining accuracy, organisation and attention to detail.
• Experience of supporting the adoption, implementation or continuous improvement of new ways of working, services or processes.

Desirable Knowledge, Experience and skills

• A recognised change management qualification (for example and preferably Prosci), or comparable professional training, accreditation or practical experience.
• Experience of working in a portfolio, programme, project or transformation setting.
• Experience of applying recognised change management, project delivery or continuous improvement approaches, tools or methods.
• Experience of supporting governance forums, preparing papers, or contributing to clear reporting for senior colleagues.
• Experience of working with digital, operational or policy teams to help deliver change.

Assessment approach

Application Process

To apply please provide a statement of suitability showing how you meet the essential criteria in no more than 1250 words.

Your statement should demonstrate your ability to do all the essential criteria listed, using examples can help strengthen your application.

Please note we do not require a CV.

Please note that we only require a Statement of Suitability for your application. The wording on this advert may suggest that an Experience question is also required, however this is not necessary.

Interview / assessment Process

If you are successful through the application stage, you will be invited to an interview / assessment centre in person or via Microsoft Teams where you will be assessed against the following:

Strengths relevant to the role

The following Behaviours:

• Communicating & Influencing
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace
• Seeing the Big Picture

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.

Shortlisting is planned for week commencing 28th September 2026

Interviews are planned for week commencing 12th and 19th October 2026

If you would like more information on this opportunity, please contact – Jane.Edwards@justice.gov.uk

Our LAA commitment to Diversity and 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.

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.

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.

A recognised change management qualification (for example Prosci), or comparable professional training, accreditation.

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)

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths, Experience and Technical skills.

https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.