Private Secretary to the Regional Schools Commissioner in Academies Re
- Recruiter
- Department for Education
- Location
- Sheffield
- Salary
- Competitive
- Posted
- 16 Oct 2017
- Closes
- 04 Nov 2017
- Sectors
- Admin, Secretarial & PA
- Contract Type
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full Time
What does the role have to offer?
The Department for Education's (DfE) vision is to provide world-class education and care that allows every child and young person to reach his or her potential, regardless of background. You have a fantastic opportunity to join our team as we lead the next phase in the Department's management of the academies system.
The National Schools Commissioner (NSC) and his eight Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) play a key role in the academies system. The RSCs are supported by regionally elected board of experienced headteachers, who provide advice to ensure that the decisions the RSCs take on behalf of the Secretary of State, are based on local knowledge and expertise.
The successful candidate appointed to the role of Private Secretary will join the small, high-performing, and highly motivated team based in the regional office in Sheffield. You will play a crucial role in providing high quality support to the RSC. This role would be an excellent start or development to a career in the civil service - it offers the opportunity to deepen your understanding of government and of the education system and to gather valuable new skills and experiences. There are many wider opportunities that you could get stuck into, for instance you could be leading the organisation of an away day for 50+ staff, developing presentations for the RSC , supporting RSC in ensuring he has key information for external meetings.
About the Regional Schools Commissioner - East Midlands and the Humber (EMH)
The main responsibilities of the Regional Schools Commissioners include:
•taking action where academies and free schools are underperforming;
• intervening in academies where governance is inadequate;
• deciding on applications from local authority maintained schools to convert to academy status;
• improving underperforming maintained schools by providing them with support from a strong Trust;
• encouraging and deciding on applications from Trusts to operate in the region;
• taking action to improve poorly performing Trusts;
• advising on proposals for new free schools;
• advising on whether to cancel, defer or enter into funding agreements with free school projects
•deciding on applications to make significant changes to academies and free schools
The RSC for EMH is John Edwards, who is based in Sheffield and works across the EMH Region fulfilling the responsibilities outlined above for an area spanning 17 Local Authorities and over 1000 open academies.
The role of Private Secretary in the EMH Regional Delivery Group
We are recruiting a Private Secretary to provide executive support to the RSC for the EMH region. As Private Secretary, you will have strategic oversight of the work of the East Midlands Team. You will need to provide the RSC with high quality support. For instance, you will be responsible for ensuring RSC has the information he needs from our delivery teams to inform his meetings and visits. You will play an active role in building strong working relationships with people in the department and in the region; negotiating with internal colleagues internally to achieve good outcomes for the RSC and his wider team; working closely with the members of the board of headteachers; developing a wider understanding of the department and its activities.
It is essential you have good communication skills (written and verbal) and excellent organisational skills with the ability to prioritise tasks, work under pressure, provide excellent customer service, and be IT literate. You will be organised and highly efficient; and when required take initiative with minimum supervision, knowing when to seek assistance.
What are my responsibilities?
The main responsibility of the postholder is to provide a high level of administrative support to the RSC over the full range of his responsibilities and the provision of appropriate briefing. The main activities will include:
• Building relationships with senior officials and external stakeholders to act as an informed point of contact for the RSC;
• Overseeing the day-to-day running of the RSC's Private Office ( 2x PA) to ensure the RSC's requirements are met ;
• Lead on providing and commissioning high quality briefings and presentations for the RSC and wider team on key issues in the region ensuring those commissioned are quality assured;
• Act as a key liaison between EMH team and other internal and external delivery partners. This involves setting agendas that allow the RSC to take strategic decisions, taking minutes and ensuring actions are followed up;
• Supporting RSC and his SLT by giving colleagues across the region and beyond relevant steers to enable them to deliver high quality work , advising and making recommendations and feeding back the RSC's views and decisions on time and with sensitivity;
• Anticipating problems, upcoming tasks and future demands on the RSC's time and resolving these, planning ahead accordingly and ensuring the RSC has what he requires to make effective and quick decisions;
• Work closely with the RSC PA to ensure that key emails, notes and submissions are provided for action or information and/or are allocated to the appropriate lead;
• Providing strategic overview of RSCs diary to ensure meetings reflect his longer-term priorities, commitments and responsibilities;
• Strategically plan and organise the RSC speaking engagements;
• Secretariat to SLT, maintain a forward plan of agenda items, draft agendas, commission papers and circulate in good time. Attend the meetings, drafting accurate minutes and actions, track progress against actions;
• Handle sensitive information in a confidential manner;
• Assist colleagues in the RSC's team with wider corporate responsibilities including business planning, workforce and staff management and EMH wide internal and external communications;
• Develop a strong understanding and working knowledge of the Academies Group and the wider DfE.
Key Experiences and Qualifications:
Essential:
Candidates need to be self-starting, well organised and will be expected to be self-motivated, self-aware and resilient.
• Experience in exercising discretion and initiative, tact and diplomacy in managing sensitive, personal and confidential matters.
• Excellent communication skills with customer-focused attitude and telephone manner.
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to liaise with people at all levels both internally and externally.
• High standard of planning and organisational ability.
Adept at influencing and negotiating with others to achieve timely results.
• Ability to remain calm whilst working under pressure and to demanding deadlines whilst maintaining a flexible approach .
Competencies
We will assess you against these competencies during the selection process:
• Making effective decisions
• Leading and Communicating
• Delivering at pace
• Collaborating and partnering
Competencies
We'll assess you against these competencies during the selection process:
Benefits
Pensions
Civil Service pension schemes may be available for successful candidates.
Things you need to know
Security
Successful candidates must pass basic security checks.
Nationality statement
Candidates will be subject to UK immigration requirements as well as Civil Service nationality rules.
If you're applying for a role requiring security clearance please be aware that foreign or dual nationality is not an automatic bar. However certain posts may have restrictions which could affect those who do not have sole British nationality or who have personal connections with certain countries outside the UK.
Selection process details
After submission of your application you will be invited to complete two online tests Verbal Reasoning, Numerical Reasoning. You must be successful at each stage to progress to the next test. Please complete the online tests as soon as possible (within 24-48 hours is recommended), the closing date for the tests is Midnight on 6th November 2017.
Should we receive a high volume of applications, we will sift on the lead competency Making Effective Decisions.
If your application progresses to a full sift, all competences will then be considered.
The Civil Service Competency Framework outlines the three high-level leadership behaviours that every civil servant needs to model. The applicant will need to provide evidence of their skills and experience as well as demonstrate their competency level against key aspects of the Civil Service Competency Framework.
Please consider each of the behaviours we have identified for this role. We want you to provide us with evidence of what you have done outlining a task or situation, the personal contribution you made, including any difficulties you experienced and how you overcame them.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Nationality requirements
Open to UK, Commonwealth and European Economic Area (EEA) and certain non EEA nationals. Further information on whether you are able to apply is available here.
Eligibility
Candidates in their probationary period are eligible to apply for vacancies within this department.
Working for the Civil Service
..... click apply for full job details
The Department for Education's (DfE) vision is to provide world-class education and care that allows every child and young person to reach his or her potential, regardless of background. You have a fantastic opportunity to join our team as we lead the next phase in the Department's management of the academies system.
The National Schools Commissioner (NSC) and his eight Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) play a key role in the academies system. The RSCs are supported by regionally elected board of experienced headteachers, who provide advice to ensure that the decisions the RSCs take on behalf of the Secretary of State, are based on local knowledge and expertise.
The successful candidate appointed to the role of Private Secretary will join the small, high-performing, and highly motivated team based in the regional office in Sheffield. You will play a crucial role in providing high quality support to the RSC. This role would be an excellent start or development to a career in the civil service - it offers the opportunity to deepen your understanding of government and of the education system and to gather valuable new skills and experiences. There are many wider opportunities that you could get stuck into, for instance you could be leading the organisation of an away day for 50+ staff, developing presentations for the RSC , supporting RSC in ensuring he has key information for external meetings.
About the Regional Schools Commissioner - East Midlands and the Humber (EMH)
The main responsibilities of the Regional Schools Commissioners include:
•taking action where academies and free schools are underperforming;
• intervening in academies where governance is inadequate;
• deciding on applications from local authority maintained schools to convert to academy status;
• improving underperforming maintained schools by providing them with support from a strong Trust;
• encouraging and deciding on applications from Trusts to operate in the region;
• taking action to improve poorly performing Trusts;
• advising on proposals for new free schools;
• advising on whether to cancel, defer or enter into funding agreements with free school projects
•deciding on applications to make significant changes to academies and free schools
The RSC for EMH is John Edwards, who is based in Sheffield and works across the EMH Region fulfilling the responsibilities outlined above for an area spanning 17 Local Authorities and over 1000 open academies.
The role of Private Secretary in the EMH Regional Delivery Group
We are recruiting a Private Secretary to provide executive support to the RSC for the EMH region. As Private Secretary, you will have strategic oversight of the work of the East Midlands Team. You will need to provide the RSC with high quality support. For instance, you will be responsible for ensuring RSC has the information he needs from our delivery teams to inform his meetings and visits. You will play an active role in building strong working relationships with people in the department and in the region; negotiating with internal colleagues internally to achieve good outcomes for the RSC and his wider team; working closely with the members of the board of headteachers; developing a wider understanding of the department and its activities.
It is essential you have good communication skills (written and verbal) and excellent organisational skills with the ability to prioritise tasks, work under pressure, provide excellent customer service, and be IT literate. You will be organised and highly efficient; and when required take initiative with minimum supervision, knowing when to seek assistance.
What are my responsibilities?
The main responsibility of the postholder is to provide a high level of administrative support to the RSC over the full range of his responsibilities and the provision of appropriate briefing. The main activities will include:
• Building relationships with senior officials and external stakeholders to act as an informed point of contact for the RSC;
• Overseeing the day-to-day running of the RSC's Private Office ( 2x PA) to ensure the RSC's requirements are met ;
• Lead on providing and commissioning high quality briefings and presentations for the RSC and wider team on key issues in the region ensuring those commissioned are quality assured;
• Act as a key liaison between EMH team and other internal and external delivery partners. This involves setting agendas that allow the RSC to take strategic decisions, taking minutes and ensuring actions are followed up;
• Supporting RSC and his SLT by giving colleagues across the region and beyond relevant steers to enable them to deliver high quality work , advising and making recommendations and feeding back the RSC's views and decisions on time and with sensitivity;
• Anticipating problems, upcoming tasks and future demands on the RSC's time and resolving these, planning ahead accordingly and ensuring the RSC has what he requires to make effective and quick decisions;
• Work closely with the RSC PA to ensure that key emails, notes and submissions are provided for action or information and/or are allocated to the appropriate lead;
• Providing strategic overview of RSCs diary to ensure meetings reflect his longer-term priorities, commitments and responsibilities;
• Strategically plan and organise the RSC speaking engagements;
• Secretariat to SLT, maintain a forward plan of agenda items, draft agendas, commission papers and circulate in good time. Attend the meetings, drafting accurate minutes and actions, track progress against actions;
• Handle sensitive information in a confidential manner;
• Assist colleagues in the RSC's team with wider corporate responsibilities including business planning, workforce and staff management and EMH wide internal and external communications;
• Develop a strong understanding and working knowledge of the Academies Group and the wider DfE.
Key Experiences and Qualifications:
Essential:
Candidates need to be self-starting, well organised and will be expected to be self-motivated, self-aware and resilient.
• Experience in exercising discretion and initiative, tact and diplomacy in managing sensitive, personal and confidential matters.
• Excellent communication skills with customer-focused attitude and telephone manner.
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to liaise with people at all levels both internally and externally.
• High standard of planning and organisational ability.
Adept at influencing and negotiating with others to achieve timely results.
• Ability to remain calm whilst working under pressure and to demanding deadlines whilst maintaining a flexible approach .
Competencies
We will assess you against these competencies during the selection process:
• Making effective decisions
• Leading and Communicating
• Delivering at pace
• Collaborating and partnering
Competencies
We'll assess you against these competencies during the selection process:
- Making effective decisions
- Leading and communicating
- Delivering at pace
- Collaborating and partnering
Benefits
Pensions
Civil Service pension schemes may be available for successful candidates.
Things you need to know
Security
Successful candidates must pass basic security checks.
Nationality statement
Candidates will be subject to UK immigration requirements as well as Civil Service nationality rules.
If you're applying for a role requiring security clearance please be aware that foreign or dual nationality is not an automatic bar. However certain posts may have restrictions which could affect those who do not have sole British nationality or who have personal connections with certain countries outside the UK.
Selection process details
After submission of your application you will be invited to complete two online tests Verbal Reasoning, Numerical Reasoning. You must be successful at each stage to progress to the next test. Please complete the online tests as soon as possible (within 24-48 hours is recommended), the closing date for the tests is Midnight on 6th November 2017.
Should we receive a high volume of applications, we will sift on the lead competency Making Effective Decisions.
If your application progresses to a full sift, all competences will then be considered.
The Civil Service Competency Framework outlines the three high-level leadership behaviours that every civil servant needs to model. The applicant will need to provide evidence of their skills and experience as well as demonstrate their competency level against key aspects of the Civil Service Competency Framework.
Please consider each of the behaviours we have identified for this role. We want you to provide us with evidence of what you have done outlining a task or situation, the personal contribution you made, including any difficulties you experienced and how you overcame them.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Nationality requirements
Open to UK, Commonwealth and European Economic Area (EEA) and certain non EEA nationals. Further information on whether you are able to apply is available here.
Eligibility
Candidates in their probationary period are eligible to apply for vacancies within this department.
Working for the Civil Service
..... click apply for full job details