Independent Football Regulator – Executive Support and Correspondence Officer

Job summary

The Independent Football Regulator

The Independent Football Regulator (IFR) has been established to protect and promote the sustainability of English football, for the benefit of fans and the local communities football clubs serve. ​

The IFR will help improve financial sustainability of clubs, ensure resilience across the leagues, and safeguard the heritage of English football. It will operate a licensing regime; set corporate governance standards and monitor, protect, and promote financial resilience. It will also enforce compliance with requirements on financial regulation, club ownership and directors, fan engagement, and heritage protection.​

The IFR also has powers to prohibit clubs from joining competitions that are not fair or meritocratic, or that threaten the heritage or sustainability of English football.​

Job description

The Executive Support and Correspondence Officer role sits at the heart of the Independent Football Regulator, supporting senior decision makers and leading the IFR’s external enquiries and information-access correspondence. The role offers close working with both senior internal stakeholders and a range of external stakeholders.​

Responsibilities include:​

• Managing senior leader's diary and inbox, prioritising correspondence and replying on their behalf where appropriate.​
• Taking minutes and notes, maintaining organised records and disseminating actions across the organisation.​
• Managing the IFR’s online correspondence system and mailbox, drafting bespoke responses, coordinating internal input and maintaining standard lines and templates.​
• Leading Freedom of Information requests, including drafting requirements, statutory timelines and exemptions.​
• Managing the Publication Scheme page of the IFR website.​
• Undertaking training to support team-wide financial requisitioning.

Person specification

Essential Requirements

• Excellent organisational and prioritisation skills, with the ability to work effectively across a range of tasks and under pressure.​
• Strong written communication skills, with the ability to draft at pace on a variety of topics.​
• Strong attention to detail, ensuring accuracy in all outgoing communications. ​
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to interact confidently and professionally with internal and external stakeholders of varying seniority.​
• Good judgement to manage situations independently and understand when to escalate and how.​
• Strong work ethic and a proven team player, with ability to work under pressure.

Desirable Skills

• Keen interest in the work of the Independent Football Regulator ​
• Experience working in a Private Office or Correspondence role

Information Session

We are running an information session where prospective applicants can find out more about the role. This will be hosted by Nerthika Paramsothy and Isaac Latham, and will take place on:​

• Tuesday 22nd September at 12.00pm​

The session will be an opportunity to hear more about the role, the team and wider directorate and the department. It will also be an opportunity for you to ask any questions.​

Please register your interest by filling out this form and you will be sent an invitation. The invites will be sent the night before the session. The sessions are not recorded.​

Please note that the session will not focus on the IFR recruitment process - please direct any queries that you have on this topic (timelines, reasonable adjustments, onboarding etc) to [email removed]

Benefits

If successful you will join a Non Departmental Public Body and will be employed as a Public Servant.

If you are an existing Civil Servant or a DCMS employee you will no longer have access to Civil Service benefits including the Civil Service pension.

The terms and conditions of employment include:

• Pension 12% An employee contribution of 5%, with an employer contribution of 7%.
• Flexible Benefit 8% Employees can choose to invest 8% of their base salary into their pension, or take as cash (post tax)
• Reward we will have a performance based reward programme.
• 31.5 days annual leave
• Flexible and hybrid working, 40% in office attendance
• Occupational sick pay
• 9 months paid Maternity Leave + generous paternity and adoption leave.
• A bespoke L&D programme to help you achieve your personal CPD, including paid membership fees
• Cycle-to-work scheme and much more!

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

The Interview

As part of your interview, you may be asked to deliver a short oral presentation. Full details of this, including the topic, length of time allowed, and whether or not you will need to use visual aids, will be sent to you prior to your interview. It will also assess your suitability for the role through competency-based questions. ​

Your interview will take place remotely via Microsoft Teams.​

​The recruitment process may include a second interview stage. Candidates who successfully progress from the first interview will be contacted with further details if applicable.

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

Security

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