Senior Civil Servant (SCS) Personal Assistant

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.

Make an impact at the heart of senior leadership.

As a Personal Assistant within the Strategy and Change Directorate, you'll work closely with senior leaders, gaining unique insight into strategic decision-making while playing a key role in helping the organisation deliver its priorities. This is a varied and rewarding role where no two days are the same, offering excellent exposure and opportunities to develop your organisational, communication, and stakeholder management skills.

The Strategy and Change Directorate is a central corporate function that enables ONS to deliver its strategy and business plan through expert advice, insight, and assurance. It comprises three divisions: Strategy and Policy, Planning and Portfolio Management, and Change Portfolio.

We regularly recruit for Personal Assistant roles across ONS and expect future opportunities to arise. As a result, we are looking to create a reserve list from this campaign. Candidates who meet the required standard may be considered for future vacancies, providing additional opportunities to secure a role and develop a rewarding career within ONS.

If you're highly organised, enjoy building relationships with senior stakeholders, and are looking for a role that offers variety, visibility, and development, we'd love to hear from you.

As a Personal Assistant supporting up to two Senior Civil Servants, you'll be at the centre of decision-making, providing trusted, confidential support that enables senior leaders to focus on delivering key organisational priorities. This is a rewarding opportunity to gain unique insight into senior leadership while building a diverse and highly transferable skill set.

Working as part of a Directorate Business Support Team within a wider Directorate Support function, you'll collaborate with colleagues across ONS to deliver a seamless, high-quality support service. You'll play a vital role in helping Directors and Deputy Directors manage competing priorities, navigate complex demands, and achieve their strategic objectives.

This is a fast-paced and dynamic role where no two days are the same. You'll thrive if you enjoy working with senior stakeholders, managing changing priorities, planning ahead, and building strong relationships with a diverse range of colleagues and partners. Your ability to stay organised, anticipate needs, and adapt quickly will be key to success.

Beyond supporting senior leaders, you'll have the opportunity to work closely with a network of Personal Assistants and business support professionals across ONS. Together, you'll share best practice, drive continuous improvement, solve operational challenges, and contribute to innovative ways of working. This role offers excellent exposure, development opportunities, and a chance to make a real impact while growing your career within ONS.

Responsibilities

• Taking the lead as the Director’s / Deputy Director(s)’s first point of contact, providing comprehensive and proactive inbox(es) management, to include: rationalising and filtering email traffic,
• responding to requests as appropriate,
• escalating issues,
• prioritising work,
• cascading information.
• Proactively and reactively managing the Director /Deputy Director(s)’s diary, ensuring efficient use of their time, managing changes and conflicts (including delegating to their senior leadership team as appropriate), working collaboratively across the organization negotiating with others as necessary to achieve this.
• Providing the Director / Deputy Directors with all necessary documentation ahead of meetings
• Facilitating effective communication between the Director / Deputy Director, their senior team, and other stakeholders, both internal and external, as required.
• Working with the business support team, organise and manage the logistics of business meetings, conferences and away days, ensuring that meeting papers are complete and distributed in a timely fashion, as necessary.
• Arranging travel and accommodation in line with ONS policies for the Director /Deputy Director, and submission of travel expenses on their behalf.
• Other ad-hoc administrative tasks as required, which may include covering for other PA absences within the wider Directorate as required.
• Providing other business support to the wider team as necessary, including undertaking short self-contained assignments as required.

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)

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

Right to Work and Nationality Requirements

To work at ONS, applicants must meet the Civil Service nationality requirements, satisfy UK right to work requirements and, where applicable, meet the relevant security clearance requirements.

If you are unsure whether you meet the appropriate right to work or security clearance eligibility criteria, please refer to the guidance on Gov.uk or contact the recruitment email provided in the advert before applying. Failure to meet these requirements will result in your application being rejected and employment offers being withdrawn.

Visa Sponsorship

ONS are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role. Applicants are expected to hold a valid right to work in the UK when employment commences. If you are applying on a time-limited visa, this will need to be valid for at least 18 months.

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: 3 stage process

Stage 1: Civil Service Skills test

Stage 2 : Application

Stage 3: Interview

Stage 1 – Civil Service Customer Service Skills test

Civil Service Online Tests

Upon submission of Part 1 your application form you will be sent an invitation to complete Customer Service Skills online tests.

There will be full instructions on how to complete each test including an opportunity to practice before undertaking the actual test.

The test is made up of three parts. Please note that Part 3 is timed, and you will have 10 minutes to complete this section.

For further information about the assessment, including guidance on how to prepare and what to expect, please visit:

Preparing for the Customer Service Skills Test - GOV.UK

We recommend reviewing this guidance before completing the test to help you familiarise yourself with the format and requirements.

If you pass a test, you will then receive a further invite to complete each subsequent test if there is more than one for this vacancy. If you fail a test your application will not proceed to the next stage.

Stage 2 – Application

If you successfully pass the online Customer service test, you will be invited to complete the final stage of your application. At this stage, you will be asked to provide additional information, including your employment history and a personal statement.

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.

As part of your personal statement, you will need to answer the two questions below. You may use up to 500 words for each response.

Your answers will be assessed as part of the selection process, so we encourage you to provide clear and relevant examples that demonstrate your skills and experience. Where possible, explain the actions you took and the impact or outcome of those actions.

1. Question 1 : In this role you will be required to manage multiple, competing priorities. Please give us an example of when you have done this and what considerations you made to deliver a high-quality outcome on time?

2. Question 2 : In this role you will work with peers and senior leaders across the organisation. Describe your experience of working independently and as part of a team. How did you build relationships?

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

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.

This assessment will consist of a scenario-based presentation exercise assessing against the behaviour managing a quality service . Candidates will be provided with a scenario and supporting information and will have 20 minutes to review the information and prepare their response.

Candidates will then deliver a 5-minute presentation outlining their response to the scenario.

Following the presentation, the panel will move on to the formal interview, where candidates will be asked the remaining interview questions.

Interviews will be conducted via Ms Teams

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

Important Dates:

The closing date for the role is 17/09/2026 at 23:55. Please note, both the Customer Service Skills test and written application (work history, skills, experience and personal statement) will need to be completed by this deadline.

The Sift will be conducted from 21/09/2026

Interviews will be conducted from 12/10/2026

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.