Senior Civil Servant (SCS) Personal Assistant

at  Office for National Statistics

JOB SUMMARY

Are you confident when liaising with others, with effective communication skills? Are you a highly organised individual with excellent attention to detail? If so, we could have the role for you!
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest producer of official statistics, covering a range of key economic, social, and demographic topics. These include measuring changes in the value of the UK economy, estimating the size, geographic distribution, and characteristics of the population, and providing indicators of price inflation, employment, earnings, crime, and migration.
The Operational Delivery Profession (ODP) is the largest profession in the Civil Service. ODP’s 200,000+ members work in a wide range of operational delivery roles across government, providing essential services that support and protect UK citizens at home and overseas. They help to make ONS a great place to work.
As a member, ODP supports you by providing learning and development opportunities, career pathways, tools and resources to help develop your skills and progress your career. This is an exciting opportunity to join a modern, innovative and inclusive Civil Service profession that sits at the heart of public service delivery.

JOB DESCRIPTION

Embedded within a directorate business support team, you will work within a broader Directorate Support function, and you will need to work collaboratively with colleagues from a range of functions to deliver high quality support to the Director / Deputy Director(s) ensuring they are able to meet their key objectives.
The role operates in a fast-paced, pressurised environment and it is key that the successful candidate is comfortable working directly with senior leaders, is able to prioritise effectively, plan ahead and develop good working relationships with a broad range of stakeholders.
There will be an opportunity to work collaboratively and innovatively with other PA and business support colleagues across ONS to develop and share best practice, solve operational issues, and improve processes.

IF YOU ARE UNSURE THAT YOU MEET THE ELIGIBILITY ABOVE, PLEASE READ THE INFORMATION AVAILABLE ON GOV.UK ON THIS LINK, OR CONTACT THE RECRUITMENT EMAIL ON THE ADVERT BEFORE APPLYING TO DISCUSS, AS FAILURE TO MEET THE RESIDENCY REQUIREMENTS WILL RESULT IN YOUR SECURITY CLEARANCE APPLICATION BEING REJECTED AND ANY OFFER OF EMPLOYMENT BEING WITHDRAWN.

At the point of SC application, you will need to provide or give access to the following evidence:

• Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)
• UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records
• Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency
• Security Services records

Assessment at application stage will be based on your work history, skill and experience and personal statement. Your application should be tailored to demonstrate any skills, knowledge and experience that are relevant to the content of the role.

NATIONALITY REQUIREMENTS

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

TYPE OF ROLE

Administration / Corporate Support
Operational Delivery

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Taking the lead as the Director’s first point of contact, providing comprehensive and proactive inbox(es) management, to include:o rationalising and filtering email traffic,o responding to requests as appropriate,o escalating issues,o prioritising work,o cascading information.
• Proactively and reactively managing the Director’s diary, ensuring efficient use of their time, managing changes and conflicts (including delegating to their senior leadership team as appropriate), working collaboratively across the organisation negotiating with others as necessary to achieve this.
• Providing the Director with all necessary documentation ahead of meetings.
• Facilitating effective communication between the Director, their senior team, and other stakeholders, both internal and external, as required.
• Working with the business support team, organise and manage the logistics of business meetings, conferences and away days, ensuring that meeting papers are complete and distributed in a timely fashion, as necessary.
• Arranging travel and accommodation in line with ONS policies for the Director, and submission of travel expenses on their behalf.
• Other ad-hoc administrative tasks as required, which may include covering for other PA absences within the wider Directorate as required.
• Providing other business support to the wider team as necessary, including undertaking short self-contained assignments as required