Business Support Officer/ PA - Government Property Agency

Job title: Business support/ PA

Department: Government Property Agency

Pay Rate: £19.54 per hour

Grade: Higher Executive Officer

Contract type: Temporary 3 Months.

Business area: GPA - Workplace Services

Vetting: SC Clearance required

Business area detail: This is a fast-moving, demanding and influential role, supporting Workplace Services Delivery SLT Team. It is a unique opportunity to accelerate your development and understand the workings of the Civil Service.

Type of role: Administration / Corporate Support, Business Management and Improvement, Operational Delivery, Property

Working Pattern: Flexible working, Full-time

Location: Westminster, London.

About The Job:

Short summary: Working at the heart of the Government Property Agency, you will be exposed to decision making from the most senior leaders across the GPA Workplace Services Delivery function. The role is a challenging one with a high level of exposure and responsibility and is a unique opportunity to understand the full scope of property management in an evolving department.

You will be expected to work independently and represent the Deputy Director / Senior Leadership Team with the support of the overall Workplace Services Director's Office. You will handle confidential and sensitive information on Cabinet Office systems. Communicating with impact both orally and in writing will be essential. You'll quickly build and maintain strong relationships with offices of senior civil servants and other property professionals, as well as other stakeholders, balancing and mitigating tensions and dependencies across a wide audience in order to deliver. Therefore, you will need excellent interpersonal skills and be comfortable interacting with and influencing senior officials and stakeholders from inside and outside government.

What will the successful candidate be doing?

Key Responsibilities:

• Professional business management support for the Directorate including managing the flow of work through the Director's office, maintaining business plans, reviewing and prioritising incoming correspondence and actioning tasks and requests.
• Anticipating future business needs to enable the Deputy Director and their Senior Leadership Team to operate effectively and efficiently, analysing business issues/problems and either implementing or recommending solutions.
• Co-ordinating Directorate-wide responses to feed into larger corporate returns and processes, ensuring commissioned material is received on time and is of acceptable quality. Identifying data requirements, sources and gaps, minimising the direct impact on delivery teams.
• Developing and overseeing the calendar of Directorate business and engagement meetings, organising logistics and ensuring materials are commissioned, produced and provided to support meetings/events, that accurate notes are kept and actions are tracked.
• Act as a Secretariat at Senior Leadership meetings (This includes setting the agenda, distribution of papers and ensuring action points and minutes are organised.)
• Providing professional, timely and effective day to day management of the Deputy Director's diary; ensuring that it meets the required standard; identifying issues as they arise and ensuring they are efficiently dealt with; making sure that the Deputy Director is appropriately briefed and prepared for meetings/events in advance.
• Building and maintaining effective working relationships across the GPA Directorates, wider Civil Service and senior stakeholders. Dealing with staff at all levels will require excellent interpersonal skills, a polite firmness, and an ability to react quickly to a changing environment, often thinking on your feet.
• The post holder may be required to undertake additional responsibilities as expected in relation to the role and grade.

Who are you looking for?

Person Specification:

• Good business management experience including the ability to lead on support for meetings, directorate planning and team organisation
• Ability to quickly develop a sound knowledge and understanding of business priorities, ways of working and information management
• Ability to work independently, quickly and efficiently in a fast paced environment, often to tight deadlines
• Confidence to manage upwards, and on behalf of the Deputy Director
• Good communication skills both orally and in writing
• Ability to work confidently and effectively with staff at all levels, including senior staff members.

Brook Street is proud to support the Armed Forces Covenant and as such, we guarantee to interview all candidates who are veterans or spouses/partners of military personnel, and who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy.

As a Disability Confident Leader, and holder of the Gold Award status from the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme, Brook Street, as a supplier to the Public Sector Resourcing Framework (PSR), will offer you a guaranteed interview with a PSR Sourcer.

Should you identify as a candidate with a disability and/or as a veteran or spouse/partner of military personnel and meet all the essential criteria for the role, we encourage you to reach out to us via the Brook Street website. Here you will find a link to register your interest and state the role that you are interested in. We are committed to engaging with you.

In cases where we have a high volume of ex-military candidates/military spouses/partners, who meet all of the essential criteria, Brook Street will interview the best candidates from within that group.