About the job

Job summary

The Government People Group exists to work with departments, professions, and functions to build a modern, effective Civil Service.

We support the government workforce with the right skills and capability. We are working with leaders to get the right people in the right jobs, with the right skills and continuous learning to excel in their roles.

We provide leadership, and in turn, create leaders with exceptional line management capability across departments, influencing partners in the wider public sector and beyond. This involves getting our retention and reward strategy right, to nurture specific skills, and create pride and resilience in our workforce.

Our role is also to provide system leadership across central government in pulling together back-office services. Collectively, we help support the Cabinet Office’s priority to drive efficiencies, and reforms that will make government work better, to ultimately provide a better service to the public.

The Corporate Services team is central to the smooth running of the Government People Group and delivering the organisation's strategic objectives. Composed of the Private Office, Communications, Business Management and Administration teams, the Corporate Services team provides direct support to the Executive Team and sets the tone for engagement with our key stakeholders.

The Private Office Team will work across a range of tasks to support the teams to which they are allocated, and will manage senior leaders’ diaries. This includes supporting the effective running of the team, effective diary management, meeting preparation and arranging travel, and responding to a range of requests for information, administrative and logistical tasks.

Job description

As Private Secretary, you will join a small and friendly Private Office team to play a pivotal role in assisting the Director General to progress the key priorities of the group. You will act as a key bridge between their office and the rest of the department. You will need to forge relationships across multiple teams to deliver high-quality briefing and advice. You will need to demonstrate excellent stakeholder engagement skills and be adept at building effective relationships with others. You will line manage the Diary Manager and report to the Chief of Staff.

As Private Secretary to the Director General, you will need to be organised and able to prioritise yours and others’ work. You will be able to build networks, maintain credible relationships, and communicate effectively with a range of stakeholders. You will also be able to engage with senior leadership both orally and in writing with confidence. An ability to remain calm under pressure and work autonomously is vital, and you will be expected to demonstrate a high degree of discretion and apply sound judgement in your work.

This role provides a rare opportunity to gain a bird's-eye view of the workings of the department and an insight into the challenges our senior leadership face daily. You will be assisted by an experienced team and wider Private Office network.

Key Responsibilities:

• Act as the prime contact point for the Director General, managing the interface with the rest of the Department and the smooth day-to-day running of the office
• Develop an understanding of the Director General’s priorities and key policy challenges across the Group, providing steers to teams as needed
• Inbox management, overseeing long and short-term priorities, including forward planning briefing and clearance requests and triaging issues
• Prioritising and delegating work appropriately, according to relative importance and urgency
• Provide logistic and administrative support for key meetings, including internal and external stakeholder meetings, committees and boards
• Build a network with HRDs across Departments, and lead on event management for the HR profession
• Build effective working relationships with other senior leadership and their offices, Ministers’ offices and policy, strategy and corporate functions across Cabinet Office
• Manage finance, IT and HR administration processes on behalf of the DG

Person specification

Essential Criteria

• Capable of operating under high pressure in a demanding environment, able to be calm, flexible and with the ability to reassess situations quickly, on the fly and when details might not be entirely clear. 
• Good experience of building relationships, demonstrating sensitivity, tact and an appreciation of other perspectives and viewpoints to find compromise, delivering through other people. 
• A strong team player, understanding how to work alongside other people and conscious of personal impact in a small team, as well as capable of operating independently at pace. 
• Attention to detail, thorough and focused regardless of distractions. 
• Work successfully with very senior officials, Ministers, HR colleagues from other Government Departments.
• This role is fast-paced and offers privileged access to the running of the Government. The post-holder must be able to respond positively to changing circumstances and competing priorities.

A minimum 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace. Although requirements to attend other locations for official business will also count towards this level of attendance.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £40,850, Cabinet Office contributes £11,029 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

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

Application process

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV, a 500 word personal statement and four 250 word behaviour statements. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

In your personal statement please use this space to highlight relevant skills, applicable experience, and what you can bring to the role. Relate this to the job description and against the Person Specification section.

Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be undertaken using the CV.

Selection process

An initial sift will be conducted on the CV, Personal Statement and four Behaviours. Candidates successful at the sift stage will be invited to interview.  At the interview, we'll assess you against the four behaviours listed in this advert during the selection process.

Expected timeline (subject to change)

Expected sift date – TBC
Expected interview date/s – TBC
Interview location - Online

Reasonable adjustments

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

Contact Government Recruitment Service via cabinetofficerecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs. 

Complete the ‘Assistance required’ section in the ‘Additional requirements’ page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Further information

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'contact point for applicants' section.

Please note that this role requires CTC clearance, which would normally need 3 years’ UK residency in the past 3 years. This is not an absolute requirement, but supplementary checks may be needed where individuals have not lived in the UK for that period. This may mean your security clearance (and therefore your appointment) will take longer or, in some cases, not be possible.

Please be aware the levels of national security clearance are changing which may impact on the level needed for this role by the time of appointment. All efforts will be made to keep candidates informed of any changes and what that will mean in terms of vetting criteria. For more information please See our vetting charter 

Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.

Any move to Cabinet Office from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months, from which further appointments can be made.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out. 

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service /Disclosure Scotland on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

For further information on the Disclosure Scotland confidential checking service telephone: the Disclosure Scotland Helpline on 0870 609 6006 and ask to speak to the operations manager in confidence, or email Info@disclosurescotland.co.uk

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment. 

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). 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. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.