Personal Assistant to Two Deputy Directors

EO

Judicial and Legal Services Policy Directorate

The Judicial and Legal Services Policy Directorate is recruiting permanently for an EO Personal Assistant. This campaign is open to current civil servants on level transfer and suitable candidates on promotion.

Location:

Successful candidates will be based at 102 Petty France, London

Occasional travel between the two locations may be required. We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and time spent in your base location (102 Petty France)

Ways of Working

At the MoJ we believe and promote alternative ways of working, these roles are available as

• Full-time

• Flexible working patterns

If we receive applications from more suitable candidates than we have vacancies for at this time, we may hold suitable applicants on a reserve list for 12 months, and future vacancies requiring the same skills and experience could be offered to candidates on the reserve list without a new competition.

We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce and pride ourselves as being an employer of choice. To find out more about how we champion diversity and inclusion in the workplace, visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity

Salary

Existing Civil Servants will have their salary calculated in accordance with the Department’s pay on transfer / pay on promotion rules.  

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ)

MoJ is the largest government department, employing over 90,000 people with a budget of approximately £10 billion. Each year, millions of people use our services across the UK - including at 500 courts and tribunals, and 133 prisons in England and Wales.

Further information can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice

The Work of Judicial and Legal Services Policy Directorate

JLSP is responsible for the department’s relationship with the judiciary and the legal services sector. Our aim is to support a flourishing legal sector and a world-class judiciary and to contribute to an effective and efficient courts system.

Personal Assistant - the role

You will work in a fast-paced and exciting environment to provide PA support to two busy Deputy Directors (DD) and administrative support to their teams. You will need to anticipate and resolve issues using your judgement to prioritise competing demands and successfully support your DDs so they are able to deliver their responsibilities. You will need to be agile working with the business support team to deliver a wide range of business support activities and where required cover in the team.

Key responsibilities include:

• Managing two DDs diary and inbox, including proactively and sensibly organising their day, deconflicting meetings by understanding their priorities and arranging all logistics for internal and external meetings.

• Seeking papers in advance of meetings in sufficient time and organising as per their preference i.e. into relevant folders in inbox, OneNote or printed.

• Build and maintain excellent relationships with PAs across MoJ and externally, and with other staff within the Directorate and wider MoJ.

• Clearly communicating with colleagues to deliver effective outcomes for DDs.

• Supporting administrative activities such as leaver actions and onboarding new starters and actions supporting DD team meetings.

This list is not exhaustive, and the role and responsibilities will develop over time.

Skills and Experience

The postholder will be able to demonstrate the following skills and experience:

Essential

• Proficient in Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and MS Teams

• Excellent oral and written communication skills

• Excellent organisational, time management and task management skills

• Ability to be proactive and forward plan

• Highly resilient and takes a “can do" attitude to resolving issues

• Can work well within a team and alone

Desirable

• Experience of working in an office/organisational environment and familiarity with Business Support functions 

• Experience providing support to Senior Leaders

• Experience working as a Personal Assistant

Candidates applying from HMPPS should note that the Ministry of Justice does not have the same conditions of employment as HMPPS. It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the terms and conditions they will adopt should they be successful.

The MoJ is proud to be Level 3 Disability Confident. Disability Confident is the approach through which we offer guaranteed interviews for all people with disabilities meeting the minimum criteria for the advertised role as set out in the job description.

Application process

You will be assessed against the Civil service success profiles framework.

Experience

You will be asked to provide a CV during the application process in order to assess any demonstrable experience, career history and achievements that are relevant to the role.

Statement of Suitability

Please provide a statement of suitability demonstrating how you meet the essential skills and experience of 500 words.

Behaviours

During the application process you will be asked to provide an example of how you have met the following behaviour (see Annex A for more information):

• Communicating & Influencing

• Making Effective Decisions

Please also refer to the CS Behaviours framework for more details at this grade:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/717275/CS_Behaviours_2018.pdf

Should we receive a large number of applications, we will sift primarily on the lead behaviour of Making Effective Decisions. Successful applicants will then be invited to an interview, testing both behaviours and strengths.

Candidates invited to Interview

Interviews will be carried out in 102 Petty France, London.

During the panel interview, you will be asked behaviour-based questions to explore in detail what you are capable of, and strengths-based questions to also explore what you enjoy, and your motivations relevant to the job role.

There is no expectation or requirement for you to prepare for the strengths-based questions in advance of the interview, though you may find it helpful to spend some time reflecting on what you enjoy doing and what you do well.

You can refer to the CS Strengths dictionary for more details: Success Profiles - Civil Service Strengths Dictionary (publishing.service.gov.uk)

In addition to the Behaviour(s) listed in the application form, you will be asked by the interview panel to provide examples of how you meet the four behaviours listed below.

• Communicating & Influencing

• Making Effective Decisions

• Delivering at Pace

• Changing and Improving

Contact information  

Please do get in touch if you would like to know more about the role or what it is like working in our team.

Abi Rice

Abi.Rice1@justice.gov.uk

07745207110

Annex A - The STAR method

Using the STAR method can help you give examples of relevant experience that you have. It allows you to set the scene, show what you did, and how you did it, and explain the overall outcome.

Situation - Describe the situation you found yourself in. You must describe a specific event or situation. Be sure to give enough detail for the job holder to understand.

• Where are you?

• Who was there with you?

• What had happened?

Task - The job holder will want to understand what you tried to achieve from the situation you found yourself in.

• What was the task that you had to complete and why?

• What did you have to achieve?

Actions - What did you do? The job holder will be looking for information on what you did, how you did it and why. Keep the focus on you. What specific steps did you take and what was your contribution? Remember to include how you did it, and the behaviours you used. Try to use “I" rather than “we" to explain your actions that lead to the result. Be careful not to take credit for something that you did not do.

Results - Don’t be shy about taking credit for your behaviour. Quote specific facts and figures. Explain how the outcome benefitted the organisation or your area. Make the outcomes easily understandable.

• What results did the actions produce?

• What did you achieve through your actions and did you meet your goals?

• Was it a successful outcome? If not, what did you learn from the experience?

Keep the situation and task parts brief. Concentrate on the action and the result. If the result was not entirely successful describe what you learned from this and what you would do differently next time. Make sure you focus on your strengths.