Senior Service Designer

This role qualifies for a DDaT skills-based salary supplement which is applied after assessment.

New recruits to the Civil Service joining MoJ are expected to join at the band minimum. This position is available for external applicants as well as existing civil servants on level transfer or promotion. Secondments and loans will be considered on an individual basis. This appointment will be made on a fixed term appointment, due to the time limited nature of the Reform Programme. For existing civil servants, whilst the role itself is time limited, successful appointment on promotion will secure this grade on a substantive basis.

Background:

It is an extremely exciting time here at HM Courts and Tribunals Service. We are currently undertaking a first-of-its-kind Change Programme aimed at delivering pioneering judicial services that better serve the public, and with over £1 Billion of funding this is the most ambitious programme of its kind anywhere in the world.

As part of the Change Directorate you will be at the forefront of facilitating and implementing change in our world-leading justice system. The Programme is ambitious, and we need resilient, resourceful and adaptable people to make it happen.

Can you deliver in a fast-paced environment that is changing constantly? Do you have broad industry experience of user-centred design; using user research and insight to shape the way people interact with services? If so, please read on and apply. We’re particularly keen to hear from under-represented groups.

This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to help transform how justice is delivered in England and Wales – your work will have a real lasting social impact by ensuring that the needs of the public are kept at the heart of reform.

This Programme is one of the largest across Government and you will gain a deep understanding of how a large complex portfolio operates as well as develop a broad range of effective business skills. Your development will be supported throughout with coaching and mentoring from senior professionals across the Directorate, and you will also have the opportunity to attain relevant professional qualifications/certifications.

About the Team:

The User Experience and Insight team at HMCTS is redesigning and rebuilding our Courts and Tribunal services around the needs of our users – ensuring our services are accessible, easy to use, digital (where necessary and appropriate) and well supported for all users.

We are a portfolio function and provide expertise in a range of areas, including user research to understand our users’ functional and emotional needs, segmenting and assessing populations to support our accessibility work, designing, prototyping and piloting new services and optimising the user experience across all channels. Support ranges from programme level research/analysis, embedding designers, researchers and analysts in projects, providing consultancy and advice, to designing tools and frameworks.

Within User Experience and Insight, the User-centred Design team works with HMCTS projects and programmes to support our core design principle of being user-led in everything we do. As designers, we work closely with researchers, analysts and frontline staff to understand pain points for our internal and external users, then design, test and iterate consistent ways to fix these issues.

The Role:

We’re looking for a Senior Service Designer who is passionate about designing digital services that are simple enough for everyone to use. You’ll play a key role in building our capability to design and continuously iterate world-class, user-centred, inclusive services for internal and external users.

You’ll be comfortable working autonomously to help key stakeholders such as judges, operational leaders, service managers and programme directors understand the importance and value of a user-centred approach to designing court and tribunals services.

An expert in evidence- and context-based design, you’ll use insights from research to find, test and refine the best solutions to meet user and business needs across whole user journeys. An advocate for a user-centred approach, you’ll give direction on tools, teams and methods needed to solve user problems and play an active role supporting others in our growing community of practice.

You’ll coach, mentor, train and develop other designers, supporting the growth and development of the design team and creating the right conditions for supportive communities of practice to grow and thrive.

An experienced and credible strategic thinker, you’ll lead the design, communication and implementation of service strategies and approaches. As part of this, you’ll evaluate new and existing services against strategies, frameworks, design systems and policies to ensure that user and business requirements are met (and articulate what happens if they aren’t).

Key Responsibilities:

You’ll work closely with other designers, researchers, analysts and technical experts to help our users complete their goals quickly and easily; minimising support costs (and other failure demand) as well as improving efficiency and reducing the time needed to process applications.

You’ll be expected to:

• Design services that work for different users across the various channels we offer for court and tribunals service journeys, developing service journey maps, service blueprints and high-level prototypes
• Work with judges, operational leaders, technical teams and other key stakeholders to facilitate the co-design process; developing a deep understanding of their needs, managing expectations and agreeing service propositions
• Work as an embedded team member within agile delivery teams, helping manage and visualise outcomes, prioritise work and develop service roadmaps from minimum viable products to full live services
• Be an active member of HMCTS’ user-centred design community, collaborating with others and using your experience and specialist knowledge to coach and mentor others
• Support and manage other designers, assuring quality work and behaviours and helping them develop experience through personal development plans and opportunities to rotate between teams
• Actively participate in user research, helping translate research findings into actionable insight to inform service development

You’ll also be expected to carry out the following day to day activities:

• Advocating user-centred design and being an active part of the Design community within HMCTS and across government to share ideas, best practice and proactively help and support other designers
• Taking responsibility for your own learning and development and seek opportunities to improve your knowledge and experience

Other duties:

You’ll need to work in a flexible way and undertake any other duties reasonably requested by the head of profession which are commensurate with the grade and level of responsibility of this post.