Assistant Private Secretary

Job summary

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest producer of official statistics, covering a range of key economic, social and demographic topics. These include measuring changes in the value of the UK economy, estimating the size, geographic distribution, and characteristics of the population, and providing indicators of price inflation, employment, earnings, crime and migration.

Private Office plays a pivotal role in supporting the senior leadership of the ONS, operating at the centre of the organisation responsible for delivering the UK’s official statistics. This is a fantastic opportunity to join a dynamic, fast‑paced team where your work will have real impact and visibility.

As an Assistant Private Secretary (APS), you will provide high‑quality support across a wide range of Private Office activities. You will act as a trusted advisor and key point of coordination for senior leaders, working closely with colleagues across the organisation to ensure priorities are delivered effectively. This role is ideal for someone who is proactive, organised, and keen to develop their skills in a high-profile environment.

Job description

Reporting to a Private Secretary (G7), the successful candidate will play a key role in supporting the day‑to‑day operations of the Private Office for a member of the senior leadership team. You will take ownership of key tasks, including coordinating and gathering briefing from across the organisation, commissioning insight and information ahead of engagements, and supporting senior leaders to deliver high‑quality talks, meetings, and correspondence.

This role requires you to build strong, trusted working relationships with leaders across the ONS, as well as with officials, other Private Offices, Press Officers, and a wide range of internal and external partners. You will represent the senior leader’s views confidently and clearly, articulating their position and working collaboratively to identify solutions that support the organisation’s priorities and maintain high standards of delivery.

You will ensure that the team provides efficient administrative support to the Senior Leadership Team, across a wide range of corporate activities. This also includes working proactively and collaboratively with colleagues from Finance, Risk & Assurance, and People Capability teams to ensure all functions deliver high quality corporate and business management support to the organisation, ensuring that it achieves its operational and strategic aims.

The role sits within the Policy Profession and is particularly aligned to the strategy and democracy standards. In the role, you will require a strong understanding of strategic objectives and the ability to communicate complex policy issues clearly and effectively, supporting the delivery of high-quality advice. Your role will require working both internally and externally to uphold the principles of the policy profession, driving innovation, and support the development and implementation of coherent policies that meet the needs of the organisation, public and wider civil service.

We are recruiting two Assistant Private Secretaries, who will provide support to two Senior Leaders across the organisation. The roles will be aligned to the following business areas:

1. Private Office of the Permanent Secretary
2. Private Office of the Director-General for Data Capability

Responsibilities

• Build relationships with the organisation’s senior leadership team, officials, other private offices, press officers, statistical Heads of Profession network, and a range of other partners, on all aspects of the organisation’s work.
• Work with the Private Secretaries to maintain oversight, within your portfolio, of advice put to and cleared by the Permanent Secretary ensuring that work is prioritised appropriately. The individual will look ahead to ensure that work in the pipeline is planned for and anticipated.
• Support the leadership of the Private Office function across all sites, working with the Private Secretaries to set clear purpose and direction for the team.
• Ensure the most effective use of your principal’s time, and support the production of papers, letters, briefings, presentations and articles.
• Oversee, and have overall responsibility for, the collation of your principal’s Red Box, ensuring appropriate advice is provided alongside any information or actions shared through this forum.
• Set clear standards for the team and yourself in providing high quality letters, papers, presentations, briefings and articles for your principal.
• Represent your principal to others, including senior internal and external stakeholders, articulating their position clearly and seeking solutions consistent with their positions.
• Accompany your principal on business throughout the UK where required. This may include travel to other UK Statistics Authority offices and providing support at meetings in Whitehall on occasion.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

• Have the ability to communicate using appropriate styles to maximum understanding and impact, providing advice with authority and impact. You will have previous experience in securing the trust and confidence of senior leaders, and be able to tactfully, yet assertively, challenge senior individuals when required in a manner that helps build relationships.
• Be highly responsive to unexpected change, with experience of having worked flexibly and at great pace. You will be content to work demanding hours, from time to time, to help resolve pressing issues, or to support senior leaders at events outside of normal working hours.
• Have a basic understanding of the production and use of analysis, evidence and statistics in Government and society and an awareness of official statistics issues in the wider context of contemporary politics.
• Have the ability to act independently and use sound judgment when taking action on behalf of, or making decisions for, the senior leadership.
• Have experience of successfully leading a small and diverse team. This does not have to necessarily include previous line management experience.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

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

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £41,985, Office for National Statistics contributes £12,163 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

The Office for National Statistics is part of the Civil Service, and as such we share a number of key benefits with other departments, whilst also having our own unique offerings to support our valued colleagues across the organisation.

Whether you are hearing about us for the first time or already know a bit about our organisation, we hope that our careers site will give you a great insight into the benefits and facilities available to our colleagues, and our fantastic working culture.

Inclusion & Accessibility

At ONS we are always looking to attract the very best people from the widest possible talent pool, and we are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a Disability Confident Leader we’re committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.

As part of our application process, you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process that you need. If you would like to discuss any reasonable adjustments before applying, please contact the recruitment team in the first instance.

If you would like an accessible version of any of the attachments or recruitment documents below or linked to in this advert, please contact the recruitment team who will be happy to assist.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

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 (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

Security Clearance

For ONS the requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for 3 consecutive years immediately prior to applying and the department will consider eligibility by exception on a case-by-case basis. You will be asked to provide information regarding your UK residency during your application, and failure to provide this will result in your application being rejected.

If you are unsure that you meet the eligibility above, please read the information available on Gov.uk on this link, or contact the recruitment email on the advert before applying to discuss, as failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected and any offer of employment being withdrawn.

At the point of SC application, you will need to provide or give access to the following evidence:

• Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)

• UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records

• Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency

• Security Services records

Application Process

Number of Stages: 2 stage process

Stage 1: Application

Stage 2: Interview

Stage 1 – Application

The assessment process at the application stage will be based on your work history, CV, skills, experience, and personal statement. It is important that your application is tailored to highlight the skills, knowledge, and experience relevant to the role.

A personal statement is required at application stage, the maximum wordcount allowed is 1250, which should not be exceeded. You should provide evidence for each essential skill criterion listed in the person specification. As these criteria are scored, it is advisable to give clear examples for each one, including the impact of your actions, ideally utilising the STAR technique (Situation, Task, Action, Result).

Please note that Success Profiles Behaviour examples are not required at this stage of the application process.

We often have similar roles available at different grades. If a candidate is suitable for a similar role or a lower grade than they have applied for, we may offer the candidate that role without the need to go through a further selection process providing the role has the same behaviours, and essential skills.

When a high volume of applications are received, the sift pass mark may be adjusted. Candidates will be invited to interview based on their merit order, with those achieving the highest scores being prioritised. Applicants who score below the adjusted pass mark but still pass will be placed on hold and may be invited to interview at a later date.

Stage 2 – Interview

If invited to interview, you will be assessed using techniques aligned with the Civil Service Success Profiles framework, covering all behaviours listed in the job advert.

Interviews will be via Microsoft Teams.

Our main locations are Newport (South Wales), Titchfield and Darlington.

A reserve list may be held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made.

Important Dates:

The Sift will be conducted from 10/03/2026

Interviews will be conducted from 25/03/2026

Dates are subject to change.

For the full terms and conditions of the post, please see attachment.

Please note that all campaigns may be subject to withdrawal at any stage if the internal resource position changes.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

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)
• 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)

Working for the Civil Service

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Henry Beevor
• Email : Henry.Beevor@ons.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : RecruitmentOperations@ons.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact recruitment.complaints@ons.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission

Attachments

2721 Advert 1A Permanent - ONS London Inclusive v1-00 (1) Opens in new window (pdf, 83kB)