Private Office: Diary Manager to the Minister

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is recruiting for the role of Diary Manager. This is an integral role in Private Office, and we are looking for people who will help us deliver exceptional results in a unique business.

The Department for Work and Pensions is responsible for social security, labour market, pensions, and child maintenance policy. As the UK’s biggest public service department, we administer the State Pension and a range of working age, disability, and ill health benefits to around 20 million claimants and customers. What we do matters to millions of people every day.

Private Office is crucial to providing effective support and advice to Ministers and Special Advisers across all aspects of Departmental business, acting as the key interface between the Department and Ministers to deliver DWP’s critical agenda.

Job description

Private Office is a high-performing, dynamic, supportive and inclusive team. This is a demanding but rewarding role for someone interested in working closely with Ministers, Special Advisers and senior officials.

This postholder will:

• Work with the Minister, private office and a variety of senior stakeholders to resolve logistical issues
• Be responsible for the Minister’s diary, including prioritisation of meetings, events and invitations
• Manage the Minister's inbox, correspondence and Parliamentary Questions
• Plan and arrange the Minister’s visits to DWP sites and external engagements, including travel & logistics
• Work with officials across the Department to ensure timely and high-quality briefing are received for Ministerial meetings

Person specification

We are looking for an organised, resilient and flexible person with excellent communication skills to work effectively with Ministers, Special Advisers and senior officials.

The successful candidate will manage a heavy workload, prioritise effectively and enjoy working in a fast-moving environment.

Given the heavy workload and fast-paced nature of the role, you will also need to demonstrate attention-to-detail, personal resilience, sound judgement and political awareness.

Essential Criteria

• Excellent organisational, prioritisation and communication skills.
• Confidence in working with colleagues at all levels in an organisation, communicating and influencing with credibility, knowledge and tact.
• Oversee the team’s administration functions including parliamentary correspondence and diary management.
• Supporting the Head of Office to lead the relationship with the Minister's constituency office.
• Proficiency in using customer service management systems and Microsoft Office tools.
• You will need to demonstrate attention-to-detail, personal resilience, sound judgement and political awareness.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £37,664, Department for Work and Pensions contributes £10,911 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

DWP have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:

• Working patterns to support work/life balance such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.
• Generous annual leave – at least 23 days on entry, increasing up to 30 days over time (pro–rata for part time employees), plus 9 days public and privilege leave.
• Support for financial wellbeing, including interest-free season ticket loans for travel, a cycle to work scheme and an employee discount scheme.
• Health and wellbeing support including our Employee Assistance Programme for specialist advice and counselling and the opportunity to join HASSRA a first-class programme of competitions, activities and benefits for its members (subscription payable monthly).
• Family friendly policies including enhanced maternity and shared parental leave pay after 1 year’s continuous service.
• Funded learning and development to support progress in your role and career. This includes industry recognised qualifications and accreditations, coaching, mentoring and talent development programmes.
• An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join professional and interpersonal networks including Women’s Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more.