Role Purpose
Heads of Operations are senior leadership roles, responsible - as part of the regional leadership team - for overall delivery of operational objectives within a region. The Head of Operations will lead the overall safe and secure delivery of operational priorities and objectives, contributing significantly to the achievement of key national and regional business plan objectives. The Head of Operations will undertake the strategic leadership and oversight of overall operations for one or more jurisdictions/services across multiple locations, ensuring effective, efficient and consistent service delivery and performance and supporting the work of the Regional Delivery Director. The Head of Operations has considerable influence and responsibility over areas of operations and development activity, responsible for co-ordinating large areas of work activity with personal responsibility for service delivery which will have a significant impact on the achievement of key business plan objectives.
The Head of Operations has significant people leadership responsibility, with direct line management of a large team of Courts and Tribunals Managers and indirect leadership of several hundred staff across the region. The Head of Operations will be responsible for ensuring leaders within their teams have the skills to confidently lead, manage and inspire our people to deliver high quality service and effective performance. The Head of Operations will promote inclusive leadership, champion our values and behaviours and foster a culture that values innovation and creativity, ensuring everyone feels valued, supported, challenged and capable.
Key Accountabilities
• Responsible for leading and managing the effective and efficient delivery of jurisdictional/service performance across multiple locations within the region. The Head of Operations will be accountable for the performance and delivery of the service(s) and locations for which they are responsible and have a clear mandate to take steps to sustain/improve performance of those service(s)/locations across the whole region where required
• Overall ownership and responsibility for governance, assurance and risk management within their area(s)/jurisdiction(s) of responsibility. The Head of Operations will balance risk, strategic impact and short and long-term needs when dealing with organisational issues. The Head of Operations is responsible for ensuring systems are in place within their area(s)/jurisdiction(s) of responsibility to identify and manage risk and to ensure remedial action is taken to mitigate such risks, only reporting to the Regional Delivery Director (RDD) and/or internal audit teams where risks are intolerable and/or possible solutions would go beyond current policy or levels of authority. • Embed organisational values and behaviours, ensuring wellbeing, inclusion, diversity and equality is at the forefront of all people activities
• Be visible as a leader, making best use of modern ways of working and be available to managers and staff across the region. Act as representative of the regional senior leadership team in providing visible, collective senior leadership across service/jurisdictional boundaries to staff in all parts of the region
• Provide strong leadership, clear direction and support to operational managers and set benchmarks to manage effective performance standards in line with strategic objectives
• Lead regional talent and succession planning. The Head of Operations is responsible for ensuring that managers are equipped with the right skills to effectively support our people to grow and engage in their own personal and professional development and to effectively manage poor performance
• Assess compliance and performance, identifying the reasons for workload fluctuations and variances to provide a detailed picture of the operation of the service(s) for which the Head of Operations is responsible to support the work of the Regional Service Improvement & Performance Lead (SIP) and the RDD
• Work with the regional senior leadership team to undertake business planning and set and agree strategic direction for all services/jurisdictions present in region and support the RDD in ensuring effective delivery of quality regional operations
• Maintain a strategic focus across the jurisdiction(s)/service(s), realigning priorities where necessary and assigning responsibility for action against plans to meet the strategic direction agreed
• Work collaboratively with the SIP to highlight opportunities to make efficiencies and potential improvements within services/jurisdictions to feed into national service/performance improvement and maintain consistency of service provision across HMCTS. Provide operational knowledge and insight (via the SIP) into national project streams
• Plan for and implement strategy and lead change within the jurisdiction(s), supported by the SIP.