Private Secretary & Business Manager

Job summary

We have an exciting opportunity for a full-time Private Secretary & Business Manager to join the People Directors’ Private Office team within the People, Capability & Change (PC&C) directorate and we'd love to hear from you!

You will provide a professional private office and business management service to two Directors in a job-share partnership. In practice, that means managing their diaries, a busy inbox, triaging and cascading commissions, co-ordinating briefings and organising pre-briefs, liaising with Senior Management and Senior Leadership Teams as well as other Private Offices across the Department, responding to the needs of the Directors and helping to prioritise their time effectively and drive delivery of PC&C’s priorities. You will make strategic connections across the Department and the Civil Service to support the effective functioning and delivery of the Private Office and wider PC&C directorate. You will also help to manage the directorate’s financial forecasting and reporting.

We’re looking for someone with HR experience, and who can work full time to create stability in the Private Office. The role can be undertaken from any of the offices specified.

The directorate plays a leading role in developing an inclusive, capable, agile, and resilient workforce to deliver on the Ministry for Housing Communities and Local Government’s mission.

The function is a professional and pragmatic strategic partner to the business: challenging, stretching, provoking, and coaching our leaders and managers to bring out the best from our people. We are friendly and helpful, and great at supporting people who join PC&C!

We value people who have a highly engaging approach – collaboration, caring and inclusivity are hallmarks of our work ethos. Is that you? Get in touch!

Job description

You will report to the Strategy, Planning & Delivery Manager, and responsibilities will include:

• Providing a high-quality service to the PC&C Directors and senior team, including diary and inbox management and prioritising their time effectively, including travel and events.
• Helping shape the Directors’ agenda and being proactive in making strategic connections to drive the delivery of a wide range of people-focused matters, resolving complex issues at pace and in a joined-up way. You will become a trusted source of support to the Directors.
• Working collaboratively in collating information and briefings to support the Directors in their role, managing cross-government and internal MHCLG commissions.
• Supporting the communication of the PC&C Directors’ views within and outside PC&C, providing advice to others on how best to brief them or progress difficult and/or complex issues. You will provide clear commissions, briefings and steers to colleagues before meetings and events, and obtain contributions from stakeholders. You will effectively balance the demands on the Directors, judging when and how they will be required to intervene.
• Building strong relationships with the PC&C Senior Leadership Team (SLT), making links across work and teams.
• Establishing and maintaining trusted relationships, acting as a conduit between the PC&C Directors and MHCLG Directorates, Ministerial Private Offices, the wider Department, its Arm’s Length Bodies (ALBs) and other government departments including the Government People Group.
• Ensuring a timely cascade of information and insights to PC&C on the Directors’ engagements and steers, facilitating discussion and inputs to help drive the directorate’s delivery of priorities. You may attend key meetings alongside the PC&C Directors and progress actions arising from engagement.
• Guiding the Directors and budget holders to ensure that the Private Office & Business Management team manage the directorate’s financial forecasting and reporting effectively, in line with finance requirements and timescales.
• Working effectively as part of a small team to deliver high quality outputs at pace with creativity. Achieving excellent results in an environment of change, complexity, and ambiguity are key to our success.

Person specification

The following are essential criteria:

• Experience working in HR - either within a Private Office role within an HR function, or experience of working in a HR role.
• The ability to process large volumes of complex, and often sensitive, information across a variety of subject matters and keep on top of the detail within a wide portfolio of work - ideally as part of a personal assistant, private secretary or similar role.
• Strong judgement and discretion – particularly in relation to communication and relationship building. The successful candidate will need to be able to communicate confidently and sensitively on behalf of the Directors, in person and in writing.
• Experience of excellent stakeholder and relationship management skills, including the ability to quickly build strong relationships and influence colleagues of varying levels of seniority, across the group and the wider department.
• Strong organisational skills and personal resilience, including the ability to work at pace on a range of competing priorities, remaining calm under pressure, and knowing when to escalate upwards.
• Proficient and experienced in the use of Microsoft Office products, including Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint, as well as comfortable using Copilot.
• Ability to work full-time.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £34,801, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £10,081 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.At MHCLG we offer many benefits that range from tailored career pathways and flexible working to MyLifestyle Childcare Voucher and Cycle to Work Schemes. For more information, please click here.

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

Application and Selection
The application process will be split into 2 stages, testing the following Success Profiles:

Behaviours , Experience , Strengths

Stage 1: Sift

• Behaviour (Lead Behaviour): Managing a Quality Service
• Behaviour: Seeing the Big Picture
• Behaviour: Delivering at Pace
• Experience: What previous HR experience do you have?

There is a 250-word limit per question.

When writing your application, remember:

• the assessor won’t be reading your answers sequentially

• do not assume that the same assessors will have read all of your answers

• if talking about something in your first answer, make sure that you write the second answer as if you had not written the first (and so on!)

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that each of your answers would be viewed by different assessors.

In the event that we receive a large number of applications, we may conduct an initial sift using the lead behaviour listed in the advert. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift or progressed straight to interview.

Stage 2: Interview

• Behaviours: Seeing the Big Picture, Managing a Quality Service, Delivering at Pace
• Experience: Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description.
• Strengths: The strength-based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.

Sift and Interview Dates

Sifting is envisaged to take place the week commencing 9th February 2026.

Interviews are envisaged to take place the week commencing 23rd February 2026 and are currently being held remotely via videocall. This could be subject to change.

How We Recruit

Find out more about our recruitment processes here.

• Applying

• Sifting

• Interview

• Interview Results & Feedback

• Reserve List

• Near Miss

• Civil Service Grades

• We are a DCS, RIS & GPTWV employer

• Reasonable Adjustments

How to Apply

Find out everything you need to know before applying here.

You must review the following information from the MHCLG Career's Site before submitting your application. This step is essential to ensure your eligibility for the role and that your application is completed correctly.

• Security Clearance Requirements

• Civil Service Nationality Requirements

• Right to Work

• Artificial Intelligence

• Civil Service Code and Recruitment Principles

• CV Declaration

• Sponsorships

• Salary and Grade

• Existing Civil Servants

• Conflict of Interest

• Location and Flexible Working

• Fixed Term Contracts

• Internal Fraud Database - Internal Fraud Register

• Appeals and Complaints

• Conflict of Interest

Security Clearance Requirements

National Office: + SC

London Office: + SC

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

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).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 : Lisa Bond
• Email : lisa.bond@communities.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitment@communities.gov.uk

Further information

If you are unsure about any part of the process or require additional information about the post to enable you to progress your application, you should speak to the Resourcing team - recruitment@communities.gov.uk. Candidates can appeal at any stage of the recruitment process if they believe there has been:

a procedural irregularity

an infringement of the Civil Service equal opportunities policy

exceptional circumstances which were not notified to the interview panel which might have affected performance on the day.

It is important to note that these are appeals about the process not the decision. In the first instance, an appeal should be directed to the MHCLG Resourcing Hub at recruitment@communities.gov.uk.

If the MHCLG Resourcing Hub is unable to satisfactorily resolve your complaint, you may contact put your complaint in writing to the Civil Service Commission, Room G8,1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ or by email to: info@csc.gov.uk

Attachments

1a. MHCLG Candidate Pack Opens in new window (pdf, 834kB)1b. Candidate Guidance Opens in new window (pdf, 355kB)1c. Success Profiles Candidate information Opens in new window (pdf, 936kB)Darlington Economic Campus Career Pathways Opens in new window (pdf, 452kB)