Executive Assistant / PA

Opus People Solutions Ltd; England; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading recruitment agency is seeking an experienced Executive Assistant to support Suffolk County Council's Children's Services. The role involves high-level administrative tasks, diary management, and correspondence management for senior officers. Candidates must have strong IT skills, excellent communication abilities, and discretion. This is a full-time position based in Ipswich, requiring a commitment to professional standards and a proactive approach to work. Immediate start preferred.

Qualifications

• Proven experience carrying out a wide range of administrative and secretarial procedures.
• Experience managing senior stakeholder correspondence.
• Ability to work independently and manage a varied workload.

Responsibilities

• Manage day-to-day administration of service areas.
• Provide comprehensive diary management.
• Handle incoming and outgoing correspondence and information requests.
• Process financial transactions, including invoices.
• Act as a key point of contact for internal and external stakeholders.

Skills

Administrative procedures

Diary management

IT literacy (Word, Outlook, Excel)

Excellent communication

Judgment and discretion

Job description

Executive Assistant / PA

Pay: 14.82 paye or 19.22 Umbrella per hour, 37 hours per week, Mon-Fri

Location: Ipswich, IP1, minimum of 2 days in the office

Length: 3 months with potential of extension

Opus People Solutions are recruiting on behalf of Suffolk County Council for an experienced and strong Executive Assistant or PA to join their busy department within Children's Services to provide high-level administrative, organisational and secretarial support to one or more designated Senior Officers. The role requires discretion, sound judgement, and the ability to work independently while managing a varied and demanding workload.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage the day-to-day administration of designated service areas, including administrative, financial, IT and HR-related processes.
• Provide comprehensive diary management, including scheduling appointments, arranging meetings, preparing agendas and papers, and accurately taking and distributing minutes.
• Maintain awareness of matters involving the Senior Officer(s), proactively ensuring they are kept informed of relevant developments.
• Manage specialist administrative and management information systems, ensuring data accuracy, system security and compliance with associated procedures, with guidance from the line manager where required.
• Handle incoming and outgoing correspondence, enquiries and information requests, exercising judgement on prioritisation and responses.
• Process financial transactions, including purchase orders, invoices and related financial administration.
• Input, maintain and update data, including the use of Excel spreadsheets and other digital records.
• Ensure all required pre-recruitment activities (such as establishment control processes) are completed before recruitment requests are submitted to a recruitment advisor.
• Work with minimal supervision, making routine decisions independently while demonstrating sensitivity, professionalism and sound judgement.
• Act as a key point of contact and liaison for a wide range of internal and external stakeholders, including MPs, Government departments, Chief Officers, senior managers, County Councillors, other local authorities, national organisations, external bodies and members of the public.
• Manage correspondence on behalf of Senior Officer(s), providing advice and briefings where appropriate, drafting responses using own initiative, or forwarding items to others for action or information.

We are looking for an experienced Executive Assistant / Personal Assistant with proven experience of carrying out wide range of administrative/ secretarial procedures and tasks, collaborate well with others and be flexible in your approach to meet the demands of the post and team, resilience and high level of IT literacy including Word, Outlook and Excel. Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to interact professionally with senior stakeholders.

We are looking for ASAP start, interviews will be held in person and basic DBS will be carried out prior to start. Ideally, we are looking for a someone without significant holiday throughout the assignment period.

Suffolk County Council's WE ASPIRE values: Wellbeing, Equality, Achieve, Support, Pride, Innovate, Respect and Empower.

The mission is to make a positive difference for Suffolk; committed to working together, striving to improve, and securing the best possible services.

Please apply now!