Visits Support Officer (Ref: 21159)

Job summary

Job description

Background:

The Northern Ireland Office supports the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in promoting the best interests of Northern Ireland. We make sure that Northern Ireland interests are represented within the UK Government and that UK government responsibilities are fully and effectively represented in Northern Ireland. We are the centre of expertise on Northern Ireland issues across Government.

We employ around 170 staff, with offices in Belfast and London. As a small Department, we adopt a flexible project-based approach to ensure that we have the right people, with the right skills, in the right place to support the delivery of our key objectives.

Due to our structure and size, we are able to offer extensive exposure to Ministers and the opportunity to work on a far wider portfolio of policy and responsibilities than might be the case in a larger department. This creates an interesting and stimulating work environment.

Our key priorities are set out in our Operational Delivery plan and include:

• Supporting greater inclusion, tolerance and openness in Northern Ireland
• Contributing to a safer Northern Ireland, where terrorist and paramilitary groups are less able to cause harm to communitie
• Ensuring that governance in Northern Ireland is responsive, transparent and able to deliver effective public service.
• Addressing the legacy of the past in Northern Ireland

For more information about what we do:

Visit:https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/northern-ireland-office

About the Role:

This role involves working closely with Private Offices, other Government Departments and external stakeholders in planning, delivering and monitoring Ministerial visits and events in Northern Ireland, linking in with policy and communication teams and PSNI as needed.

Duties and Responsibilities

The main responsibilities of the role include but are not limited to:

• Providing effective administrative support to the Northern Ireland Office visits team, including, but not limited to, the maintenance of a visits forward look and tracker, notification of Ministerial visits, and production of a weekly visits summary.
• Support to other Government Departments (OGDs) to monitor, develop and deliver programmes of Ministerial visits in Northern Ireland.
• Acting as Visits Officer on occasion to support ministers on NIO visits and events
• Providing resilience and flexible support for wider demands which may arise within the visits team, in the wider Communications, Visits & Ceremonials Team and across the Department.
• Travel within Northern Ireland will be required.

Essential Criteria:

The post holder will need to demonstrate the following in their application and at interview

• At least two years’ experience of working with Ministers and senior officials or senior executives.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Excellent organisational skills.
• A good understanding of the political environment in Northern Ireland.
  Driving licence and access to a vehicle.

Behaviours:

We will assess you against the following Success Profiles behaviours and strengths at the HEO level during the application sift and interview process:

• Working Together (lead behaviour)
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace

Please note that in the event of a large number of applications being received we may run the initial sift on the lead Behaviour, which is Working Together.

Experience:

Please provide a CV with your work history details, and statement of suitability no longer than 750 words outlining how you meet the essential criteria. Both will be used in order to assess any demonstrable experience, career history and achievements that are relevant to the role.

Your statement of suitability needs to set out evidence of how your experience meets the requirements set out above. Your layout is entirely your preference; you may choose narrative, bullets, etc. One narrative example may cover the requirements needed. You don’t have to explain the whole process, just what you have done and the skills and experience you have used. Share with us what makes you suited to this role and why. What you can do, the skills you have that are transferable and the life experience or passion you have that are linked to this role.

If you don’t have work-based examples then give examples from school/college, clubs, volunteering or other activities you have been involved in.

Your CV should include details of your education, professional qualifications, previous skills and full employment history. Your CV will not be formally assessed so please put the main evidence of your skills into your personal statement. Your CV will be used to add context to your personal statement.

More information on behaviours and success profiles can be found here.

Interview:

You will be assessed against the same behaviours at the interview stage and will be asked to provide examples of how you have demonstrated the behaviours.

It may help to use one or more examples of a piece of work you have completed or a situation you have been in and use the WHO or STAR model to explain:

• WHO: What it was? How you approached the work/situation? What the Outcomes were, what did you achieve? or
• STAR: What was the Situation? What were the Tasks? What Action did you take? What were the Results of your actions?

Strengths:

It is difficult to prepare for strength type questions. However, you can think through your answers, focus on your achievements and aspects you enjoy and decide how these can be applied in the organisation and role. While strengths questions are shorter and we do not expect a full STAR response, the panel is interested in your first reaction to the question and information or reasoning to support this.

If you do not have work-based examples then please give examples from school/college, clubs, volunteering or other activities you have been involved in.

All applications for employment are considered strictly on the basis of merit.

Offer:

Once all interviews have been completed, you will be notified of the outcome by email. Offers will be made in strict merit order to the highest scoring candidate first.

The successful candidate will be notified of a start date following successful security checks

Additional information received after the closing date will not be considered. Failure to provide sufficient information in support of an application prior to the closing date will not be considered as grounds for an appeal if an applicant is not shortlisted for interview.

Security Clearance:

This role requires National Security Vetting given the access to sensitive information afforded by the job role. You can find more information by reviewing the information held in the following links:

United Kingdom Security Vetting: Applicant - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)