Vacancy -- Chief Executive Children and Family Court Advisory Support Services (Cafcass) Cymru

Cafcass Cymru is a child-focused organisation, which provides statutory services to vulnerable children and specialist advice to the Family Court.        

The primary duties of Cafcass Cymru, as set out in the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 are to:

• safeguard and promote the welfare of the children.
• give advice to any Court about any application made to it in such proceedings.
• make provision for children to be represented.
• provide information, advice and support for children and their families

The organisation is committed to providing an effective and efficient child focussed service that recognises the unique needs and rights of individual children.  Cafcass Cymru currently employs 225 staff who work from a number of offices across Wales.

The post has considerable autonomy, accountable to Welsh Ministers and responsible for ensuring effective collaboration with the Judiciary. It operates in a particularly challenging area, with high public visibility, accountability for managing significant risk, within a rapidly changing context with rising caseloads, a challenging resource context and greater expectations.  

Key responsibilities

The post holder will be accountable to the Director General for the operational effectiveness of the service.

The Chief Executive will:

• Be responsible for and accountable to Welsh Ministers, through the Director General for Health/Chief Executive of the NHS in Wales and, for the performance and professional oversight of Cafcass Cymru. The Chief Executive will be a member of the Director General’s Executive Director Team.

• Act proactively and with professional credibility as the public face of Cafcass Cymru. Provide overall leadership and strategic direction for Cafcass Cymru ensuring that the service is managed so as to meet the statutory requirements of Welsh Ministers to meet the needs of children, families and the Courts in a timely and effective way.

• Lead and manage Cafcass Cymru’s key partnerships at a senior leadership level with the judiciary, Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals service, Cafcass Cymru Advisory Committee, the Children’s Commissioner for Wales, Welsh local government, CEO of voluntary agencies, senior officials in the Welsh Government and other key stakeholders. Ensuring that the role and statutory position of Cafcass Cymru is understood and reflected in the partnership arrangements.

• Provide drive, challenge and leadership to Cafcass Cymru in a way that ensures it is responsive, performance focussed and flexible and a learning organisation. Have overall responsibility for managing the financial and staff resources allocated to Cafcass Cymru. Manage governance arrangements to oversea the quality and effectiveness of practice.

• Provide robust and reliable high level professional input to advise Ministers in relation to the Welsh Government’s responsibilities for Cafcass Cymru functions, family justice issues and wider children and family matters. Contribute to the development of policy in respect of Family Justice issues by providing professional insight and support to policy colleagues leading on the development agenda. 

The Welsh Government is committed to providing services which embrace diversity and which promote equality of opportunity. This is underpinned by the Equality Act 2010 and will be adhered to at each stage of the recruitment process. Our goal is to ensure that these commitments are also embedded in our day-to-day working practices with all our customers, colleagues and partners.

We are committed to being an anti-racist organisation and increasing diversity in the Welsh Government by removing barriers and supporting all our staff to reach their potential. We are committed to recruiting Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people and disabled people who are currently under-represented in Welsh Government.

We welcome applications from everyone regardless of age, marriage and civil partnership (both same sex and opposite sex), impairment or health condition, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, gender identity or gender expression.

We are a Stonewall Diversity Champion and a Disability Confident Level 3 (Leader) organisation. Key to supporting this work and providing peer support are five Board sponsored Staff Networks (Disability Awareness and Support (DAAS); Minority Ethnic Support Network (MESN); Mind Matters (Mental health and well-being); PRISM (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex +) and Women Together.

Welsh Government accepts the social definition of disability, in which it is recognised that barriers in society act to disable people who have impairments or health conditions or who use British Sign Language. We are committed to removing barriers so that all (or potential new staff) can perform at their best. The Equality Act 2010 uses the medical definition of disability (“a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term impact on a person’s ability to carry out normal day to day activities”).

We guarantee to interview anyone who is disabled whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post. By ‘minimum criteria’ we mean that you must provide us with evidence in your application which demonstrates that you generally meet the level of competence for the role and any qualifications, skills or experience defined as essential. We are committed to the employment and career development of disabled people.

If you have an impairment or health condition, or use British Sign Language and need to discuss reasonable adjustments for any part of this recruitment process, or wish to discuss how we will support you if you were to be successful, please email SharedServiceHelpdesk@gov.wales as soon as possible and a member of the team will contact you to discuss your requirements and any questions you may have.

The Welsh Government is a bilingual organisation and Welsh language skills are considered an asset to the organisation. We encourage and support staff to learn, develop and use their Welsh language skills in the workplace. 

The following list of language requirements represents an objective assessment by the line manager on behalf of the Welsh Government of the Welsh language skills required to undertake the duties of this particular post.

In Welsh Government, the relationship between the employer and trade unions is based on social partnership. We believe our goals can best be achieved by management and trade unions working together.

Our 3 recognised trade unions are:
•         PCS
•         Prospect
•         FDA

This relationship is underpinned by a partnership agreement. This sets out how our unions work with Welsh Government on issues such as:
•         pay
•         terms and conditions
•         policies and procedures
•         organisational change.

Our Welsh Government trade union colleagues work together to give their members a real say in the workplace. They make sure that the interests of their members are promoted and protected. They also help reduce inequalities and improve terms and conditions.

The Welsh Government has an excellent track record of working in partnership with its trade unions. We encourage staff to get involved. We support you to join a recognised trade union, to ensure your voice is heard in the workplace. and to learn more about trade unions and partnership working.

Completed application form, an up to date CV, together with a personal statement of suitability for the post should be submitted by the closing date.  All applications for this vacancy should be made online via the Welsh Government's online application system.  If you have a disability which would prevent you from applying on-line, please e-mail SCSrecruitment@gov.wales to request an application pack in an alternative format or if you need to request a reasonable adjustment related to a disability in order to submit your application.

To apply, you'll need to have an account on our online application system.  Click the 'Apply' button below, and you'll be asked to 'Log in' if you already have an account, or 'Register' if you don't yet have an account.  Registration takes just a few minutes to complete.  You'll need an e-mail address to be able to register.  Once you've registered for an account and logged in, you'll be taken to the online application form, which you'll need to fully complete and submit before the deadline on the closing date.  

If you’d like to apply for this vacancy in Welsh, please use the ‘Newid Iaith / Change Language’ link at the top of this page, to take you to the Welsh version of this advert, from which you can apply in Welsh.

For further information regarding the Senior Civil Service recruitment process within the Welsh Government, please see the SCS Recruitment Guidance for External Candidates (link). Further guidance on Preparing Your Personal Statement (link) is also available.

When evidencing your suitability for the post, it is recommended that you refer to the Civil Service Competency Framework (link)