Location

London

About The Job

Job summary

The role of a Private Secretary is varied, challenging and stimulating. You can expect an exciting and fast-paced experience, where no two days are the same.

The role is critical to ensuring Ministers can work effectively with the department, the wider Government, key external stakeholders, and Parliament. You will work with a small, close-knit team and have a significant amount of autonomy.

The post-holders will be responsible for shaping a culture that promotes equality, diversity and inclusion and empowers people to succeed in private office.

Job Description

Working with Ministers - you will develop a strong and trusted relationship with Ministers, acting as a first point of contact on policy priorities, in meetings, in Parliament and on visits. This will include providing clear written and verbal advice to the Minister, often on complex policy issues, and ensuring the department responds appropriately to the Minister’s steers.

Collaborating across the department and beyond - you will build strong relationships with colleagues across policy, communications and beyond to successfully deliver the Minister’s priorities, and representing the Minister in discussions and negotiations across government – including with No.10 and external stakeholders.

Ensuring delivery across your portfolio - you will work flexibly to respond to multiple emerging issues across your portfolio, while continuing to ensure the Minister’s strategic vision and priorities are delivered.

Leading visibly - you will play an important role in the division to help set direction and ground it as a place where everyone is provided with both support and challenge needed to get the best out of themselves.

The successful candidate will have responsibility for a policy portfolio, operate at a senior level across government with credibility not often matched at this grade, and be a visible leader across the division and wider department.

While no experience of Private Office is required, we are looking for self-starters with excellent judgements who are able to operate autonomously, working with a range of stakeholders.

Person specification

The successful candidate will be a self-starter and have:

The ability to work on multiple complex issues at pace and simultaneously, using careful judgement and strong organisational skills to prioritise;
Personal resilience, including the ability to adapt quickly to new demands and work flexibly in order to deliver quality outcomes for Ministers under pressure.
Very strong written and verbal communication skills, and the confidence to effectively and sensitively review the work of other, often senior colleagues;
Excellent judgment and policy analysis that can be deployed flexibly across a wide range of issues, as well as the mental agility to understand a range of political priorities and assess their impact on departmental policy;
The ability to manage a range of competing views and drive progress in the department and across government through exceptional relationship-building, communication and negotiation skills;
and the drive and enthusiasm to work autonomously, communicating regularly within a small team.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £35,400, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £10,255 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Learning and development tailored to your role
An environment with flexible working options
A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Selection process details

As part of our pre-employment checking process we will be using your CV to confirm your job history. Please note that by providing us with your CV you are consenting to us using the information enclosed as part of the checking process. Unless stated otherwise in the advert, your CV will not form part of the assessment but will be used for information purposes and only shared with the panel at interview stage.

Our application system is designed to remove as much bias as possible from the recruitment system – this means that a hiring manager does not know your name, your details, see your whole application in one go (or have your CV at review stage unless stated otherwise).

Your answers are randomised and chunked up. This means that each assessor views sets of responses to questions, for example all candidates’ responses to ‘Seeing the Big Picture’ rather than seeing a candidate’s full application. The science behind this is that recruitment can be subject to ordering and fatigue effects and we want to reduce this as much as possible.

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that each of your answers would be viewed by different assessors.

When writing your application, remember:

The assessor won’t be reading your answers sequentially.
Do not assume that the same assessors will have read all of your answers.
If talking about something in your first answer, make sure that you write the second answer as if you had not written the first (and so on!)

At sift, we will be assessing

Delivering at Pace (Lead behaviour) - Tell us about a time when you had to juggle competing priorities to deliver an urgent ask?

Making effective decisions - Give an example of a time you have had to make a difficult decision and how you approached your decision making?

Seeing the big picture - Tell us about a decision you made which impacted on other teams, areas or departments.

There is a 250 word limit per question.

In the event that we receive a large number of applications, we may conduct an initial sift using the lead behaviour listed in the advert. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment/interview.

The interview will be of a blended nature consisting of the following success profiles elements:

Behaviour – Delivering at pace, Making effective decisions, Seeing the big picture

Strength - The strength based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.

In the full campaign we will test the below Success Profile Elements:

Behaviours: Delivering at pace, Making effective decisions, Seeing the big picture

Strengths: Yes

We do not consider direct CV applications to our Recruitment mailbox – you must apply for this role via the application link on Civil Service Jobs

Please note that near miss offers may be made at the lower grade to candidates who do not meet the grade criteria for this campaign.

HEO salary

The salary for this role is £35,400 (London)
For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable. If you apply for a role that requires a transfer of location, for example if you are transferring from London to a National location, your salary will be adjusted in accordance with our policy on transfer between HQ pay ranges.

Please note that the average employer pension contribution is based upon the National minimum salary for this role. Should your agreed starting salary for this role be different, the average employer pension contribution will be calculated accordingly. If you are a Secondee, this will not apply as you will remain on your home organisation’s terms and conditions.

BENEFITS :

Transfers across the Civil Service on or after 4 October 2018:

Any move to MHCLG from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

For further information about the benefits available to MHCLG employees, please see the attached Candidate Pack.

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION:

London

There may be opportunities for candidates to work flexibly depending on the business needs. This will be discussed with the vacancy manager on a case-by-case basis if you are successful for the role.

SIFT AND INTERVIEW DATES :

Sifting is envisaged to take place w/c 18/11/24 with interview dates to be confirmed. All interviews are currently being held remotely via videocall.

Reserve List

In the event that we identify more appointable candidates than we currently have posts available, we will hold applicant details in a reserve list for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made. This may include roles at a lower grade. Candidates placed on a reserve list will be informed of this. Those candidates who do not wish to remain on the reserve list should contact recruitment@communities.gov.uk to be removed from the reserve list.

CTC (Counter-terrorism Clearance) :

Important note

Successful candidates for roles based in our 2 Marsham Street building must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check and the process can take up to 8 weeks to complete.

Please note that successful candidates will need to pass the CTC security checks – this requires you to have been resident in the UK for the past 3 years. Please refer to the MHCLG Notes on Security Clearance section of our Candidate Pack for further information on Counter Terrorism Clearance (CTC). Thank you.

Candidates should also note that with effect from 1 st August 2018 the department will also check all applicants who are successful at interview, against the Internal Fraud Database (IFD) held by the Cabinet Office. In accordance with the Civil Service Internal Fraud Policy, any applicant who is included on the IFD will be refused employment by MHCLG. Please see the Candidate Pack for further information on the Internal Fraud Database.

Candidate Pack Information

Please see attached Candidate pack for further information.

Before starting your application it’s very important to make sure that you are eligible to apply and meet the Civil Service nationality requirements. All candidates are expected to read the information provided in the MHCLG candidate pack regarding nationality requirements and rules

Internal Fraud Database

The Internal Fraud function of the Fraud, Error, Debt and Grants Function at the Cabinet Office processes details of civil servants who have been dismissed for committing internal fraud, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned. The Cabinet Office receives the details from participating government organisations of civil servants who have been dismissed, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned, for internal fraud. In instances such as this, civil servants are then banned for 5 years from further employment in the civil service. The Cabinet Office then processes this data and discloses a limited dataset back to MHCLG as a participating government organisations. MHCLG then carry out the pre employment checks so as to detect instances where known fraudsters are attempting to reapply for roles in the civil service. In this way, the policy is ensured and the repetition of internal fraud is prevented.

For more information please see - Internal Fraud Register

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check (opens in a new window) . See our vetting charter (opens in a new window) .

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality Requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

UK nationals
nationals of the Republic of Ireland
nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window) .

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window) .

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

Name : Beth Corker
Email : beth.corker@communities.gov.uk

Recruitment team

Email : recruitment@communities.gov.uk

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

New Jobs

Private Secretary