Job Description

Food Standards Agency

Contract: Ongoing to March 2022 Hours: 37hrs a week - Flexible working hours
Salary: £12.72/hour
Start Date: Immediate
Location: Working from home but if you wish to attend the office can choose from York or London Office

Being a Personal Assistant (PA) to a member of the Senior Civil Service (SCS) puts you at the very heart of policy, relationships and oversight in a government department.

The PA to SCS contributes to the smooth running of the SCS's Office, ensuring a high quality, professional level of support to enable them to deliver the FSA's strategic objectives to be an excellent accountable modern regulator. The PA will do this by ensuring the SCS member is supported in all aspects of their work, including matters of confidentiality, to enable them to effectively manage their workload.

Day to Day Management of Information Flow

• Assist in an effective and efficient two-way exchange of information between the SCS, Chief Executive, Chair and Deputy Chair, FSA Officials, Ministerial Private Offices and Stakeholders;
• Providing drafting support for key pieces of SCS communications, such as Reports to the Board;
• Manage the flow of information in and out of the SCS office, dealing with it in a sensitive and timely manner, and ensuring confidentiality as appropriate;
• Effective maintenance of the internal electronic filing system;
• Developing a good knowledge of the FSA and establishing good working relationships with FSA officials to ensure that advice can be sought quickly on meeting requests;
• Proactive management of correspondence; identifying the correct official and commissioning responses and ensuring that the correspondence is actioned within service delivery targets;
• Researching and preparation of briefing papers for events, meetings on subjects;
• Drafting of documents including clear version control/ multiple tracked changes management

Management of Meetings and Diary

• Use own initiative to actively manage the diary including scheduling internal and external meetings, visits, attendance at events and managing time effectively;
• Make decisions / recommendations on cost effective travel and accommodation arrangements as required;
• Deal with phone and email enquiries on behalf of the Director/SCS member, both internal and external, and directing as appropriate;
• Re prioritisation of work at short notice when necessary;
• Prioritising meeting requests for both internal and external meetings; seeking advice where necessary from FSA officials on the appropriateness and timing of meeting requests from external stakeholders

The Ideal candidate we are looking for:

• Excellent organisational and IT skills with experience of managing conflicting demands.

• Experience of working under pressure at pace, autonomously, and as part of a team, to deliver customer service providing balanced quality and cost effectiveness.

• Good interpersonal skills; experience of building effective working relationships with colleagues at all levels.

• Good standard of written and verbal English and the ability to articulate clearly, with the ability and experience of producing correspondence promptly and accurately.

• Great Knowledge and use of different Microsoft packages.

If this sounds like you click apply now!