22979 - Directors Secretary

Ministry of Justice; Boston (MA); Hybrid; USD 34,000 - 50,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual Leave

Pension

Work Life Balance

Hybrid Working

Training

Job summary

Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is seeking an experienced administrator to provide daily diary management and general support to the Director in a high-pressure environment. You will prioritise meetings, prepare papers, and coordinate travel, while handling sensitive material with discretion and maintaining strong stakeholder liaison.

The role involves arranging meetings, signing off on agendas and minutes when needed, and ensuring timely updates to the Director’s schedule across MoJ offices.

Qualifications

• Experience providing diary management in a high-pressure environment.
• Ability to prioritise meetings and manage competing demands.
• Demonstrates discretion when handling sensitive material.

Responsibilities

• Review emails and prioritise or respond on behalf of the Director.
• Progress actions delegated to/from the Director to ensure timely responses.
• Maintain daily contact with the Director and brief on events/issues when absent.
• Act as a main point of contact for general inquiries and signposting to other functions.
• Organise and arrange meetings and travel/ accommodation for the Director.
• Prepare meeting papers, agendas and attendee details; take minutes if required.
• Ensure documents reflect appropriate formatting and archiving standards.

Skills

Diary management

Discretion

Meeting coordination

Minute taking

Typing

Photocopying

Stakeholder liaison

Job description

Job description

Overview of the job

The post-holder is responsible for managing the Director’s Diary, and providing any general administrative support as required.
The post-holder reports to the Director’s Business Manager and then to the Director.

Summary
The post-holder is required to provide daily diary management and general administrative support to the Director in a high-pressure environment.
This necessitates the ability to prioritise meetings and manage the diary in the most efficient and practical way.
Significant interaction with internal and external stakeholders is required.
The post-holder is also required to prepare meeting papers along with other general administrative tasks such as: taking minutes; typing; and photocopying.
The post-holder will deal with sensitive material on a regular basis; a high level of discretion and judgement is required.

Responsibilities, Activities and Duties

• Reviews emails and either replies on behalf of the Director or prioritises for action either by reference to the sender, the content and/or dates for responses.
• Works with colleagues to progress or chase actions delegated to and from the Director to ensure they are addressed and responded to in a timely manner.
• Maintains daily contact with the Director to ensure that he/she is briefed fully on any events/issues which may arise in their absence.
• Act as a key contact in the office for general enquiries, “signposting” queries to other functions/individuals where appropriate.
• Organises meetings on behalf of the Director.
• Works with counterparts in other offices both within and external to HMPPS to co-ordinate diary arrangements often within tight time-constraints and conflicting priorities for dates, times and locations.
• Makes all travel/accommodation arrangements on behalf of the Director.
• Ensures that all diary arrangements are scheduled accurately and that the Director is made aware of any changes to the agreed schedule in a timely manner.
• Compiles details of agendas, attendees and papers required for meetings in a timely manner.
• Receives visitors on behalf of Director.
• May be required to attend meetings to take minutes and subsequently maintain an action log.
• Ensures that documents prepared and sent out on behalf of the Director reflect HMPPS standards of formatting and presentation.
• Maintains all paper filing, ensuring compliance with archiving and retention policies.

The duties/responsibilities listed above describe the post as it is at present and is not intended to be exhaustive. The Job holder is expected to accept reasonable alterations and additional tasks of a similar level that may be necessary. Significant adjustments may require re-examination under the Job Evaluation scheme and shall be discussed in the first instance with the Job Holder.

Behaviours

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together

Additional Information

Working Arrangements & Further Information

The MoJ offers Hybrid Working arrangements where business need allows. This is an informal, non-contractual form of flexible working that blends working from your base location, different MoJ sites and / or from home (please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK and not overseas). Some roles will not be suitable for Hybrid Working. Similarly, Hybrid Working will not suit everyone’s circumstances. Arrangements will be discussed and agreed with the successful candidate(s) and subject to regular review.

For nationally advertised roles, the successful candidate(s) will be appointed to a MoJ office location, which may include their nearest Justice Collaboration Centre or Justice Satellite Office. This will be discussed and agreed on the completion of pre-employment checks.

Some of MoJ’s terms and conditions of service are changing as part of Civil Service reform. The changes will apply to staff joining MoJ who are new to the Civil Service. Staff joining MoJ from other civil service employers will transfer onto the new MoJ terms if they are already on ‘modernised’ terms in their current post or onto ‘unmodernised’ MoJ terms if they are on ‘unmodernised’ terms at their current post. Details will be available if an offer is made.

Standard full time working hours are 37 hours per week excluding breaks which are unpaid. HMPPS welcomes part-time, flexible and job-sharing working patterns, where they meet the demands of the role and business needs. All applications for part-time, flexible and job-sharing working patterns will be considered in accordance with the HMPPS’ Flexible Working policy.

If you are a current NPS employee, this vacancy may be available on a Loan basis for up to 2 years. Applications are invited from suitable qualified staff.

The Loan/Secondment is subject to the approval of the selected candidate's Business Unit, which should be obtained before confirmation of appointment.

Benefits

• Annual Leave
• -The holiday year runs from 1 March. If you work a non standard work pattern your leave entitlement may be expressed in either hours or days as appropriate. Leave entitlement is calculated on a pro-rata basis and you will be advised of your actual entitlement on appointment. If you were appointed internally and your leave was previously calculated in days, this will continue to be the case.
• Bank, Public and Privilege Holidays
• -You are entitled to 9 days (66 hours 36 minutes) in recognition of bank, public and privilege holidays. These hours are added to your annual leave allowance. There is a requirement to work some public and bank holidays subject to your shift pattern and the operational needs of the establishment
• Pension
• -The Civil Service offers a choice of two pension schemes, giving you the flexibility to choose the pension that suits you best.
• Work Life Balance
• -HM Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS) is keen to encourage alternative working arrangements. Work life balance provides greater opportunities for staff to work more flexibly wherever managers and establishments can accommodate requests to do so. HMPPS offers flexible working subject to completion of a satisfactory probationary period and NVQ
• Season Ticket Advance
• -After two months’ service, you’ll be eligible to apply for a season ticket advance to purchase a quarterly or longer-period season ticket for travel between home and your place of work
• Childcare Vouchers
• For any moves across the Civil Service may have implications on your ability to carry on claiming childcare vouchers
• Training
• HMPPS is committed to staff development and offers a range of training and development opportunities, including areas such as Equality and Diversity, Dealing with Challenging Behaviour, Suicide Prevention and Anti Bullying Programmes
• -There are opportunities to access promotion programmes and HMPPS provides a variety of training appropriate to individual posts
• -All staff receive security and diversity training and an individual induction programme into their new roles

Eligibility

• -All candidates are subject to security and identity checks prior to taking up post
• -All external candidates are subject to 6 months probation. Internal candidates are subject to probation if they have not already served a probationary period within HMPPS
• -All staff are required to declare whether they are a member of a group or organisation which the HMPPS considers to be racist

Civil Service Nationality Rules

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) https://www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizens-families
• - 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, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-rules

Reserve list

A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made for the same or similar roles.

Contact Information

MoJ:

If you require any assistance please call 0345 241 5359 (Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm) or e mail [e-mail]

Please quote the job reference 22979

HMPPS

If you require any assistance please call 0345 241 5358 (Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm) or e mail [e-mail]

Please quote the job reference 22979

Strengths will be assessed but these are not shared in advance. To learn more about Strengths and how they are assessed please click here (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles/success-profiles-strengths).

Use of Artificial Intelligence (Al)

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 for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.