Family Justice Manager

Family Justice Manager

The Centre for Justice Innovation is looking to recruit a committed and experienced individual to lead on the management and development of the Centre’s work in the Family Justice System

Terms: Full time, permanent, 25 days holiday

Pay: Starting salary of £36,000 - £38,000 dependent on experience

Location: Edinburgh House, 170 Kennington Lane, London, SE11 5DP. The role is open to applicants living outside of London with an expectation of some travel to the office and some travel within the UK.

Reporting to: Deputy Director

Application deadline: 9:00am, Monday 30 November

First interviews: 15th and 16th December 2020 (via videoconference)

Start date: Early 2021

What will I be doing? 

You will join our growing team to lead the management and development of the Centre’s work in the Family Justice System. 

You will oversee the our work in providing national oversight and support to the different Family Drug and Alcohol Courts (FDACs) operating across the UK. FDACs are an innovative approach to care proceedings where parental substance misuse (drugs or alcohol) is a key factor in the concerns about parenting. Combining holistic, multidisciplinary support for parents with a problem-solving court process, FDACs deliver better outcomes for families and children. We provide support and oversight to new and existing FDACs operating within the UK. As well as supporting social workers, judges and specialist practitioners to deliver evidence-led practice, your role will involve growing and expanding this problem-solving approach alongside senior stakeholders and policymakers. For more information on FDAC, please visit the FDAC national website. 

Working alongside the Deputy Director and Family Justice Officer, you will also lead on the broader expansion of our work within the Family Justice System. Exploring how the problem-solving approach can be applied in other contexts, you will have a focus on the issue of domestic abuse, including the development of a proposed Integrated Domestic Abuse Court. In addition, your role will involve shaping and supporting the growth of our work by identifying and developing new project ideas.

Your responsibilities will include:

•  Leading the delivery of the Centre’s FDAC national partnership work;
• Identifying and supporting areas for growth and implementation of new FDACs across the Family Justice System in the UK;
• Supporting new and existing FDACs by delivering practice workshops, facilitating practitioner forums and advising areas to overcome implementation or operational issues as they arise;
• Enhancing the Centre's reputation as a source of quality, trusted, leadership and support in promoting and developing innovation in the UK’s Family Justice System;
• Maintaining excellent relationships with key stakeholders;
• Supervising a small number of Centre employees with some management of external contractors; and
• Working collaboratively with the Centre’s teams across the areas of practice, evidence and data. 

As a small team, every employee is expected to play a significant role in influencing how the Centre develops. Roles and objectives may change and all members of staff work flexibly in response to changing business needs. 

What kind of person do we want?

Through your application, you should demonstrate the experience, skills and knowledge you have in the areas described below.

Experience

• Operational experience of the Family Justice System. This could be working within children’s services, Cafcass, legal services, adult social work or mental health or through lived experience. 
• Influencing changes to frontline practice through a positive and collaborative relationship-based approach;
• Helping to support others through a process of change;
• Influencing and supporting internal and external partners to deliver on shared plans; 
• Experience working with senior stakeholders. This could include the Judiciary and/or Local Authority senior leadership;
• Experience of managing projects to budget and deadline;
• Experience of line managing others (desirable);
• Experience of working with service users to develop and improve service provision and user experience (desirable);
• Experience in FDAC cases (desirable);

Skills and abilities 

• Strong writing skills and good spoken English;
• A creative approach to solving problems and identifying practical solutions;
• Good organisational and team work skills;
• The ability to balance multiple priorities and manage your own workload;
• The ability to lead a project across teams in different localities;
• The ability to work at pace and to deadline; 
• The enthusiasm and energy to work in a small team;
• Confident and comfortable working with senior stakeholders;
• The ability to work with vulnerable people and sensitive information in a safe, legal and supportive manner;
• Excellent skills in engaging a variety of audiences constructively.

Knowledge

• Insight into the challenges for practitioners working in the family justice and/or social work environment;
• Understanding of complex issues facing families, such as domestic abuse;
• Knowledge and understanding of the FDAC model (desirable); 
• Knowledge and understanding of research methods (desirable). 

You will also need to have:

• A commitment to children's rights and participation and a belief in the right to family life for all children;
• A willingness and ability to travel within the UK and occasionally overseas;
• Eligibility to work in the UK legally.