About the job

Job summary

We are seeking a dynamic Administrative Officer to join our vibrant Health Protection Team in the West Midlands. This role offers the opportunity to work independently while being an integral part of a collaborative, multi-disciplinary team. You will play a crucial role in delivering a variety of administrative tasks, ensuring the smooth operation of our busy department. Flexibility and a proactive approach are key in this fast-paced and rewarding environment.

Job description

The postholder will play a pivotal role within our dynamic Business Support Team in the West Midlands Health Protection Team. You will provide essential support to senior team members and clinicians, ensuring the smooth operation of our fast-paced and diverse environment. Effective communication, administrative, and data entry skills are crucial for this role.

Key responsibilities include supporting meetings, taking minutes, and confidently handling telephone enquiries from partners and the public.  Proficiency in IT, especially in the MS Office suite, is essential, and you will in addition receive training to use our bespoke case management system.

We value teamwork highly, and while experience in an office environment is desirable, it is not essential. If you thrive in a collaborative setting and are eager to contribute to a critical public health team, we encourage you to apply.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Provide comprehensive administrative support to teams across the Directorate, including diary management of one or more senior staff, if required.
• To be responsible for dealing with telephone enquiries and other communications that may require a high degree of tact, diplomacy and confidentiality.
• Action routine correspondence, prepare acknowledgements and response letters as requested.
• Collate information and data to produce reports and documents as required; some may be confidential and/or complex.
• Assist with the dissemination and/or collation of information/returns for business operations in a timely manner.
• Provide Incident Co-ordination administrative cover on rotation as required (if applicable)
• Improve the quality of services and contribute to the improvement of the administration service.
• To be responsible for organising and controlling own workload ensuring deadlines are observed and duties performed efficiently.
• Arrange, attend and provide secretariat support to teams and other internal and external meetings and/or networks as required. This will include: booking venues; organising hospitality; preparing and producing paperwork, i.e. agendas, action logs, collating and distributing all necessary information and documentation electronically and taking minutes or action notes as required. Ensuring all minutes or action notes are issued in a timely manner and agreed actions are appropriately recorded.
• Assist with organising external and/or internal conferences, away days and training days, including registration and preparing resources.
• Provide cover as directed by line manager for other members of the team in their absence and assist with their workloads as necessary.

Person specification

Essential criteria

• Communicate clearly and concisely both orally and in writing. Take time to consider the best communication channel to use for the audience, including making the best of digital resources and considering value for money.
• Understand that bullying, harassment, and discrimination are unacceptable.
• Experience of arranging meetings and supporting events and taking minutes
• Ability to prioritise own work and work with minimal supervision
• Ability to produce work that is accurate in a timely fashion, whilst multi-tasking and working in a busy environment
• Ability to follow guidance, policies and processes, including handling sensitive and confidential data
• Ability to handle telephone enquiries and receive visitors, work well as part of a team and IT skills and Microsoft Office experience, including Word, Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint or equivalent.

Desirable criteria

• 2 A-Levels or more or NVQ 3 or equivalent level of education in a relevant subject or equivalent experience
• Talk to relevant people to get advice and information when unsure how to proceed
• Experience of handling sensitive and/or confidential data
• Experience of working in an office environment
• You are inquisitive, you seek out new information and look for new ways to develop yourself

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £22,370, UK Health Security Agency contributes £6,040 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

Stage 1: Application & Sift

Competency-based assessments

You will be required to complete an application form. You will be assessed on essential criteria, and this will be in the form of 

• An Application form (‘Employer/ Activity history’ section on the application)
• a 750 word Statement of Suitability.

This should outline how you consider your skills, experience, and knowledge, provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with reference to the essential criteria.

The Application and Statement of Suitability will be marked together

Shortlisting: In the event of a large number of applications we will shortlist on:

• IT skills and Microsoft Office experience, including Word, Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint or equivalent

Unfortunately, late applications will not be considered 

If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to interview & assessment

Please do not exceed 750 words.  We will not consider any words over and above this number.

Feedback will not be provided at this stage.

Stage 2: Interview 

You will be invited to a face to face interview in the Stephenson Street, Birmingham office. 

Knowledge, experience, skills & abilities will be tested at interview  

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Interviews will be held W/B 29th July 2024. 

Location information  

UKHSA operates a hybrid working model where business needs allow.  This provides us with greater flexibility about how and where we work, to get the best from our workforce. As a hybrid worker, you will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of your contractual working hours (approximately 3 days a week pro rata, (averaged over a month) working at one of UKHSA's locations (Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, and London).  Specialist or regional roles will be based at the appropriate UKHSA site.  

Eligibility Criteria 

External  

 Open to all external applicants (anyone) from outside the Civil Service (including by definition internal applicants). 

Security Clearance Level Requirement  

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check.  Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is Basic Personnel Security Standard.

This post is open to:    

• permanent UKHSA Civil Servants who entered Test and Trace (T&T), Public Health England (PHE) or UKHSA via fair and open competition (FOC) recruitment    

• fixed term appointments (FTA) who have entered the UKHSA, T&T or PHE via FOC    

• candidates looking for level moves – candidates who are substantive at the advertised grade    

• This vacancy is available for temporary promotion. (Delete if not on temp promotion)   

This post is not open to:    

• civil servants on loan in UKHSA, who are on fixed term appointments at their home department    

• FTAs and staff on loan who entered UKHSA, T&T or PHE via non-fair and open recruitment    

• contractors, consultants and secondees    

• candidates on probation, unless your current contract allows probationary moves  

Disability Confident scheme  

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.  

Reserve List clause  

Candidates who pass the interview criteria but are not offered a post will be kept on a reserve list for 12 months and may be contacted if similar roles become available.   

If you are interviewed for the post and do not meet the required threshold for the specified grade, your application may be assessed against a similar, lower grade role and you may be offered the post should one be available.  

Starting salary  

New entrants to the Civil Service are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band.    

The internal roles rules apply to existing Civil Servants, i.e. level transfers move on current salary or the pay range minimum, transfers on promotion move to new pay range minimum or receive 10% increase.    

Either case is determined by whichever is the highest.   

For further details please refer to the Information Sheet- Starting Salaries & Benefits attachment  

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

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)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.