PA and Diary Manager

Job summary

Defra group Property is responsible for providing fit for purpose and value added estates and Facilities Management (FM) services to the Defra Group Network,
This is a key role in Defra Group Property and is responsible for Deputy Directors Diary. This role ensures the DD’s day runs efficiently and their time is effectively managed.

The role involves day to day interaction with a wide range of stakeholders. It is a fast-paced role and the postholder needs to operate with a level of autonomy and be able to effectively prioritise and reprioritise their workload.

Our team is dispersed across the country – we don’t mind where you are, we just care who you are. The successful candidate can request to be based in any Defra or Environment Agency office.

Job description

The role will cover the range of activities required to enable the Deputy Directors in their daily activities.

The key responsibilities will be:

• Providing a vital first point of contact for partners, customers, staff and other stakeholders; develop, build and maintain a good working relationship and reputation as a reliable source of informed knowledge and experience and taking responsibility to resolve issues where appropriate to do so.

• Manage the Deputy Director’s inboxes, sorting emails as they are received and flagging up urgent work to the appropriate team members; helping them manage workflow.

• Diary management, general team support, taking into account competing priorities.

• Ensuring that regular meetings, key stakeholder meetings and ad-hoc meetings are scheduled, meeting rooms and catering are booked and travel and accommodation arrangements are in place.

• Delivering secretariat outputs for identified governance boards or key site meetings, if required; including setting agendas, note taking, producing actions and monitoring outputs.

• Handling a range of corporate tasks with discretion, tact and diplomacy and deal appropriately with sensitive information

Please note this vacancy has a flexible location and the successful candidate can choose to be based at any Defra office, subject to space. If the location chosen is Wrotham Heath please note the nearest town is West Malling, and for Threemilestone the nearest town is Truro.

Person specification

Experience required:

• Organising and delivering work to tight deadlines.

• Working across teams and within a team.

• Effective communication skills with a broad range of colleagues and stakeholders (orally and in writing).

• Working on own initiative and prioritising workload to meet conflicting objectives.

• Attention to detail.

• Competent IT skills (Word, Excel)

Behaviours

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

• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £29,715, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs contributes £8,608 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

• 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%

Flexi Time Policy. Our Flexi-time policy allows you to vary your hours from day to day, within the requirements of your role, to suit your needs and to offer a better work/life balance.

Leave. If you work full time at Defra you are entitled to 25 days’ leave (rising, over 5 years, to 30 days’). If you work part time it will be pro-rated.

Privilege day. You are also entitled to a privilege day off in May to mark the King’s birthday (date varies), plus time off for the 8 public holidays a year.

Career breaks. We recognise that your work-life balance can extend beyond the short-term to the longer-term, and to support this you are able to apply for career breaks. These are unpaid extended breaks from work, granted at the discretion of the department.

Volunteering leave - 3 days paid volunteering leave every year (pro-rata). Once you have passed probation.

Season ticket loan – for an interest free season ticket loan, if you have worked within the Defra for more than three months. This can be used to purchase train and bus season tickets, as well as station car parking.

Tenancy deposit loan – for an interest free loan, to assist you in meeting the deposit costs for your privately rented home.

Salary advances and loans for other circumstances – for salary advances and loans in the following circumstances: for new entrants, for the purchase of bicycles, holidays and religious holidays.

Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) scheme – Since the closure to new entrants of the employer childcare voucher scheme, the government introduced the Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) scheme. In this scheme, working parents open an online childcare account and for every £8 they pay in, the government adds £2, up to a maximum of £2,000 a year for each child or £4,000 for a disabled child. Parents then use the funds to pay for registered childcare.

Support to buy a bicycle – we run two schemes that can help you buy a bicycle for your commute:

1. The Cycle to Work Scheme –you can apply for a bicycle for your commute, up to the value of £6,000, which is recovered from you through salary sacrifice, as a tax-free benefit. At the end of the repayment period, you have the option to buy the bike if you wish, saving around 30% of the original cost.
2. Bike loan – if you are not eligible to apply for the Cycle to Work Scheme, you can apply for a loan of up to £1,000 towards the cost of a bike using the Bike loan scheme. This however is not a salary sacrifice scheme.

High-street and online discounts. Offers through SmartSpending™ which is accessed through the StaR platform. Accessible 24/7, you can save at hundreds of top retailers.

Maternity leave, paternity leave and shared parental leave. We offer generous maternity leave, paternity leave and shared parental leave – a total of 52 weeks leave to look after your new baby, regardless of your length of service. Most mothers are entitled to 39 weeks of paid leave, and a further 13 weeks of unpaid leave. Most partners are entitled to 15 days of paid paternity leave. Shared parental leave arrangements are in place, allowing parents to divide their leave with each other.

Professional Membership. Defra group will fund one professional membership for each permanent employee which is relevant to their role.

Eye care scheme. If you use a computer screen in connection with your job, we will pay for a regula