Assistant People and Culture Business Partner

NHS; Bury St Edmunds; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

A healthcare organization in Bury St Edmunds is seeking an Assistant People and Culture Business Partner to deliver proactive support and advice. The role champions best practices in human resource management, manages complex employee relations, and collaborates on people and culture initiatives. Candidates should have a CIPD qualification or equivalent experience, along with strong consultancy and communication skills. This is a fixed-term role covering maternity leave until September 2026.

Benefits

Ongoing training and development opportunities

Supportive team environment

Qualifications

• CIPD qualified or equivalent knowledge and experience.
• Experience advising managers on various operational issues.
• Comprehensive knowledge of employment law and best practices.

Responsibilities

• Provide specialist advice and support to managers.
• Support planning and implementation of people and culture strategies.
• Manage complex employee relations work.

Skills

Advising managers on people operations

Strong consultancy skills

Excellent communication

Organizational skills

Education

CIPD qualification (postgraduate diploma)

Tools

Electronic Staff Record (ESR)

Job description

Assistant People and Culture Business Partner

NSFT is seeking an Assistant People and Culture Business Partner to deliver high-quality, proactive business partnering to our teams. This is an exciting opportunity to support the delivery of our People and Culture Strategy, working collaboratively to ensure our workforce is empowered, valued, and supported. This post is based at Wedgwood House, Hardwick Lane, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk and is fixed term to cover maternity leave until 30th September 2026.

As an Assistant People and Culture Business Partner, you will:

• Provide specialist advice and support to managers and teams within a designated locality, helping to deliver quality patient-focused services and achieve business goals.
• Support the planning and implementation of people and culture strategies, including workforce modernisation, role redesign, and organisational development projects.
• Champion best practice in human resource management, coaching managers in excellent people management and supporting the implementation of the People and Culture Strategy.
• Manage a caseload of complex employee relations work, providing proactive advice and ensuring compliance with policy and legislation.
• Lead and supervise designated People and Culture Advisors, providing professional leadership, guidance, and development.
• Analyse workforce data and staff feedback to identify issues and develop creative, effective interventions.

Main duties of the job

What We're Looking For

• CIPD qualified (postgraduate diploma) or working towards CIPD qualification, or equivalent level of knowledge and experience.
• Experience advising managers on a wide range of people and culture operational issues (e.g., grievance, disciplinary, absence management).
• Strong consultancy, customer service, and organisational skills, with the ability to manage a varied workload and conflicting deadlines.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate business needs into creative solutions.
• Comprehensive knowledge of employment law, equality and diversity, and best practice in people and culture.
• Friendly, approachable, and confident, with a positive 'can do' attitude and a commitment to collaborative working.

Join a forward-thinking organisation where your expertise will help shape a culture of compassion, inclusion, and continuous improvement. You'll have the opportunity to develop your skills, support others, and make a real difference for our staff and service users.

About us

Here at NSFT we pride ourselves on being a welcoming, talented, friendly and supportive team who like nothing better than sharing experiences and learning from each other. In addition to ongoing training and development opportunities, we are committed to providing an environment in which you can thrive.

Why work for us? We have challenges as a Trust, but we have ambitious aspirations, are pushing ahead with exciting transformation work and we need dedicated individuals to support us on our journey. We have strong, established professional networks coupled with an exceptional leadership team who will ensure you are truly cared for and cared about.

Why Norfolk and Suffolk? The people here are warm and welcoming, you'll never be far from the beautiful coastline or Broads National Park. We're an hour and a half away from London and have an international airport in Norwich too. Our villages, towns and cities are packed full of history, independent cafes, shops and theatres. We have excellent shopping, eating out, top ranking schooling and affordable house prices too.

Job responsibilities

Please find attached our Job Description and Person Specification for more detail on your Key Accountabilities, then if you feel you have what it takes to make a difference in your local communities, click APPLY!

Interview dates are yet to be set; you will be contacted via email and invited to book a time. These emails may go to your SPAM, so please keep checking all your emails if applying.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) qualified (equivalent to post graduate diploma) or working towards
• CIPD qualification or equivalent level of knowledge and experience

Experience

• Demonstrable experience of advising managers on a wide range of people and culture operational issues e.g. grievance, disciplinary, absence management, etc
• Use of Electronic Staff Record (ESR)

Knowledge

• A comprehensive knowledge of Employment law, professional People developments and best practice
• Good understanding of equality and diversity issues and commitment to delivering the Trust's People and Culture Strategy objectives, as well as agreed local and national commitments

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.