Support Team & Logistics Manager

Ministry of Justice; City of Westminster; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A governmental department in the UK is seeking a Business Manager to lead a support team and ensure effective project delivery for the expansion of prison capacity. The successful candidate will manage resources, foster team dynamics, and work closely with various stakeholders for high-profile initiatives. Strong leadership, planning, and communication skills are essential. This role involves significant responsibilities in a demanding environment with regular scrutiny.

Qualifications

• Strong leadership skills to manage a team of 6-8 people.
• Experience in project and administrative support in a high-pressure environment.
• Ability to build relationships with key collaborators.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team that supports high-profile areas within the organisation.
• Manage resources effectively to ensure continuity of services.
• Foster open communication and address team dynamics.

Skills

Resource management

Effective planning

Team training

Communication

Stakeholder engagement

Job description

The relevant job description has been provided alongside this EOI (HQ-JES-2152_Generic - Business Manager_2.0). A summary of how the generic requirements of the JD translate to the day-to-day activity associated with this role is set out below. Reporting to the Senior Competitions Manager, the New Prison Capacity Support Team and Logistics Manager will be required to lead a team of 6-8 people that supports all core work across the above areas. The role holder will manage a team providing project and administrative support to these areas and may take the lead on certain aspects of the design work, logistics and planning, providing advice on complex or high-profile issues. They may also provide support to ongoing work under others key areas, as required. These areas are subject to a significant level of scrutiny and require sensitive handling of a wide range of external and internal stakeholders. To support this work the post holder must be able to build relationships with an array of key collaborators and stakeholders including those Commercial and Contract Management teams, wider HMPPS and MoJ Policy teams, HMPPS in Wales, Prison Operator Services Framework providers and other external companies. Our work is in a high profile and demanding area, with regular Ministerial scrutiny. We work closely with colleagues across HMPPS and wider MoJ, along with the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, Cabinet Office and NHS England and Innovation and other health providers. The successful candidate will be expected to work collaboratively with all partners, communicate clearly and work at pace to deliver expected outcomes. The most important elements of the role include:

• Resource Allocation It's essential to ensure that all critical activities are adequately supported by the team. This involves having oversight of the broader team's workload - knowing which support team members are assigned to which tasks, estimating the time commitment required for each area, and being aware of upcoming leave so that meetings and responsibilities are covered. The aim is to distribute work fairly and maintain continuity. Regular 1-2-1s and Support Team meetings are vital for maintaining this visibility and understanding.
• Planning Effective planning is particularly important given the challenges of high staff turnover and limited resources. Closely linked to resource management, this means keeping track of the upcoming workload and being ready to reallocate support as project demands shift. It's important to consider how moving resources will affect the rest of the team, coordinate with project leads, manage agency staff contract end dates, and liaise with Project Delivery regarding recruitment needs.
• Team Training and Management Effective Line Management and fostering the right dynamics within the support team is crucial for maintaining a positive working environment and ensuring high standards. This involves fostering open communication, encouraging collaboration, and proactively addressing any interpersonal issues that may arise. Alongside this, it's important to assure the quality of work delivered by the team, through regular feedback, peer review, and clear expectations. Standardising processes and documentation to help ensure consistency, reduce errors, and make it easier for team members to step into different roles as needed. Regularly reviewing and refining these processes, and sharing best practice across the team, supports continuous improvement and helps maintain a high level of service.

HMPPS is committed to expanding the number of UK prison places to meet expected increases in demand over the coming five years. This incorporates several projects and programmes that aim to maintain and expand capacity by building brand new prisons, expand existing prisons, carry out major refurbishments, and deploy short-term and temporary accommodation; In addition to this we are managing the exit from and transfer of contracts for existing privately managed prisons. This work will keep available and improve thousands of existing prison places and deliver a vital component of the Criminal Justice System.

• Leading the delivery of the additional prison places: including new prisons, house blocks, major refurbishments, small scale investments. 14,000 new places will be delivered through a combination of four new prisons (providing around 6,500 places), new houseblocks at existing prisons (about 6,400 places), rapid deployment cells (1,000 places), and refurbishment of existing cells (over 1,000 places)
• Operator Competitions: in the event of a decision to compete new or existing Prisons including existing privately managed prisons where their contracts are due to expire and designing and running a competition in line with Government Procurement Regulations.
• Expiry and Transfer of Private Finance Initiative (PFI)/existing Private Prisons: planning and delivering the safe, efficient and effective transfer of existing private prisons (PFI and Manage & Maintain arrangements) following a competition process to a new provider once the contracts expire.