Senior Reports and Findings Officer in Newtownabbey

We are recruiting a Senior Reports and Findings Officer to be part of the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR), as part of the Reports and Findings Team, reporting to the Deputy Director of Reports and Findings. The role comes at an important time as the Commission transitions to become the Legacy Commission.

In this role you will work as part of a dedicated team working to the Director and Deputy Director of Reports and Findings, to support the Chief Commissioner (and the Independent Panel of Judges when the ICRIR becomes the Legacy Commission) to discharge their statutory duty to produce and publish reports. The Reports and Findings Team is responsible for testing and analysing the evidence at the conclusion of each investigation, making findings, and writing reports that record those findings consistently in the Commission's style. The team also manages the statutory representations process.

You will manage up to five Reports and Findings Officers and up to three Reports and Findings Assistants. You will need to ensure that you and your team quickly build a strong understanding of the policies and processes involved in testing the evidence and outcome of each investigation, making findings, and ensuring that all reports record these consistently in the house style. Your team will need to maintain rigorous independence while establishing strong working relationships with other teams from across the Commission including the General Counsel Directorate, Investigations Directorate (e.g., investigations, case support, and support and TRIM colleagues) to ensure that requesting individuals and families are updated on progress and involved as appropriate at each stage.

You will be responsible for operating robust processes to ensure the Commission meets all statutory requirements including safeguarding, handling sensitive information, and seeking representations from those entitled to receive draft material or reports ahead of publication. You will also need to ensure that appropriate arrangements for publication are made for each report and that the requesting individual or family is able to understand the outcome of their case. This is a challenging and rewarding role.

We are seeking a committed and experienced leader with a keen eye for detail who can work in a trauma-informed way. You will need to be objective and able to use sound judgment and knowledge to analyse high volumes of evidence to produce quality written reports. You will need clarity of thought with a strong ability to analyse and use evidence to evaluate options before arriving at well-reasoned, justifiable decisions and recommendations. You will thrive in a culture of continuous learning and improvement, based on feedback and honest self-assessment. Reports are the product on which the Commission will be judged and closely scrutinised. In this role you will ensure, together with the team, that they are produced to a very high standard, deliver real value to requesting individuals or families, and support the Commission's principal objective of promoting reconciliation.

We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and value the diversity of experience and perspective that this brings.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide outstanding leadership and direction to your team who will be primarily responsible for making findings and drafting reports in individual cases.
• Make independent, robust determinations and findings which decide between different accounts or theories of events through challenging, considering and weighing the evidence on its merits, and support / coach your team to do the same.
• Write credible, high-quality reports which record findings in individual cases, and agree these with the Director of Reports and Findings for approval by the Chief Commissioner.
• Supervise, mentor and peer review to ensure the same quality of report drafting from other team members.
• Confidently challenge evidence and materials identified throughout the course of investigations and use your judgement to recommend when further investigations should be carried out and/or where further input from subject matter experts should be sought.
• Help develop and ensure compliance with policies, procedures, and guidance within your team, including managing conflicts of interest, managing the disclosure of sensitive information; compliance with report-writing guidance; seeking representations in relation to draft reports; safeguarding; and the approach to publication.
• Meet with Requesting Individuals and families, alongside the Case Support worker, to provide updates about progress of work and ensure proper involvement in the progress of the case in line with the Commission's policies.
• Carry out robust internal quality checks on draft reports produced by the Reports and Findings Team.
• Build and maintain a close and strong relationship with the Director and Deputy Director of Reports and Findings, and through them, the Chief Commissioner.
• Ensure the Chief Commissioner's approach and preferences are reflected throughout your team's work.
• Lead your team to establish and maintain constructive, professional relationships with others across the Commission, including the Case Support Team, Information Recovery Team, General Counsel, Support and TRIM Team and Strategic Advisory colleagues.
• Lead and champion the development of staff, creating an inclusive environment which values diversity, encourages learning and development and identifying and acting where capabilities need to be improved.
• Contribute to the vision, direction and culture for the Reports and Findings Team and the Commission, including building public and organisational confidence and trust in our reports and the organisation.

Person Specification

Essential Criteria

• Strong and proven ability to understand and confidently draw out key points from multiple evidential sources, to analyse, challenge and evaluate, and reach balanced decisions set out in a clear, accessible and accurate narrative.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including an ability to communicate with clarity, conviction and enthusiasm and tailor approach for different audiences, with experience of report writing.
• Strong leadership skills, with experience of leading, motivating and line managing high-performing, diverse teams.
• Strong organisational skills, with the ability to establish effective structures and systems for both personal workload and that of the wider team.
• Ability to remain focused and effective in fast-paced and changing environments with shifting priorities.
• Confidence and resilience to engage constructively with colleagues and stakeholders and to develop effective working relationships.
• Experience of quality assuring written outputs and supporting defensible, well-reasoned decision-making.
• Flexible and adaptable, willing, and able to adjust approach according to context.
• Demonstrate the values set out in the ICRIR Code of Conduct.
• Willingness to undergo DV security vetting if not already in place.

Desirable Criteria

• Experience of report-writing in a highly sensitive context.
• Experience of working in legal, human rights, policy, or advocacy roles, whether in public, private, or third sector settings.
• Experience of working with the bereaved, victims and survivors.
• Experience of family engagement or transitional justice.
• A good understanding of investigations methodology and police processes.
• Knowledge and understanding of the context within which the Commission operates.
• Existing DV or SC security clearance.

About Us

The Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery is an independent organisation that has been created for families, victims, and survivors of Troubles-related deaths and serious harm. Amongst our statutory duties we recover information, produce and publish reports and promote reconciliation. This is an exciting opportunity to join an organisation with a unique and vital remit. We are a values-led organisation. We operate with integrity, impartiality, openness, accountability, and respect, as set out in our Code of Conduct. This is reflected in our fair and open recruitment processes. We encourage people to join us from all backgrounds, communities and faiths to help us deliver.

The Commission is primarily based in Belfast, with further operational sites in Northern Ireland and London. Travel to all locations will be required, but hybrid working arrangements will help us support a range of flexible working patterns.

The Commission is formed of seven Commissioners, the Chief Commissioner, Sir Declan Morgan, the Chief Executive Officer, Louise Warde Hunter and the Commissioner for Investigations, Peter Sheridan, as well as four Non-Executive Commissioners to provide challenge and scrutiny to the executive team. The Reports and Findings Team supports the Chief Commissioner in producing and publishing high quality written reports at the conclusion of every investigation and is led by the Director of Reports and Findings, Claire Welch. When the Commission transitions to become the Legacy Commission, the Reports and Findings Team will continue its work to support the Independent Panel of Judges to produce their reports.

The Commission's role is to: Investigate deaths and other serious Troubles-related incidents, where requested, including deciding whether a criminal investigation should be part of the investigation. As part of investigations, give the opportunity for individuals to make personal statements on how the incidents have affected them. Require that any information necessary for our work is provided by PSNI, the security services, the Northern Ireland Office or any other public body and require that any person comes to the Commission to provide information. Use police powers, where appropriate, including to secure evidence, arrest, and question suspects. Produce and publish reports setting out the findings that have been determined from the investigations and addressing questions that have been raised by those making the request. Refer deaths and other serious Troubles-related incidents to prosecutors, where appropriate. Produce a record of deaths that were caused by incidents during the Troubles, and strive, through all it does, to promote reconciliation.

In addition to its principal objective to promote reconciliation, the Commission has agreed that a trauma-informed approach should be taken in all its work and that it should follow three essential principles: Compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR); Respect for the principles of the 1998 Belfast (Good Friday Agreement); and Focus on providing useful information to those affected by the Troubles.

Our team and our reports

The Chief Commissioner is responsible for the production and publication of reports at the conclusion of each investigation carried out by the Information Recovery Team under the direction of the Commissioner for Investigations. In this work, the Chief Commissioner is supported by the Director of Reports and Findings and the Reports and Findings Team. When the Commission transitions to become the Legacy Commission, the Reports and Findings Team will continue its work to support the panel of Independent Judges to produce their reports.

The Reports and Findings Team is made up of: The Director of Reports and Findings, The Deputy Director of Reports and Findings (new role, under recruitment), Senior Reports and Findings Officers, Reports and Findings Officers, Reports and Findings Assistants (being recruited), A Legal Delivery Manager and team of paralegals. A Reports and Findings Officer from the team is allocated to each investigation once it is accepted by the Information Recovery Team. They work collaboratively with the investigation team as the investigation progresses. This allows them to remain sighted on the direction of investigative work.

The role of the Reports and Findings Team is to: work alongside the investigations team during the investigation; engage with the case support team to reflect the needs and preferences of families in our work; assess, evaluate and analyse the evidence presented by the Commissioner for Investigations and his team at the end of each investigation; write a report that makes findings, on the balance of probabilities, based on the totality of the evidence; share draft reports with those entitled to make representations on its content before publication; and support the publication of the final report. Where the evidence allows, the reports will explain all the circumstances of the event that led to the death or serious harm, record the findings that can be made and answer the requesting individuals' questions. The standard of proof we apply is the balance of probabilities.