Victim and Survivor Network Engagement Lead in the Office of the Victims' Commissioner for England and Wales (Ref: 23506)

This position is based Nationally

Victim and Survivor Network Engagement Lead

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Office of the Victims' Commissioner for England and Wales

The Victims' Commissioner is an independent statutory office established to promote the interests of victims and witnesses, encourage good practice and keep under review the operation of the Victims' Code. The Office of the Victims' Commissioner works with government, criminal justice agencies, victim support organisations and stakeholders to improve victims' experiences and outcomes across England and Wales.

The Victims’ Commissioner’s Office for England and Wales is establishing a victim and survivor panel for adult survivors of child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE). The panel will provide a supportive, empowering and independent mechanism for adult victims and survivors to inform government policy and practice, helping to ensure survivor insight is reflected in policy and decision-making related to tackling CSAE across safeguarding, criminal justice and child protection systems. It will also play an important role in holding government to account on these issues.

The postholder will work alongside, and be line managed by, the Victim and Survivor Participation Manager. They will lead the development and coordination of the Panel’s wider victim and survivor network, building trusted relationships with established survivor forums, community groups and sector partners so that wider insight can inform cross-government policy work on child sexual abuse and exploitation.

This is a specialist role requiring experience of trauma-informed, survivor-centred engagement. Working closely with the wider Victims’ Commissioner’s Office, cross-government departments and third sector partners, the postholder will identify where wider network engagement could add value to the Panel’s forward look of activity and ensure engagement is ethical, purposeful and well-coordinated.

Terms:

This post is being offered on 2-year temporary appointment in line with the panel’s full term. This role may be extended subject to relevant approvals.

The terms on offer will be dependent on your current employment:

• Staff within the Ministry of Justice will be posted on detached duty terms and Temporary Responsibility allowance if appropriate
• Staff in HMPPS or another government department will be posted on Loan terms
• Individuals who are not currently civil servants will be offered a Fixed Term Appointment.

If you wish to discuss the above options, should you be successful, please contact us via the following functional mailbox: PolicyGroupRecruitment@justice.gov.uk

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:

The Office of the Victims' Commissioner for England and Wales is recruiting nationally to fill this temporary role. We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and time spent in your base location.

Whilst remote working for this role is available there is a requirement for occasional travel to 102 Petty France, London, SW1H 9AJ.

Working Pattern

Due to the business requirements of this role, it is only available on a full-time basis with the option of compressed hours working.

We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce and pride ourselves as being an employer of choice. To find out more about how we champion diversity and inclusion in the workplace, visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity

Salary

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

The Role

The postholder will lead the development and coordination of the Panel’s wider victim and survivor network. They will build and maintain trusted relationships with established survivor forums, community groups and sector partners, supporting ethical and purposeful opportunities for wider victim and survivor input into government policy on child sexual abuse and exploitation.

The role will require careful coordination to align different forms of engagement with forum schedules, safeguarding duties, facilitation arrangements, participants’ needs and the Panel’s forward look of activity.

We recognise the value that lived experience of child sexual abuse would bring to this role, although there is no expectation that applicants disclose personal experiences as part of the recruitment process.

Key Responsibilities

Stakeholder partnerships

• Map established forums, community groups and sector partners that could enhance the Panel’s reach, including with underrepresented groups, communities, identities and experiences.
• Proactively build trusted working relationships with forum leads, facilitation teams and sector partners to support ethical and coordinated wider survivor engagement, recognising and adapting the approach to respond to the intersectional barriers that may affect participation.
• Work closely with the Survivor Participation Manager to identify and develop where wider network engagement could complement the Panel’s activity and help inform cross-government policy development, implementation and accountability.
• Be responsible for regular contact with established forums to understand their schedules, priorities, capacity and preferred ways of working, and agree shared approaches that support clear, ethical and coordinated engagement.

Trauma-informed coordination of wider engagement

• Coordinate wider network engagement in line with the Panel’s approach, terms of reference and engagement principles, ensuring activity is trauma-informed and aligned with forum schedules and the Panel’s forward pipeline.
• Lead regular communication with wider network leads and facilitation teams, including invitations, updates, briefing materials and follow-up correspondence, ensuring engagement is clear, timely, sensitive and aligned with agreed ways of working.
• Support the Victims’ Commissioner’s Office, cross-government officials, ministers and partners to prepare appropriately for engagement with wider survivor forums, including by advising on trauma-informed practice, sensitive language, boundaries and accessibility considerations.
• Manage clear feedback loops with wider network participants and facilitation teams, ensuring they are kept updated on how their input has been considered, where it has informed policy or practice, and where further work is ongoing.

Policy input and insight gathering

• Be responsible for ensuring wider network engagement is designed to capture insight safely and clearly, with appropriate arrangements for recording, anonymising and feeding themes into the Panel’s workplan and relevant cross-government policy teams.
• Work with the Survivor Participation Manager to draw together wider network insight and Panel input, identifying areas of alignment, difference or emerging concern that may inform policy development, implementation or accountability.
• Lead on identifying where wider network engagement could strengthen government understanding of victim and survivor experiences, including where particular perspectives or experiences may need further exploration.

Governance

• Be responsible for clear, ethical processes for wider network engagement, ensuring activity is well planned, recorded and aligned with the Panel’s approach.
• Manage accurate records of wider network engagement, including key contacts, planned activity, risks, actions agreed and follow-up required.
• Support clear escalation and decision-making routes between the Panel, wider forums and government stakeholders where issues, risks or competing priorities arise.

Policy, briefing and communications support

• Provide policy, engagement and briefing support to the Survivor Participation Manager, Victims’ Commissioner and wider VCO colleagues on Panel related issues.
• Support Panel related communications, including stakeholder updates, website content and wider messaging, ensuring content is accurate, sensitive and aligned with agreed positioning.
• Manage enquiries relating to the Panel through the Victims’ Commissioner’s dedicated inbox, ensuring queries are triaged, responded to or escalated appropriately.

Monitoring, evaluation and continuous improvement

• Manage and maintain a clear log of wider network engagement activity, including forums engaged, themes raised, feedback provided, actions agreed and follow-up required.
• Use engagement records, wider data insights, feedback and emerging issues to proactively identify recurring, themes and gaps in reach or evidence, recommending where further engagement may be needed.
• Contribute to the Panel’s annual impact and learning report by providing evidence of wider network engagement, key themes, feedback, policy influence and learning for future engagement.

Person Specification

Essential criteria

• Knowledge and understanding of child sexual abuse and exploitation, including its impact on victims and survivors and the importance of trauma-informed, survivor-centred engagement.
• Experience working with victim and survivor forums, lived experience panels, advisory groups, community networks or third sector organisations, ideally in a participation, engagement or policy context.
• Strong relationship-building and stakeholder engagement skills, including experience working with external partners, community organisations, networks, forums or facilitation teams.
• Experience coordinating or supporting participation activity across multiple partners, including preparing materials, aligning schedules and ways of working, supporting sessions, recording themes and following up actions.
• Ability to gather, record and summarise insight ethically and anonymously, ensuring themes are presented clearly and respectfully to support policy, practice or organisational learning.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to produce clear, sensitive and accessible communications for a range of audiences.
• Strong organisational skills, including maintaining logs, tracking actions, supporting feedback loops and contributing to monitoring, evaluation or learning products.
• Good judgement and confidence escalating risks or concerns, including upholding appropriate boundaries, monitoring risks, and advocating when proposed engagement may not be sufficiently safe, purposeful, ethical or well prepared.

Desirable criteria

• Experience supporting engagement with underrepresented communities or groups whose voices may be less often heard in policy or service design.
• Experience working in or with government, statutory bodies, commissioners, public services or policy teams.
• Experience contributing to impact reports, learning summaries, engagement logs, thematic analysis or evaluation products

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.

Application process

You will be assessed against the Civil service success profiles framework.

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 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.

You will also be asked to provide a response to the following question in no more than 500 words:

• Tell us about a time you engaged communities whose voices are often underrepresented. How did you build trust, reduce barriers to participation and ensure their views influenced the wider work?

Successful applicants will then be invited to an interview, testing experience, behaviours and strengths

Candidates invited to Interview

Please note that interviews will be carried out remotely.

At interview you will be assessed against the following Success Profiles:

Behaviours:

The following Behaviours will be tested at interview:

• Communicating and influencing
• Working Together
• Making effective decisions

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 - What it was? How you approached the work/situation? What the Outcomes were, what did you achieve?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:

Success Profiles: Civil Service behaviours - GOV.UK

Strengths:

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

Experience:

As with your application the panel intend to ask an experience question at interview. No preparation is required for this.

Interview Timeline:

Interviews are expected to take place end of November or Early December 2026.

Contact information

If you would like to know more about the role or what it is like working in our team, please contact denise.pringle@victimscommissioner.org.uk

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 and Experience.

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

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