National Services Summer Internship 2024

HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is an agency of the Ministry of Justice. We provide support for the legal system across England and Wales, ensuring justice works for everyone.

Spread nationally over several sites, our CTSCs and NBCs are home to a large part of our workforce. We are working to reform the Justice system and our National Services exist to support a modern, digital Justice system. These centres offer customer support and back-office teams which support the courts from around the UK.

Key purpose

We are offering an exciting opportunity to come and join us on a temporary placement to support HMCTS over the summer period. We have several positions based within our National Services sites where you will be part of a team supporting the important work to ensure our services run smoothly.

Successful candidates will be assigned to teams to carry out a variety of general administrative and telephony duties to provide a consistent national service that enables cases to move through to conclusion smoothly and to provide the right support to the local judiciary and our users.

As part of your role you may be required to have regular verbal/written contact with members of the Judiciary, service users, mediators, management and those within the legal profession.

Working as part of a flexible team, you will be expected to undertake a range of the responsibilities and functions specified. HMCTS will provide successful candidates with regular management support and ensure appropriate training is delivered.

Ways of working

Successful candidates are expected to work the full duration of the 12-week contract, with annual leave provided on a pro rata basis. As these placements provide business cover during peak leave periods, we very much encourage applications from only those who are able to commit to working a full-time 37hr working week consistently for the duration of the placement. Specific working patterns and annual leave requests will only be agreed where they meet the demands of the role and business needs and are agreed prior to appointment.

National Business Centre Role Purpose

Our administrative teams are the core of our National Business Centres (NBCs), delivering great customer service to enable Justice. Our teams work across a variety of jurisdictions and get the chance to shape and continuously improve the way we operate. Typical roles include data entry of paper and digital work, telephony, customer complaints and correspondence. We empower our staff to be the voice of our customers, giving them opportunity to make changes that matter to our users.

Courts & Tribunals Service Centre Role Purpose

CTSCs provide hubs for telephony, assisted digital, case progression and hearing support, and will provide a consistent national service that enables cases to move through to conclusion efficiently. These are predominately telephony-based roles, and you will need to be confident using IT.

We provide an accessible and inclusive service to users, providing clear signposting and guidance to all users, coaching them in the use of the online platform and providing information to resolve their queries and processing and updating high-volume case details accurately and efficiently.

Essential skills, knowledge, and criteria 

• Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment.
• Excellent customer service skills and communications skills.
• Strong IT, administration, and organisational skills.
• Be flexible and adaptive to support business needs.
• Proactive - resolve routine problems and escalate serious issues.
• Students in the final/penultimate year of under/post graduate study particularly. welcome
• You must be eligible to work in the UK for the entire duration of the internship.

Locations

Role availability varies by location. These roles do not support hybrid working. No alternative working arrangements are available and once placements are confirmed no location changes can be accommodated. You will be given the option to select up to 3 preferred locations for your placement.

Please ensure you only select locations that you would be willing to commute to and work from for the whole duration of the placement. Whilst the post holder will be allocated to a specific office base, there may be a need for flexibility to work on a regular or ad hoc basis at other local HMCTS offices.

We have other Summer Intern campaigns for HMCTS regions across the country. If you apply for more than one Region, you will only be considered for one. If selected for appointment, the Recruitment Team will contact you to identify your preferred location to progress, remaining applications will be withdrawn. We are unable to transfer applications between regions or place candidates at sites not listed.

Selection process

The selection process will be conducted on written applications only. No formal interview will be required as part of this selection process. If selected for appointment, we will try to match your selected location preferences but if vacancies in those do not exist, we may offer employment at alternative nearby locations.

Please note, dependent on volumes of applications received, the sift stage may be based solely on your Statement of Suitability.

A Merit List of applicants meeting the required selection criteria will be kept for up to 6 months.

Pre-Employment Checks (Vetting)

Candidates who pass the application stage will need to complete pre-employment checks successfully before a provisional offer will be made. Due to the short-term nature of the role if pre-employment checks exceed or are expected to exceed a reasonable timeframe (more than 4 weeks in total, which we expect to be no later than the 10th June 2024) we will withdraw your application as we will be unable to accommodate a later start date.