Personal Assistant

Cambridgeshire County Council; Huntingdon; On-site; GBP 26,000 - 34,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Wellbeing package

Additional annual leave options

Pension scheme

Flexible working

Hybrid working

Employee discounts

Volunteer hours

IDEAL network access

Job summary

Cambridgeshire County Council is seeking a proactive Personal Assistant to join the centralised Executive Support Service in Cambridgeshire. You will provide confidential diary, inbox management and minute taking to support the Service Director: Infrastructure and Project Delivery, helping the directorate focus on strategic priorities.

The role is full-time, offered on a fixed-term basis or as a secondment until 31 March 2027, with flexible working options and the potential for extension,

Qualifications

• GCSE English and Maths at A–C or equivalent.
• Proven administrative experience with diary management and minute taking.
• Proficient in MS Office and Outlook, with high attention to detail.

Responsibilities

• Provide confidential diary and inbox management for the Service Director.
• Organise meetings, take accurate minutes and distribute papers.
• Coordinate reports and papers for committee and corporate meetings.
• Support the wider directorate team and cover colleagues during leave.

Skills

Diary management

Minutes taking

Stakeholder coordination

Discretion & confidentiality

IT literacy

Education

GCSE English & Maths (A-C) or equivalent

Tools

MS Office

Outlook

Job description

Are you looking for a new challenge in an organisation committed to making a real difference to the residents of Cambridgeshire, and where you will play a vital role in supporting the organisation with its vision to deliver a 'healthy, fair and sustainable Cambridgeshire'. We have a full‑time position available for the role of Personal Assistant which forms part of the Council's centralised Executive Support Service where you will work alongside a hub of Executive Assistants and Personal Assistants. The role is offered on a fixed term basis, or as a secondment to internal Cambridgeshire County Council officers, until 31 March 2027, with the possibility of further extension. The role will support the Service Director: Infrastructure and Project Delivery. The Service Director leads teams responsible for highways maintenance, complex infrastructure projects, asset management design and delivery, and commercial and contract management. These teams handle tasks such as repairing potholes, managing complex highways programmes, providing design services for capital programmes, and ensuring value from supply chain partners. This role is based in our Headquarters of New Shire Hall, and we offer flexible working options and the ability to work on a hybrid basis. We are very much interested in developing people at all stages in their career and this presents as a fantastic opportunity for an already established administrator with good organisational and technology skills. An understanding of the services delivered at Cambridgeshire County Council, particularly those that would receive this Personal Assistant support, would be advantageous.

You will play a vital role in supplying professional, proactive, and confidential support to the Service Director enabling them to focus on our organisational and strategic priorities. This will include diary and inbox management, as well acting as a link to key corporate areas of work including the coordination of correspondence processes for example those relating to correspondence from Members of Parliament. The role will also involve supporting the Service Director with meetings where you will be required to organise the meetings and keep an accurate record of decisions made during the meeting through effective forward planning, minute taking and distributing papers. You may also be required to co-ordinate reports to committee or corporate meetings and member briefings. You will work as part of a wider team to support the directorate's management team, covering for colleagues at times of annual leave, for example.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self‑organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered. We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.

We are looking for people who can deliver efficient, effective and proactive Personal Assistant support to enable the Service Director to focus on the key priorities and the strategic needs of the organisation.

As a Personal Assistant you will have well developed knowledge of business administration processes and IT systems. You will be co‑ordinated and proficient in all Microsoft packages including Outlook and embrace new ways of working through technology. You will also have an A‑C grade in GCSE English and Maths, or equivalent experience. You will have well‑developed knowledge of general business requirements such as HR and finance processes, information management, risk management, customer service and health and safety. You will be able to predict and pre‑empt challenges and provide solutions with a calm, balanced and positive approach showing good judgement. You will develop strong and effective working relationship with colleagues, stakeholders and partners by embracing our values of being collaborative, accountable, respectful and focused on excellence.

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.

We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage…

• A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family
• Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro‑rata) through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances
• Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings
• Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth
• Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day
• Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network
• Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards
• An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in‑store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes