Principal Private Secretary

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

- 411559

**Salary**:

- £81,000
- This post is at Senior Civil Service(SCS) Pay band 1 level.

The salary is £81,000 with an additional £10,000 Private Office Allowance
- A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

GBP

**Job grade**:

- SCS Pay Band 1

**Contract type**:

- Permanent

**Business area**:

- DWP - Policy

**Type of role**:

- Policy

**Working pattern**:

- Full-time, Job share

**Number of jobs available**:

- 1

**Contents**:

- Location
- About the job
- Benefits
- Things you need to know

**Location**:

- London

**About the job**:
**Job summary**:
DWP is looking to fill Principal Private Secretary role in Policy Group.
The Principal Private Secretary plays a high profile and critical role within DWP working within a fast paced and dynamic environment. Their primary focus is acting as a trusted adviser to the DWP Secretary of State, managing that critical relationship and supporting the Secretary of State in their delivery of the DWP priorities. The role entails:

- Advising and supporting the Secretary of State in their oversight of the department and delivery of their objectives.
- Leading Private Office, ensuring that it works effectively in support of Ministers and the department.
- Oversight of ministerial correspondence, legislation and Parliament, and the Secretary of State’s Implementation and Delivery Unit.
- Acting as a bridge between the Secretary of State, senior civil servants, policy and operational experts across the department.
- Building strong relationships with the PM and Chancellor’s office, to support the Secretary of State and the Department to achieve its objectives.
- The role involves a significant amount of collaborative working across DWP, with Senior Officials and their teams, Ministers, Special Advisers and stakeholders.

**Virtual Engagement Session**

**Date**: 18th June 2025 **Time**: 14:00 - 15:00

This virtual session is an opportunity for you to find out more about the role and what it's like leading the Policy Directorate. You'll get the opportunity to hear directly from the vacancy holder Emily Antcliffe (Vacancy Holder) and Carrie Rodgers (HR Director) who will provide an overview of the role and hold a Q&A session Join Live Event

**Job description**:
As the biggest public service department in the country, we are looking for a dynamic and experienced leader to help us navigate through the times ahead.

This role presents a fabulous opportunity to work at the heart of government, advising and supporting the Secretary of State, wider Executive Team and Non-Executive Directors on the governance and accountability of the department.

This is an important leadership role, of both the immediate Departmental Governance and Legislation Division, and working with a busy Private Office and ministerial team supporting priority cross-cutting work in the Department.

It’s an exciting time to be part of DWP

**Person specification**:

- Experience of working in a policy and political environment with senior stakeholders and an understanding of how DWP’s role fits into the wider Government context.

Highly developed interpersonal and influencing skills, with the ability to:

- Establish credibility and trust quickly with a diverse network of senior leaders and / or Ministers
- Present complex issues simply and effectively and influence decisions,
- Deliver results at pace, handle uncertainty and demonstrate exceptional judgement in a complex environment

Strong people leadership skills:

- An inspirational leader with a flair for engaging people making the complex simple and compelling
- Provides visible, positive, and collaborative leadership
- Able to build capable, inclusive, and high performing teams
- Makes a full contribution to the wider leadership team.

**Behaviours**:
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

- Leadership
- Communicating and Influencing
- Delivering at Pace
- Making Effective Decisions

**Benefits**:

- Alongside your salary of £81,000, Department for Work and Pensions contributes £23,465 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

DWP have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:

- Working patterns to support work/life balance such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.
- Generous annual leave - at least 25 days on entry, increasing up to 30 days over time (pro-rata for part time employees), plus 9 days public and privilege leave.
- Support for financial wellbeing, including interest-free season ticket loans for travel, a cycle to work scheme and an employee discount scheme.
- Health and wellbeing support including our Employee Assistance Programme for specialist advice and counselling and the opportunity to join HASSRA a first-class programme of competitions, activities and benefits for it