Private Office

**Details**:
**Reference number**:

- 335108**Salary**:

- £40,912 - £41,567- Inner London £40,912 Min - £41,567 Max**Job grade**:

- Higher Executive Officer**Contract type**:

- Permanent**Business area**:

- DWP - Private Office**Type of role**:

- Policy**Working pattern**:

- Full-time, Job share**Number of jobs available**:

- 3Contents

Location

About the job

**Benefits**:
Things you need to know

Location
- Westminster, LondonAbout the job

**Job summary**:
DWP is the UK’s biggest public service department, and administers the state pension, a range of working age, disability, and ill health benefits to around 22 million claimants and customers. What we do matters to millions of people every day.

**Job description**:
DWP Private Office is the link between Ministers, the Permanent Secretary, the Departmental Board, the Executive Team, the wider Department and across Government, and plays a key role in the development of policy and the delivery of Ministerial priorities.

We have several exciting opportunities coming up, offering the chance to work with Ministers daily, helping to address challenges that affect the lives of people across the country. These roles provide an opportunity to see how Ministers, Special Advisers and the Civil Service operate in a way that is rarely matched in other roles of the same grade.
- The opportunity to work closely with Ministers, Special Advisers, and senior officials
- An exciting, fast paced, and challenging work environment that involves dealing with complex issues
- The chance to be part of a supportive team with plenty of opportunities to Learn and develop new skills
- The opportunity to broaden understanding of DWP policy, Parliamentary business and cross government functions

In this role, the Assistant Private Secretary is responsible for:

- Work with the Department and the Grade 7 Head of Office, be responsible for making sure Ministers or Special Advisers get the high-quality advice they need to make well informed decisions, often on complex and fast-moving policy areas. You will then work with teams across the Department to ensure feedback is relayed and actioned.
- Advise and work directly with Ministers or Special Advisers to support them to deliver their departmental.
- Co-ordinate the Ministers' or Special Advisers’ duties, supporting them in a wide range of internal and cross-government meetings and engagements, ensuring they are well briefed for parliamentary debates and select committees.
- Support the Minister or Special Adviser during meetings, responsible for providing an accurate readout, capturing actions and ensuring progress.
- Accompany and support Ministers or Special Advisers on relevant events and visits, working with the visits team to ensure logistics are properly arranged and acting as an ambassador for your Minister and DWP when meeting high profile stakeholders.
- In Special Advisers’ office, you will prioritise and work closely with Secretary of State’s Private Secretaries to ensure that the Secretary of State receives high quality advice at the right time.
- Play a proactive role in the wider corporate effort within the Private Office.

**Person specification**:
**In** **these roles you will**
- We are looking for someone with excellent organisational skills and the ability to communicate effectively with Ministers, Special Advisers, and senior officials.
- You will need to manage a heavy workload, be able to prioritise effectively and enjoy working in a fastmoving environment.
- You will also need excellent judgement and political awareness and an interest in parliamentary business.
- Experience of working with ministers and an understanding of DWP policy and operational matters is desirable but not essential.

**Essential Criteria**
- An ability to work collaboratively within a dynamic team, often to short deadlines and to achieve common goals, maintaining a high level of service throughout. (**Lead Criteria)**:

- Strong interpersonal, relationship building and communication skills (both verbal and written).
- Confidence to engage proactively and regularly with the Department's most senior leaders, including Ministers, Permanent Secretary, Directors.
- Excellent judgement and approach to situations, tasks and problems, and a self-starter who can work.
- An ability to deliver to tight deadlines quickly but effectively, whilst remaining professional in a pressured environment.
- A strong track record in managing a high-quality service, and the ability to manage competing priorities and deal pragmatically with sometimes conflicting priorities.
- A flexible outlook and approach, coupled with a real taking responsibility for high quality work, demonstrating personal resilience and strong attention to detail.
- Excellent IT skills, especially Outlook.

Due to nature of the role, it may be necessary to work long hours, especially when Parliament is sitting, for which overtime will be payable.

**Behaviours**:
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