Assistant Private Secretary

Job summary

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) sits at the heart of the criminal justice system, working with partners to help keep the public safe. We deal with criminal cases at every level – including burglary, terrorism, domestic abuse and multi-million-pound fraud cases. We also work across borders to tackle cybercrime, human trafficking and drugs smuggling, and use our powers to confiscate the proceeds of crime at home and abroad.

Private Office is being restructured to ensure that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Chief Operating Officer (COO) or Director General Legal Delivery (DGLD) have the right support. As Assistant Private Secretary you lead a team supporting one of these principals. Using sound judgement, political awareness and strong stakeholder engagement, you ensure that their principal is well briefed, has effective diary management, is well supported, and is able to focus on strategic priorities. You report to the Head of Private Office and will work closely with the other Private Secretaries supporting and ensuring link up to the other two principals in the team.

You are also required to build strong and effective relationships internally (with corporate functions and in operational/legal roles) and externally (within Whitehall, particularly the AGO, and other operational partners). This will ensure accurate and timely information and advice is provided to the DPP, COO and/or DGLD, and ensure effective communication of their decisions, views, priorities, and objectives to the rest of the CPS. You support a service which ensure the DPP, COO, and DGLD remain visible and connected with CPS staff.

The Crown Prosecution Service is based in England and Wales. If you’re applying for this role and live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you must let us know when accepting this offer as you need permission to work from your home address if hybrid working is part of your role. There’s no guarantee that we will grant this approval.

You must be aged 16 or over at the point of starting in this role. The expected start date is approximately 8–12 weeks after the application closing date. Candidates are expected to commence employment as soon as possible following the expiry of their notice period. Requests for significantly later start dates may not be accommodated.

As part of this role, you are expected to undertake direct line management responsibilities.

Please note there will be some travel to accompany senior leaders on visits or meetings.

If you’re a current Crown Prosecution Service employee, you remain based at your permanent office location throughout the post. You’re expected to travel to the temporary office at least 40% of your contracted hours over a four-week period – travel and subsistence may be applicable. If you have any questions, please contact [email removed]

Job description

Your roles and responsibilities:

• to provide high‑quality strategic advice and be alert to activities or emerging issues with the principal’s portfolio, to support to drive forward the principal’s priorities.
• to coordinate and prioritise the workflow into and out of the principal’s inbox, ensuring timely and appropriate action.
• build effective relationships across the CPS, government departments and external organisations to maintain awareness of the wider operating context.
• build and maintain strong working relationships with internal teams and external partners to ensure flow of information to/from Private Office and ensure the principal has the information needed to make robust decisions or interventions.
• to ensure high quality briefings, documentation and administrative support, involving the right people, identifying risks, and resolving issues efficiently to ensure the principal is fully prepared for meetings and visits.
• lead and develop direct reports, setting clear objectives and managing performance, attendance and welfare.
• to proactively manage and coordinate the principal’s time and resource, working closely with diary secretaries and Assistant Private Secretaries to maintain a coherent forward look and highlight pressure points.

A copy of the full job description is attached.

Person specification

To be eligible to apply, you need to:

• have an understanding of working with senior officials and/or Ministers

It is desirable that you have the below experience but this is not required to apply:

• building and maintaining productive relationships and effective networks with stakeholders across a department and externally.

Behaviours

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

• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and Influencing
• Seeing the Big Picture

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace
• Seeing the Big Picture

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £37,615, Crown Prosecution Service contributes £10,897 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).

Join the Crown Prosecution Service and find your purpose.

The Crown Prosecution Service is passionate about ensuring that we're a top performing organisation and a great place to work. We're a committed equal opportunities employer, creating a culture where you can bring your whole self to work, and individuality is truly appreciated.

This culture of inclusion is underpinned by our staff networks covering disability, faith and belief, LGBTQI+, race, social mobility alongside our mental health first aiders programme and wellbeing sessions.

The Crown Prosecution Service commits to offer its employees the following experience.

• You can do impactful, purposeful work that’s making a difference to your local communities.
• You are able to learn and grow, with access to the right opportunities and resources.
• We care about your wellbeing.
• We want you to feel valued, trusted and included.

We also offer the following range of benefits:

• Civil Service contributory pension of up to 28.9%
• 25 days’ leave, increasing to 30 days after 5 years
• £350 each year to spend on personal development
• lawyer training programme for all new prosecutors
• an extra privilege day to mark the King's birthday
• competitive maternity, paternity and parental leave
• flexible working including flexitime, and a family friendly approach to work
• Cycle2Work scheme, employee savings.

Diversity at the Crown Prosecution Service is about inclusion, embracing differences and ensuring our workforce truly reflects the communities we serve. We want you to feel that you belong and can thrive, whatever your background, identity or culture. As a Disability Confident employer, we're happy to support requests for reasonable adjustments and improve your recruitment experience. If you'd like any reasonable adjustments made to our recruitment process, let us know within your application or contact [email removed]

We want to ensure our employees can thrive at work and home and offer a range of support to achieve a balance. This includes flexibility of working hours, flexibility to support caring responsibilities and a flexible approach to deployment. We offer a hybrid working policy. You must spend at least 40% of your contracted hours over a four-week period at court,