PA to Director / Deputy Director(s) - Executive Officer (Apprenticeship)
* Salary: £27,680
* Contract Type: Permanent
* Working Pattern: This post is available on a full time, part time or job share basis, and flexible working hours can be accommodated.
* Location: Darlington (Feethams House) only
Are you keen to develop a rounded set of high‑level PA skills and are you someone who is proactive and has the ability to use their own initiative? If so, this could be the ideal role for you!
About The Team
The Public Services Group is at the heart of Treasury’s work to secure sustainable public finances and drive economic growth. We manage public spending of more than £250bn across key public services and departments, including health, education, the criminal justice system, local government, housing, defence and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
We do this by working with other government departments, ministers, and other Treasury teams to ensure that spending plans support high quality public services, help the economy to grow and provide value for money for the taxpayer.
Our roles offer a range of opportunities to work with senior leaders in other government departments and on the frontline of public services and ensure the effective delivery of public services.
The Group is committed to being an excellent place to work, with a relentless focus on good management, learning and development and continuous improvement in everything we do.
The team works together to provide an efficient and professional administrative service to the eight teams within Public Services Group. We seek to ensure all support helps the teams meet corporate and management objectives. Another key service is the PA assistance we provide to the groups senior civil servants (SCS).
The key responsibilities of the post-holder will be:
* Proactively managing diaries to prioritise the most important meetings, arranging meetings in the most efficient order, identifying and resolving clashes before they happen, arranging any travel or other logistics such as meeting room and desk booking at all HMT sites, tech support when joining or hosting virtual meetings, and delegating meetings to other members of the group where appropriate.
* Proactively managing email and phone calls to prioritise the most important and/or urgent messages, filtering out irrelevant messages, ensuring all relevant meeting papers and pre‑meeting prep/materials have been provided to the Director(s), and delegating messages to other members of the group where appropriate.
* Ensuring the Director(s) are clear on their agenda for the day and the coming week, providing clear instructions on arrival time and location for each appointment and any additional support required to keep the meeting on track. Anticipating when appropriate to intervene to keep the day on track or bring the Director’s attention to urgent actions.
* Thinking ahead to identify issues or tasks the Director(s) will need to address, such as supporting recruitment processes, tracking team budgets, taking minutes for team meetings and proactively suggesting the best way to organise and track team objectives.
* Building good relationships with internal and external stakeholders; at times the post-holder may be asked to cover for additional members of the GMT if staff are absent.
* Working collaboratively across the group workstreams on behalf of the GMS, supporting and contributing to the wider group work.
The post-holder will work collaboratively with the other members of the Public Services Group GMS to provide high‑quality administrative support to the Group through the GMS mailbox. This means the post-holder will gain experience working across a number of teams and will also have the opportunity to shape the future of the GMS.
As part of your role you will complete a Level 3 Business Administration apprenticeship with Paragon. You will need to meet the eligibility requirements for apprenticeship funding; more information is available here, and you must pass an assessment of prior learning from the apprenticeship provider to ensure funding is used to develop new knowledge, skills and behaviours.
Qualifications Required
* Equivalent of Level 2 Maths and English (GCSE Grade C/4 or above).
About You
We are looking for people who have the ability to use their own initiative and good time management to make effective decisions under pressure. You will also be able to deliver service objectives with professional excellence, expertise and efficiency, taking account of diverse customer needs. You will be able to form effective partnerships and relationships with people both internally and externally.
Benefits
* 25 days annual leave (rising to 30 after 5 years), plus 8 public holidays and the King’s birthday (unless you have a legacy arrangement as an existing Civil Servant). Additionally, we operate flexitime systems, allowing employees to take up to an additional 2 days off each month.
* Flexible working patterns (part‑time, job‑share, condensed hours).
* Generous parental and adoption leave packages.
* Access to a generous Defined Benefit pension scheme with employer contributions of 28%.
* Access to a cycle‑to‑work salary sacrifice scheme and season ticket advances.
* A range of active staff networks, based around interests (e.g. analysts, music society, sports and social club) and diversity.
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