Senior Operational Lead - National Security Division – East and South Central Unit (Ref: 22949)

Please refer to Job Description

This role will involve regular travel across South Central and the East of England, with occasional trips into London. Some overnight stays may also be required.

Overview of the job

The National Security Division (NSD) is formed of 5 regional units across England and Wales. Each National Security Unit (NSU) is responsible for the management of national security and national interest probation cases outside of the Probation Service (PS) regional structures. The units are:

• North of England
• Midlands
• Wales and the South West
• East and South Central
• London, Kent, Surrey and Sussex

Each unit has operational satellite locations and consists of a combination of office and remote based working.

The operational function comprises of a team who deliver enhanced sentence management to Terrorist Convicted/Connected cases (TACT), Terrorist Risk (TR), Critical Public Protection Cases (CPPC) and Serious Organised Crime cases (SOC) assessed as posing the highest threat/highest harm throughout England and Wales, and who require a national response to sentence management.

The NSD Senior Operational Lead supports the Head of National Security Division working to the Director for the National Security Division, accountable to the Chief Probation Officer, to provide operational leadership within a regional National Security Unit.

The NSD Senior Operational Lead is responsible for operational management and oversight of critical cases under the supervision of the Probation Service, ensuring that an enhanced level of sentence management is delivered.

The job holder will have direct line management responsibility for both operational and administrative staff within the unit.

Summary

Delivery of risk management within this team presents challenges and complexities outside of the usual experience of Team Managers/Senior Probation Practitioners. The job holder will require a high level of resilience and an understanding of national priorities to oversee the significant levels of ministerial and media scrutiny this cohort of cases attract. They will need to be confident presenting to senior HMPPS staff as well as senior officers in partnership agencies.

The job holder is responsible for the day-to-day delivery of all operational aspects of their function within National Security Division. This requires a high level of operational knowledge of probation work and national priorities to be able to effectively line manage Probation Practitioners who are working to enhanced national standards.

The job holder will be expected to manage and lead a geographically dispersed team of staff within a specialised team to deliver enhanced management of terrorist offenders, serious organised criminals and other critical public protection cases who present a national threat. This includes maintaining the delivery of function across a national landscape.

The job holder will need to acquire and maintain an understanding of all relevant departments across HMPPS and Department of Security including: Probation Regions, Joint Extremism Unit, Serious Organised Crime Unit and other relevant departments.

They will need to demonstrate an ability to broker and maintain operational relationships with HMPPS colleagues and law enforcement partners at senior operational grades.

The job holder must at all times demonstrate a commitment to equality and inclusion and an understanding of their relevance to the work they do, in line with wider Probation Service (PS) policies and procedures and in accordance with a specific understanding of the NSD cohorts of offenders.

If relevant to the role, some out of hours working may be required.

Responsibilities, Activities & Duties

The job holder will be required to carry out the following responsibilities, activities and duties:

• Provide direct Line Management to a geographically dispersed specialist team of practitioners to deliver enhanced national standards to national security and critical public protection cases, which include TACT convicted, TACT concern, terrorist risk, high threat and high harm Serious Organised Crime nominals and most critical, highest profile CPPC cases.
• The job holder is required to demonstrate an awareness of operational and reputational risk and be accountable for the quality delivery of good practice and team performance. They will be required to identify areas for improvement within policy and enhanced national standards in line with gold standard practice through quality assuring all assessments completed with the National Security Division.
• Be alert to fast changing political climate and responsive to both National and International Security information to effectively manage risk posed by cases held in the National Security Division.
• To access, interpret, analyse and apply performance data pro-actively in order to maximise National Security Division/team performance, evaluate practice and deliver organisational aims and provide operational assurance to Head of National Security Unit and Head of Performance and Quality. Support the division by ensuring accurate performance data is reported, and cases of concern are identified and escalated as required.
• Represent the Unit/Division in national and regional multi-agency and cross government department meetings which may involve undertaking specific areas of responsibility as delegated by the Head of National Security Unit to support national portfolio projects.
• To proactively manage staff development, issues of underperformance, attendance, health and safety, employee relations and diversity matters. Adopt a consistent, fair and objective standpoint when making decisions in relation to individual staff issues.
• Develop and maintain relationships with operational counterparts in Probation regions and national/regional HMPPS departments such as JExU, SOCU, PPG. This may include developing and delivering training and continuous professional development activity with internal and external stakeholders.
• Carry out safeguarding children and adults duties in accordance with the PS statutory responsibilities and agency policies and robustly demonstrate the need for safeguarding in the national security landscape.
• Promote, chair and develop a core group approach to support MAPPA, incorporating a range of specialist operational functions including psychologists, polygraph leads and relevant external stakeholders.
• Represent the National Security Division by engaging with internal and external partners and attending regional partnership forums such as MARSOC, Pathfinder and Prevent Boards for a multi-agency delivery of service.
• Ensure the appropriate handling of highly sensitive information/intelligence.
• Provide input into regional and national conferences, showcasing the work of the National Security Division, identifying opportunities for operational innovation and delivery whilst providing consultation for sentence/risk management where appropriate.

The duties/responsibilities listed above describe the post as it is at present and is not intended to be exhaustive. The job holder is expected to accept reasonable alterations and additional tasks of a similar level that may be necessary. Significant adjustments may require re-examination under the Job Evaluation Scheme and shall be discussed in the first instance with the job holder. This is particularly pertinent given the relatively new formation of the national security division and the evolving nature of the work.

An ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence through the medium of English or (where specified in Wales) Welsh.

Technical requirement – Must have one of the below qualifications:

• Probation Qualification Framework Graduate Diploma/Honours Degree in Community Justice integrated with level 5 Diploma in Probation Practice.
• Or a qualification which was recognised at the time of qualification by the Secretary of State for Justice as per Section 10 of the Offender Management Act 2007. The following qualifications gained I England and Wales were Previously recognised as providing such eligibility:
• Diploma in Probation Studies
• Diploma in Social Work (with Probation option)
• CQSW (with Probation option)

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)

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